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No charges in city bribe probe State’s attorney: Investigation closed due to lack of evidence By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – A DeKalb City Council member’s report of a possible bribe offer was based on a single conversation during the race for City Council earlier this year, but there was not enough evidence a crime was committed, DeKalb County State’s Attorney Richard Schmack said Tuesday.
An unidentified council member’s report of a quid pro quo offer of a campaign donation for a “no” vote on a proposed University Village rezoning agreement triggered an investigation by the DeKalb County State’s Attorney and the Illinois State Police. The investigation concluded without any charges being filed, Schmack said. “Ultimately, there was not
enough evidence to charge this alderperson with a crime,” Schmack said. “This was based on a council m e m b e r ’ s a ccount of a conversation with a Richard citizen. The conSchmack versation didn’t rise to the level of a quid pro quo in exchange for a vote.”
Pope changes annullment stipulations
Illinois has a mandatory reporting law, which makes it illegal for an official to fail to report a bribe offer, even if they don’t accept it. The report was made in June, months after the local election took place in March. Elected council members are provided with training regarding relevant laws and mandates, City Attorney Dean Frieders said in an emailed
statement. “We have informational meetings with newly elected officials so as to give them both an understanding of relevant laws and obligations, and to provide more detail on pending projects and considerations,” he wrote. “We also work with the officials to ensure that they comply with all legally mandated training, such as Open Meetings Act and Freedom of
Information Act training.” City officials also can complete additional training coordinated with associate organizations such as the Metro West Council of Government and the Illinois Municipal League, Frieders wrote. During the incident, the resident had apparently offered the council person a campaign
See COUNCIL, page A5
COMMUNITY TRADITION IN SANDWICH
New law takes effect Dec. 8 for Catholics By NICOLE WINFIELD The Associated Press VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis radically reformed the process for annulling marriages Tuesday, overhauling 300 years of church practice by creating a new fast-track annulment and doing away with an automatic appeal that often slowed the process down. The move, which came a week after he said he was letting all rank-and-file priests grant absolution to women who have had abortions, was further evidence of his desire to make the church more responsive to the needs of ordinary faithful. The new law on annulments goes into effect Dec. 8, the start of Francis’s Holy Year of Mercy, a yearlong jubilee during which the pope hopes to emphasize the merciful side of the church. It will speed up and simplify the annulment process by placing the onus squarely on bishops around the world to determine when a fundamental flaw has made a marriage invalid. A Catholic needs a church annulment to remarry in the church, and a divorced Catholic who remarries civilly without one is considered an adulterer living in sin and is forbidden from receiving Communion. The Communion issue is at the center of debate at the upcoming synod of bishops, a threeweek meeting that gets underway in October. Progressive bishops favor a process by which these Catholics could eventually have access to the sacrament if they repent; conservatives say there can be no such wiggle room and that church teaching is clear that a marriage cannot be dissolved. Catholics have long complained that it can take years to get an annulment, if they can get one at all. Costs can reach into the hundreds or thousands of dollars for legal and tribunal fees, although some dioceses have waived their fees. “With this fundamental law, Francis has now
See VATICAN, page A5
AP photo
Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto speaks Tuesday during a news conference at the Vatican, to illustrate a new law issued by Pope Francis regulating how bishops around the world determine when a fundamental flaw has made a marriage invalid.
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Michael Carter hangs stuffed prizes from the overhang of the “Hippo Water Race” game Tuesday at the Sandwich Fairgrounds. The fair starts today and runs through Sunday.
Farm, family, fun
Sandwich Fair festivities get underway If you go
By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Live music, the smell of barbecue and the bustling of thousands of people means the event Ken Tyrell has spent all year preparing for is finally here. The Sandwich Fair kicks off at 8 a.m. today to begin its five-day stretch of food, contests, exhibits and live entertainment. Fair directors are prepared to hand out more than $20,000 in cash rewards for this year’s contest entries, said Tyrell, the fair’s vice president and general livestock superintendent. “It’ll be full. They have everything from birds to calves to miniature horses sometimes. They always have a great selection of animals,” he said. “We have probably in the neighborhood of 5,000 livestock entries at the fair this year and 25,000 total entries from one end of the fair to the other.” With more than 300 vendors, a carnival and an average 160,000 people in attendance, the fair is not only a tradition for the community,
WHAT: Sandwich Fair WHERE: Sandwich Fairgrounds, 15738 Pratt Road, Sandwich WHEN: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. WEBSITE: Sandwichfair.com
Workers Malan Nel (left) and Ruan Visogie set the tracks for a children’s train ride Tuesday at the Sandwich Fairgrounds. but an attraction that draws people from all over, Sandwich Fair Association secretary Nancy Rex said. “Many folks that were familiar with the fair as they were growing up in the Sandwich area have moved to different parts in the United States and they kind of take the opportunity to come back to the Sandwich Fair to have a reunion
with family and friends, and also just to come back and see what the area is like since they’ve been gone,” she said. New to the fair this year is a mother/child tent, which is equipped with seven changing tables and will provide privacy to parents with nursing children, Tyrell said.
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While the fair’s grandstand awaits construction, temporary bleachers have been placed on both sides of the stand’s reserved seating section, which has remained intact, Rex said. “Hopefully by next year, we will have a more permanent building,” she said. Other fair staples, however, such as Fay’s Pork Chop Bar-BQue, have been preparing for the event for weeks, and are ready to serve a long line of hungry fairgoers looking to get their hands on the vendor’s barbecued pork chops.
See FAIR, page A5
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