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Greyhound service comes to NIU New bus route will provide intercity transportation along I-88 corridor By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Students attending Northern Illinois University this fall will have another option for traveling to the university from Chicago and from points west of here. Greyhound has launched a new route that includes NIU, making it the only regional public transportation accessible to the school’s DeKalb campus.
The bus service is part of the newly formed Interstate 88 corridor route, which connects Greyhound’s downtown Chicago station and one in Davenport, Iowa. Service started in June and is expected to pick up next month as fall classes begin. There are two daily stops in DeKalb from Chicago and two from Davenport. The transportation is provided with help from a federal grant the state received that is
administered through the Illinois Department of Transportation. Greyhound uses smaller, 24-passenger buses on the route. They can accommodate wheelchairs and are equipped with electrical outlets. Company spokeswoman Ashley Sears said the new line helps provide people in rural communities with greater access to public transportation and more options for travel.
Rauner praises vote to block pay increase
“There was a need in the smaller communities for this route because many of them were underserviced,” Sears said. “Additionally, many of the students that go to NIU live in Chicago, and this route would provide them a convenient, affordable and safe way to travel from home to school and vice-versa. We started this new route to accommodate those needs.” NIU was one of the only state
universities that didn’t have public transportation access to its campus. Metra, the commuter rail line between Chicago and some suburbs, operates as close as Elburn, and NIU offers shuttle service between the station and its campus. But the shuttle runs on a limited schedule Fridays and Sundays only. There also is no Amtrak service to DeKalb or nearby towns. Plans to have Amtrak service to Genoa, 22 miles from
campus, were derailed in 2014. Also, state funding has stalled plans for Amtrak service to Rockford, about 45 miles away from the university. But Greyhound rolls right to the university, just outside the steps of the Holmes Student Center. Unlike Amtrak, which receives state money to help operate between Chicago and downstate schools, including Illinois
See BUS, page A5
MOTHERS LOOKING FOR HELP
By DAVID MERCER The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – Members of the Illinois House voted Tuesday to block a pay raise for themselves and senators that has become a flashpoint in the state’s budget stalemate. The 101-1 vote still would need Senate approval before Gov. Bruce Rauner could sign it and stop the 2 percent cost-of-living increase that lawmakers are automatically due. If it takes effect, it would be their first pay raise in seven years. The vote followed a tense floor debate during which Republicans asked the bill’s lead sponsor, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, why their own efforts months ago to block the raise were never voted on. Madigan said the raise issue is just a small piece of what he called a “historic struggle” between majority Democrats in the Legisla- Michael ture and the new GOP governor. Madigan “We’ve made a good faith effort to meet the governor halfway. His response? ‘I have to have my agenda, as is, no change. If I get it, I’ll talk,’ ” Madigan said. “We are in an impasse. We are involved in a historic struggle.” Madigan added at a later news conference that he will work with Rauner if the governor eases what the speaker called his “extreme” demands. A Rauner spokesman said the governor praised “those who showed leadership” with the vote and urged Senate President John Cullerton to act on the bill. “We encourage President Cullerton to swiftly move this legislation to the governor’s desk for his signature,” spokesman Lance Trover said in an emailed statement. “Governor Rauner is ready to work with Speaker Madigan, [House Republican Leader Jim] Durkin and all members of the General Assembly to pass true structural reforms and a balanced budget.” Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said he has “deep reservations” about whether the state constitution allows lawmakers to block the automatic pay raise but will call a floor vote on the legislation sometime next week. The state’s government has not approved a budget for the fiscal year that started this month and is facing a deficit of up to $4 billion. The Republican governor and the Legislature have been deadlocked for weeks. Rauner vetoed a budget that didn’t include enough money to cover expenses, insisting that lawmakers pass a plan friendlier to businesses.
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Nine-month-old Kira Juraska plays with a toy in her nursery with her mother Geness Juraska on Thursday in their Cortland home. Juraska has an oversupply of breast milk and donates her extra milk to underproducing mothers or adoptive mothers.
Local nursing network Informal and formal milk sharing options available in DeKalb By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com
Contact information
DeKALB – Geness Juraska is Mothers Milk Bank of group meets on the second and happy to share what she doesn’t the Western Great Lakes fourth Thursday from 10 to 11 a.m. 1 need with other mothers, includQ Web: milkbankwgl.org Kish Hospital Drive, DeKalb, Suite 108. ing her extra breast milk. Q Contact: 847- 444-9256 or Juraska of Cortland hadn’t milkbankwgl.org Online networks heard of sharing human milk beQ Eats on Feets Illinois: www. fore she joined a breast-feeding Kishwaukee Hospital eatsonfeets.org/ or www.facebook. group at Kishwaukee Hospital in Breastfeeding Center com/EatsOnFeetsIllinois DeKalb. When she met a mother Q Web: www.kishhealth.org/serQ EatsOnFeetsIllinois Human who wasn’t able to produce enough vices/maternity/breastfeeding/ Milk 4 Human Babies: www.faceof her own milk, Juraska decidQ Contact: 815-748-8350 Support book.com/HM4HBIllinois ed to give the woman some of her oversupply. She’s been a donor ever since. “It makes me feel wonderful to women who can’t produce enough ly, those who receive the donated give what I can,” she said. milk for their infants. Women who milk have premature or ill babies. Milk shares are one option for have a surplus can donate. TypicalMany women cite the numer-
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ous health benefits of providing breast milk instead of formula, like its immune-boosting potential and the fact that it has a naturally balanced mix of vitamins, fats, minerals and enzymes, which is good for premature babies, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Milk banks such as the Mother’s Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes often coordinate the process by screening and authorizing donors, pasteurizing the milk and shipping it to those who have requested it. But many women – including Juraska – share their milk informally, through Facebook groups
See MILK, page A5
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