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Serving Lee, Whiteside, Carroll, Ogle and Bureau counties Saturday&Sunday, January 17-18, 2015 $2.00
Bears get their man: STERLING WOMAN’S Fox named head coach GIVING INSPIRES OTHERS THE PEOPLE’S VOICE, A3 PRO FOOTBALL, B1
NEW GENERAL ASSEMBLY | LOCAL LAWMAKERS
Back to work in Springfield Budget, minimum wage legislation likely to be major decisions in 99th General Assembly BY MATT MENCARINI mmencarini@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5529 @MattMencarini
State Sen. Neil Anderson
State Sen. Neil Anderson was one of only two new faces in the Illinois Senate as the state’s 99th General Assembly was sworn in on Wednesday. Anderson, R-Rock Island, represents the state’s 36th District, which includes Whiteside County. He
defeated incumbent Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, in the Nov. 4 election. “I tell you, it’s an honor, to say the least,” said Anderson, a firefighter with the Moline Fire Department. “There are not many people in their lifetime that get to go through that process in the Senate chamber.” He was joined by about 60 family, friends and constituents who made the trip to Springfield for the swearing in. With that now over,
Anderson said his focus will be to get familiar with how the General Assembly operates before he starts to consider a legislative agenda. Anderson wasn’t the only new official to be sworn in this week. Republican Bruce Rauner officially started his work as governor after defeating incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn in November. SPRINGFIELD CONTINUED ON A5
WEEKEND ENTERPRISE | LAW ENFORCEMENT & TECHNOLOGY
Your cellphone could rat you out
Inside Story More than 91,000 concealedcarry permits have been issued in Illinois since the state began allowing guns to be carried in public a year ago, according to Illinois State Police figures released Friday. How many of those permits were issued in the Sauk Valley? Page A5
ROCK FALLS
New pact could aid projects Development groups to split property sales BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
Illustration by Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
Police find wealth of information in ‘data dumps’ BY CHRISTI WARREN cwarren@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5521 @SeaWarren
Text messages have played an important role in two recent Lee County murder cases. In one, Matthew Welling of Amboy texted a woman to say “I f----- up” about an hour after a neighbor was killed in his home. Well-
ing later was convicted of murdering Delmar Leroy Daniels. In the other, defense attorneys for Brian Sigler of Dixon have used text messages to argue for a lesser charge after he was accused of murder in the death of his wife. His attorneys argued that the couple’s deadly confrontation occurred because of sexual text messages he found on
his wife’s cellphone. Sigler is next due in court at the end of this month. Presenting such evidence in court was impossible until a few years ago, when police agencies nationwide began to use cellphone hacking software, with a judge’s permission. And until 2014, no agency in Whiteside or Lee County could do it without the help of
the Illinois State Police. It’s an expensive endeavor to bring the technology in-house, and one that Dixon police finally decided was worthwhile. Several “cellphone forensics” software programs are available to law enforcement agencies. The State Police use Cellebrite. Dixon Police chose Oxygen. CELLPHONE CONTINUED ON A8
ONLINE Don’t miss out on all the fun! If you haven’t been to our Plan!t Sauk Valley website this week, you’ve missed: • The debut of our “Local Flavor” feature, which will include recipes, video “Foodtorials,” and features of local restaurants. • SVM reporter Jermaine Pigee visits El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant in Rock Falls in this week’s “Grub Hub” feature. • SVM Online Editor Angel Sierra looks at what some of you were talking about on social media in this week’s “Tech Type” column. Go to planitsaukvalley.com
Partly cloudy
VOLUME 7 ISSUE 20 44 Pages
Today: 41/27 For the forecast, see Page A9
New twist
Morrison’s downtown is home to a newly opened chiropractic office. See Page C1
ROCK FALLS – A new marketing agreement could make it easier for riverfront development to progress in the city. The deal splits revenue from land sales between the city’s Industrial Development Commission and its nonprofit economic development group, Rock Falls Community Development Corp. It is hoped that doing so gives the city money to market riverfront projects while still giving the RFCDC an infusion of working capital for future projects. “As things have changed on the riverfront, it has become more important that we have the freedom to go out and do negotiating and put a package together,” RFCDC Executive Director Randy Balk said. The previous pact called for all proceeds from the city-owned development properties to go to RFCDC, while the city had planned to use some of the money from land sales to pay for riverfront cleanup costs. An “option to purchase” clause could be exercised, but land bought from IDC would have been only $1. Now that the RB&W district has been cleaned up, marketing efforts will accelerate. The land proceeds are split under the new agreement, with the city now receiving 80 percent, and RFCDC 20 percent of development property sales. The use of any money received by Balk’s office would be restricted. “All of that money from property sales would go into a capital fund to increase our opportunities for purchasing land and buildings,” Balk said. PACT CONTINUED ON A8
Community Photo finish SVM’s Alex Paschal shares some of his favorite photos taken during 2014 in the Sauk Valley. See Page C12
Index Births................ C5 Lottery .............. A2 Business........... C1 Markets .......... A11 Classified .......... D1 Obituaries ......... A4 Comics ............. B6 Opinion............. A6 Community ..... C12 Scoreboard .... B11 Scrapbook ....... C3 Crossword Saturday ........... D7 Sports .............. B1 Support groups .. C5 Crossword Sunday ............. C8 Travel .............. C10 Dave Ramsey ... C1 Weather............ A9 Dear Abby ........ C2 Wheels ............. D8