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GHOSTBUSTERS: ROCKETS AIN’T AFRAID OF NO GREY GHOSTS BOYS BASKETBALL, B1
We’ve got a new Tourist attraction for you NEW MAGAZINE, A3
dailyGAZETTE Monday, January 9, 2017 n SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854
ILLINOIS | BUDGET BATTLE
Senate staking out common ground Lawmakers craft a budget deal that could be voted on today, but leave no time for a House vote SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A plan to end a 2-year Illinois budget standoff negotiated in the Senate – which likely includes an income tax increase as well as items on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s agenda – could get a vote in Springfield as early as today, a leading Republican senator said Sunday. The deal was still shaping up over the
weekend after weeks of talks between Democratic Senate President John Cullerton and GOP Leader Christine Radogno, said Sen. Pamela Althoff, a Republican from McHenry. While it would mark a significant step toward smashing the logjam on a state spending plan between Republican Rauner and Democratic legisla-
tive leaders, there are just 2 work days remaining for the current General Assembly – no time to seek a House vote. But it could position the Senate as distinct in what has largely been a test of wills between the billionaire governor and Chicago Democrat Michael Madigan, house speaker for 3 decades.
Rauner often invokes Madigan’s name to represent the entire legislature. Althoff, the Republican caucus chairwoman and a budget point-person, called the action “recognition” by Senate leadership that “we need to take care of the people of Illinois.” BUDGET continued on A54
SAUK VALLEY
EAGLE WATCH
Land’s best friend Growing number of area farmers are doing their part to preserve the wealth in Illinois’ rich soil BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN cheimerman@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5523 CHeimerman_SVM
AMBOY – The planting season is still months away, but once the land hardened by winter begins to soften, farmers will head to the fields in an annual rite of spring. America’s providers will once again turn the soil, coaxing crops from the land and eventually turn a harvest into a profit. Others, though – a Lee County farm family for one – are thinking beyond just the next crop, the next harvest. They’re thinking about the next generation. Farmers and families yet to be born and the land they’ll inherit. For those farmers, cash crops are fine, but the top soil is just as important as the bottom line. They’re part of a trend toward being a good steward of the land that not only provides a living, but feeds the world. It’s a trend that an increasing number of Sauk Valley farmers have embraced in recent years.
Bird watching ABOVE: Thora the bald eagle brought things to a screeching halt at Clinton Community College on Saturday when she spoke up during the Saving Our Avian Resources live birds of prey program at the college. The program was part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi River Project’s 33rd annual Bald Eagle Watch, held at Lock and Dam 13, near Fulton, and at the college. Visitors to the 5-hour program kept their eyes, and binoculars, peeled at the lock and dam for eagles, and headed over to the college for educational programs, environmental exhibits, and live birds of prey demonstrations. Go to soarraptors.org for more information on the group. TOP RIGHT: Kay Neumann, executive director of SOAR, shows Thora to the crowd at the college. Thora came to SOAR with lead poisoning and could not be released back into the wild. BOTTOM RIGHT: Linette Bernard, communications director for SOAR, sprays water for a Bella, a red-tail hawk. BELOW: Lori Miller of Rochelle and her grandson, Jaxon Breit of Davis Junction, look over the Mississippi River as bald eagles take flight over Lock and Dam 13.
LAND continued on A54
ADDICTION IN AMERICA
Opioids: An age-old problem Drugs’ grip is grabbing hold of a growing number of seniors The Associated Press
Photos by Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com
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TODAY’S EDITION: 20 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 163 ISSUE 20
INDEX
ABBY.................... A7 COMICS................ A8 CROSSWORD.......B8
LIFESTYLE............ A7 LOTTERY.............. A2 OBITUARIES......... A4
OPINION............... A6 POLICE................. A2 POLITICS.............. A9
It took a lot of convincing for John Evard to go to rehab. Seven days into his stay at the Las Vegas Recovery Center, the nausea and aching muscles of opioid withdrawal were finally beginning to fade. “Any sweats?” a nurse asked him as she adjusted his blood pressure cuff. “Last night it was really bad, but not since I got up,” replied Evard, 70, explaining that he’d awakened several times with his sheets drenched. Even for him, it was hard to understand how he ended up 300 miles away from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, at this bucolic facility in the suburbs of Vegas. “This is the absolute first time I ever had anything close to addiction,” he said. He prefers to use the term “complex dependence” to describe his situation: “It was, shall we say, a big surprise when it happened to me.” As the nation grapples with a devastating opioid epidemic, concerns have primarily focused on young people buying drugs on the street. But America’s elderly also have a problem. OPIOIDS continued on A54
Today’s weather High 31. Low 28. More on A3.
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