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Six referendums to be on ballots DeKalb County voters will face questions that include electrical aggregation, property tax November, including electrical aggregation questions and Sycamore Park District’s SYCAMORE – Six refer- property tax referendum. endum questions will be on Perhaps the biggest referballots in DeKalb County this endum would partially fund
By JESSI HAISH
jhaish@shawmedia.com
several projects for the Sycamore Park District, which include a community center, sled hill, dog park, splash pad, trail connections, sports complex improvements and
expansions and replacing the failing golf course irrigation system. For weeks, Sycamore Park District leaders have been publicizing their $13 million Vision 2020 plan.
The park district is seek- who claims the homestead exing voter approval to increase emption about $81 a year in property taxes 18 cents per additional property tax. Park board president Tim $100 of equalized assessed value. The increase would cost the owner of a $154,000 home See BALLOTS, page A8
PENGUIN PROJECT PUTS CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN SPOTLIGHT
‘IT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE’
Civil rights death law expansion is sought By JAY REEVES The Associated Press
Photos by Monica Synett – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
Erin Steele (from left), 15, of St. Charles, Ashley Baker, 15, of Sycamore, and Nicholas Regelbrugge, 13, of Sugar Grove take a picture Wednesday during a dress rehearsal for the musical production of “Aladdin Jr.” as part of the Children’s Community Theatre Penguin Project at DeKalb High School.
Group to present musical ‘Aladdin Jr.’ By JESSI HAISH jhaish@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Nicholas Regelbrugge wants to be involved in theater until he’s 40 years old, but he knows he just can’t. The 13-year-old from Sugar Grove says he already has his entire life planned out, and although theatre is fun and has changed his life, he has some work to do. “My biggest dream is to run my own company,” he said. “I want to help people with disabilities get jobs.” The company, which he would call Nick, Inc., still has a ways to go in the planning process, so in the meantime he’ll continue participating in Penguin Project, which he just joined this summer. Penguin Project is a theatre group affiliated with Children’s Community The-
atre that puts children with disabilities in the spotlight. Starting Thursday, the group will perform the Disney musical “Aladdin Jr.,” at DeKalb High School. Regelbrugge, who is on the autism spectrum, finds himself fidgeting and picking at the feathers of his Iago bird costume, but he’s happy to be in the spotlight. He likes being the Iago character, someone he describes as under-appreciated but a source of comic relief. His mother, Paula Regelbrugge, thinks her son has changed for the better from his months with the project, becoming more open with people around him. “Once he’s here, he’s a different kid,” she said. “And he’s always singing the songs at home.”
See MUSICAL, page A8
Ashley Baker, 15, of Sycamore gets her makeup done before dress rehearsal for the musical production of “Aladdin Jr.” Baker plays the part of Jasmine.
If you go
n WHAT: Disney’s “Aladdin Jr.,” a Children’s Community Theatre’s Penguin Project n WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday n WHERE: DeKalb High School, 501 Dresser Road n COST: $12 for adults, $6 for students through college n INFORMATION: Visit cctonstage.com or call 815-757-1874
Voice your opinion What is your favorite Disney musical? Vote online at Daily-Chronicle.com.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – There has only been one prosecution under the Emmett Till Act, even though the law was passed with the promise of $135 million for police work and an army of federal agents to investigate unsolved killings from the civil rights era. Some deaths aren’t even under review because of a quirk in the law. Still, proponents are laying the groundwork to extend and expand the act in hopes it’s not too late for some families to get justice. In nearly six years since the signing of the law, named for a black Chicago teenager killed after flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955, only one person has been prosecuted: A former Alabama trooper who pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing a black protester in 1965. The government has closed the books on all but 20 of the 126 deaths it investigated under the law, finding many were too old to prosecute because suspects and witnesses had died and memories had faded. And Congress hasn’t appropriated millions of dollars in grant money that was meant to help states fund their own investigations. Perhaps most frustrating, an unknown number of slayings haven’t even gotten a look because the law doesn’t cover any killings after 1969. That saddens people like Gloria Green-McCray, whose brother James Earl Green was shot to death on May 14, 1970 by police during a student demonstration at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. The family never learned the name of the shooter, and no one was ever prosecuted. “We’ve never really got any closure because of the investigation not being thorough and everything just being kicked out,” said Green-McCray. “It was like, ‘Just another black person dead. I mean, so what?’ ”
See CIVIL RIGHTS, page A8
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Hundred participate in annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s / A3
Nick Reineck is the new dean of students at Sycamore High / A2
Democrats, Tea Party come together for softball game / A3
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