DAILY CHRONICLE
WEEKEND
NATION’S PASTIME
June 20-21, 2015 • $1.50
SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
NIU physics professor shares the science of baseball / B1
daily-chronicle.com
Facebook.com/dailychronicle
HIGH
LOW
84 68 Complete forecast on page A8
@dailychronicle
Ex-D-428 principal may sue By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Milker John Kendall, 17, attaches the milk claw to the udders of a cow Tuesday at Deutsch Farms in Sycamore. June is National Dairy Month.
Milk for the greater good Food pantries, local farmers team up for National Dairy Month By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Dairy farmer Bill Deutsch drove to Springfield on Wednesday to have a glass of milk with Gov. Bruce Rauner. Deutsch, chairman of the Illinois division of the Midwest Dairy Association, joined members of the National Dairy Council as they met with the governor to celebrate National Dairy Month and the council’s centennial year. “This administration values the importance of agriculture to the economy,” Deutsch said. “It was a good experience; it was very unique.” In appreciation of these farms and the dairy they produce, Illinois will end National Dairy Month with a Boone County Breakfast on the Farm from 6:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. today at Friendly Franseen Acres in Pop-
On the Web Watch a video from the farm at Daily-Chronicle. com.
lar Grove. Deutsch said it’s important Rauner and other state officials understand the hard work that goes into a glass of milk, and the process it takes to get it on supermarket and food pantry shelves. Deutsch wakes up at 3:30 most mornings to herds of cows stamping their hooves and craning their necks around pen walls at his Lukens Road farm, excited to be milked. “Cows love to be milked,” Deutsch said. “They produce so much more milk than what the calf can drink.” Higher-producing cows can provide as much as nine to 10 gallons a
Deutsch Farms owner Bill Deutsch has an automated milking system that milks the 150 cows twice a day in about four hours each time.
day, but a calf can only drink about one to two gallons a day, Deutsch said. He is responsible for harvesting milk that makes its way from cows to bowls of cereal and baby bottles across Northern Illinois. Twice a day, Deutsch or one of his six employees attach cows to one of 16 milking stations, where they collect milk. Then the milk goes into a steel tank, where it chills and waits to be shipped for pasteurization. The milking process alone takes hours, Deutsch said. “As technology is introduced to the industry, most people try to take advantage of that to produce larger volumes of milk at [better] margins just like every other industry,” Deutsch said. “It makes it a lot more efficient both from the standpoint of energy, and our carbon footprint is a
See DAIRY, page A6
Milker Beatrice Esparza cleans and disinfects the udders of each cow before attaching to the milking machine Tuesday at Deutsch Farms in Sycamore.
DeKALB – A longtime DeKalb School District 428 principal is considering suing the district for discrimination after she was fired Monday for distributing religious material. Shahran Spears’ lawyer said he filed Title VII claims with the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over the dismissal of his client and could get a green light to file lawsuit in Shahran 30 to 60 days. Spears “We are exploring our options,” Rockford-based attorney Rene Hernandez said. “We might expedite the right to sue and process that in federal court. We want to make sure we file all the appropriate claims against the school district.” After a day-long meeting Monday, much of it held in closed session, the school board voted 5-2 to dismiss Spears. Board members didn’t explain why they voted the way they did at Monday’s meeting. Superintendent Douglas Moeller said the district was “absolutely” prepared for a lawsuit. “Our legal counsel is very good,” he said. Moeller declined to comment on any specifics of what happened behind closed doors Monday, but said the decision was made after considerable deliberation. “The hearing lasted six-anda-half hours,” he said. “In the end, everyone voted the way they thought they needed to.” Howard Solomon, one of the two board members who voted against dismissing Spears, declined to comment Tuesday on why he voted the way he did. “I don’t want to increase issues within the board,” he said. Solomon was the lone dissenter at a June 5 meeting when the board voted to hire Chicago-based law firm Clausen Miller to serve in the prosecutorial role at a rate of $325 an hour for
Book’s author shocked by principal’s dismissal DeKALB – A Texas author said she was surprised Brooks Elementary School principal Shahran Spears was fired for distributing her book as a gift for teachers. Josie Carr is the author of “Inspire for Teachers: Prayers, Promises, and Proverbs for Those Who Change Lives and Touch Hearts.” “I am just appalled,” Carr told the Daily Chronicle. “A lot of public school teachers have that book. “It has sold thousands of copies and because it has to do with teachers, it is given out a lot during staff appreciation weeks. It was marketed around that time with that very idea in mind.” Carr’s book includes prayers for teachers to use regarding students, including those with special-needs, and quotes passages from the Bible. “I speak deliverance to my student(s) ____ who is/are overcoming genuine physical, mental, or emotional disabilities. I plead the blood of Jesus over ____ and command Satan to desist in his attack against him/her,” one prayer read, District 428 documents showed. Carr, who said she was a public school teacher for 16 years and an administrator for eight, said she thought the school board’s decision was wrong. “A gift is never forced. For someone to take that and turn it into something bad, I thought that was unfair,” she said. “That was a book of prayers. Prayers I have used over the years. ... I have seen a lot of good come from praying for staff and praying for students.” Carr said it was the first negative report she had heard about her book, which came out in 2008. – Brittany Keeperman, Daily Chronicle
See PRINCIPAL, page A6
Marijuana cash is problem for Illinois tax collection By CARLA K. JOHNSON The Associated Press CHICAGO – The state of Illinois is having trouble finding a bank or financial services company to process the large amounts of cash it anticipates receiving for taxes and fees from the new medical marijuana industry. The state treasurer’s office received no response to an official solicitation published last fall, so Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs has started a formal process to find out why. Potential bidders may not have known about the oppor-
tunity or may be concerned about legal questions, industry experts said. Such caution may stem from uncertainties specific to Illinois – including the marijuana pilot program’s 2017 expiration date and so-far low patient numbers, said Michael Mayes, CEO of Quantum 9, a Chicago-based marijuana industry consultant. “It may not be a good investment,” Mayes said. Marijuana is regulated and legal in about half the states, at least for medical purposes. The industry tends to operate with cash only. Banks are wary because the federal gov-
ernment considers marijuana an illegal drug. The U.S. Treasury Department has issued guidance intended to clarify that financial institutions can offer services to businesses that sell marijuana, but industry advocates said most banks are still reluctant to do so for fear of prosecution. The Illinois treasurer is asking the financial industry for feedback on a new draft of its request for proposals by June 29. An armored car services requirement already has been deleted because it was “believed to be a deterrent to proposals,”
according to documents posted on the treasurer’s website. The treasurer wants to know whether armored car services should be provided by a different vendor, instead of under the cash processing contract, the documents say. “We’re dealing with an industry we are not familiar with. It’s new and it involves a lot of cash,” said Greg Rivara, a spokesman for the treasurer’s office. The request for information “allows us to get guidance from the banking industry on what possibilities
See MARIJUANA, page A6
AP file photo
State Treasurer Mike Frerichs waves to lawmakers Feb. 4 at the Capitol in Springfield.
LIFESTYLE
LOCAL NEWS
LOCAL NEWS
WHERE IT’S AT
For men only
Transparency aim
Local leaders
Slew of books out in time to give dad on Father’s Day / C1
DeKalb City Council to meet about proposed FOIA policy Monday / A3
D-426 expected to hire 2 interim superintendents / A4
Advice ................................ C5 Classified...................... C7-12 Comics ............................... C6 Local News.................... A3-4 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World.......... A2, 4-6
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion...............................A7 Puzzles ............................... C5 Sports..............................B1-4 State .............................. A2, 4 Weather .............................A8