DAILY CHRONICLE
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January 2-3, 2016 • $1.50
SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
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EDDIE CARIFIO AND JESSE SEVERSON
HELLO 2016
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A look at what the new year will offer in DeKalb County sports / B1 daily-chronicle.com
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Complete forecast on page A6
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Thousands helped over holidays Local organizations collected toys, food and cash By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – DeKalb County residents helped thousands of people who needed a hand this holiday season with donations of toys, food and money. Toys for Tots distributed more than 8,000 items to children throughout the county, including puzzles, games, books, stocking stuffers and toys. The program also collected about $12,500 in monetary do-
nations and grants. Toys for Tots was one of many local organizations that sought to help families in need during the holiday season. Goodfellows of DeKalb/ Sycamore and GoodFellows of Genoa-Kingston also distributed toys. The Salvation Army brought in money through its annual Red Kettle Campaign and received food donations made possible by WLBK radio station’s “Freezin’ for Food” campaign. There were many
other seasonal programs throughout the county that helped bring good cheer or critical supplies to local residents. Kathi Hogshead Davis coordinates the Toys for Tots program in the northern part of DeKalb County, which includes DeKalb, Sycamore, Cortland, Kirkland and Genoa. “We collected 98 boxes,” she said. “The total count of toys collected is 7,240.” DeKalb and Sycamore collected the most boxes, with 48
in DeKalb and 46 in Sycamore. Cortland and Kirkland each collected one box and Genoa collected 11, she said. Leftover toys will be stored for next year. About 1,860 kids registered to receive toys this year. That number was down from last year’s 2,090. Davis said that every child got two to three toys, as well as a book. Every family also received either a game or a puzzle.
See GIVING, page A4
Danielle Guerra file photo – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Volunteer Pommy Macfarlane (left) wraps a shopper’s present during the Toys for Tots toy distribution Dec. 15 at The Salvation Army in DeKalb.
Obama seeks unilateral steps on guns
DeKALB COUNTY’S FIRST BABY OF 2016
By KEVIN FREKING The Associated Press
Photos by Katie Smith – ksmith@shawmedia.com
New parents Matt Kacskos and Anne Meesriyong-Kacskos Friday hold their son, the first baby to be born in DeKalb County in 2016. The baby was 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 inches long. Meesriyong-Kascos was in labor for 56 hours before delivering her baby.
It’s a boy DeKalb couple welcomes its holiday addition By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com DeKALB – In a room full of adults Friday, it was the intermittent cry of a newborn baby that halted everything and redirected the attention to a new year and a family’s new baby boy. Anne Meesriyong-Kacskos has held and photographed more than 600 newborns, but at 8 a.m. sharp Friday, the new mother held her own child for the first time. After 56 hours of labor, Meesriyong-Kacskos and Matt Kacskos became the parents of DeKalb County’s first baby of 2016, weighing in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. For two years Meesriyong-Kacskos made her living as a photographer for Bella Baby Photography, where she felt the joy and chaos of a Kishwaukee Hospital delivery room hundreds of times. But as she rocked her own son to sleep Friday, she
understood emotions she had only photographed. “He is loved – very loved,” she said. “I just want to protect him.” Meesriyong-Kacskos, 35, and Kacskos, 30, are both employees at Northern Illinois University. The brand new mother always imagined starting her family anywhere but DeKalb, where she and her husband have spent most of their lives. “I wanted my first child to be born in Brooklyn, New York, or, LA, or Paris,” she said. But after an exhausting labor that spanned more than two days, both parents were happy to hold a smiling, healthy child – no matter where in the world they were, Kacskos said. The only thing that mattered then was getting the hang of holding something A new father, Matt Kacskos, and his wife, Anne Meesriyong-Kacskos, welcome their son as delicate as a newborn baby. with the newborn’s grandparents, Susan Smith-Lindell, Lenhart Lindell and Benjamas
See FIRST BABY, page A4
Meesriyong, at Kishwaukee Hospital on Friday. The baby was the first to be born in DeKalb County in 2016.
LOCAL NEWS
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
WHERE IT’S AT
Just a blip?
Bears insider
What’s ahead
DeKalb County home sales plummet in November / A3
Hub Arkush: Which Lions team will the Bears see Sunday? / B1
Universal Orlando looks back 25 years, more innovation ahead / C1
Advice................................. C3 Classified........................ C5-8 Comics................................ C4 Local News......................... A3 Lottery................................. A2 Nation&World............... A2, 4
HONOLULU – President Barack Obama is looking for ways to keep guns out of the hands of “a dangerous few” without depending on Congress to pass a law on the fraught subject of gun control. He said he’ll meet with his attorney general, Loretta Lynch, on Monday to see what executive actions might be possible. Steps to strengthen background checks could come this week. “The gun lobby is loud and well organized in its defense of effortlessly available guns for anyone,” Obama said in his weekly radio address. “The rest of us are going to have to be just as passionate and well organized in our defense of our kids.” He said he gets so many letters from parents, teachers and children about the “epidemic of gun violence” that he can’t “sit around and do nothing.” Obama recently directed staff at the White House to look into potential executive actions. Currently, federally licensed firearms dealers are required to seek background checks on potential firearm purchasers. But advocacy groups said some of the people who sell firearms at gun shows are not federally licensed, increasing the chance of sales to customers prohibited by law from purchasing guns. A source familiar with the administration’s efforts said Obama is expected to take executive action next week that would set a “reasonable threshold” for when sellers have to seek a background check. That person didn’t know whether it would be based on the number of guns sold or revenue generated through gun sales. The source, a member of a gun control advocacy group, was not authorized to discuss details before the announcement and spoke on the condition of anonymity. White House officials won’t confirm the timing. In his efforts to work around a Congress that has often been politically gridlocked, Obama has made aggressive use of executive power, particularly on immigration. It has been an increasingly effective presidential tool. And while legal scholars are divided on whether Obama has accelerated or merely continued a drift of power toward the executive branch, there’s little debate that he’s paved a path for his successor. Depending on who succeeds him, many Obama backers could rue the day they cheered his “pen-and-phone” campaign to get past Republican opposition in Congress. The unilateral steps he took to raise environmental standards and ease the threat of deportation for millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally may serve as precedent for moves they won’t cheer.
See GUNS, page A4
Obituaries..........................A4 Opinion................................A5 Puzzles................................ C3 Sports...............................B1-4 Lifestyle........................... C1-2 Weather..............................A6