ILLINOIS
The Herald-News • Sunday, September 20, 2015
| THE HERALD-NEWS
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ROUNDUP News from across the state
1
Mumps cases spread to 2 central Illinois high schools
NORMAL – Illinois’ mumps outbreak has reached 200 confirmed cases. Health officials said the virus has infected several people connected with two high schools in the city of Normal. The Champaign News-Gazette reported the cases are linked to Normal West and University high schools. The McLean County Health Department is sending letters to students, faculty and staff who have had contact with those infected. Mumps is no longer common in the U.S. The number of cases ranges from a couple hundred to a couple thousand a year. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine prevents most, but not all, cases. Symptoms include fever, headache, tiredness and swollen salivary glands under the ears. The state’s outbreak has centered on the University of Illinois’ Urbana-Champaign campus, where 134 cases have been confirmed.
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FBI seeks help in finding man who kidnapped woman
CHICAGO – The FBI is asking for the public’s help in identifying and finding a man who kidnapped
a woman from her suburban Chicago home and then drove her to northwest Indiana. The FBI says the man assaulted a 53-year-old woman around midnight Friday in her home in Lansing, Illinois, and then used her car to drive the woman over the state line into Munster, Indiana. An ATM surveillance camera there captured images of the man. The FBI said law enforcement officers found the woman in Burns Harbor, Indiana. The car was found abandoned in Holland, Michigan. The suspect is described as black, heavyset and wearing a white T-shirt. The surveillance camera images show him wearing gloves and a nylon stocking pulled over his head.
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Illinois woman gets prison time for health care fraud
CHICAGO – A suburban Chicago woman has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for her role in a $4 million health care fraud scheme. The Justice Department announced Saturday that U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman sentenced Mary Talaga of Elmwood Park to 45 months and ordered her to pay about $1 million in restitution. She was convicted in 2015 on 10 counts of health care fraud, conspiracy and making false statements. The 54-year-old Talaga was primary medical biller from 2007 to 2011 at Medicall Physicians Group. Physicians visited patients in their homes and prescribed home health care. Trial evidence
showed Talaga and others routinely billed Medicare for patient oversight that wasn’t conducted and for other services Medicall didn’t provide, including care to patients who were dead.
say a dose costs about as much as fast-food meals for four. Jorgensen said it’s worth the cost. He said the drug has saved 71 lives since authorities began carrying it last year. Chelsea Laliberte, founder of the anti-heroin education program called Live 4 Lali, said naloxone will be available over the counter in the future, but she doesn’t expect that very soon and doesn’t know how much it will cost. “It’s a lifesaving tool, so we need to make it as affordable as possible, especially for people who can’t afford much,” Laliberte said.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS – The “gold standard antidote” for heroin overdoses is rapidly rising in price, as well as popularity.
Naxolone and similar drugs which reverse the effects of opioid overdose have as much as quadrupled in price in the last two years, Phil Williams of Edward Elmhurst Healthcare told the Arlington Heights Daily Herald. As new laws to fight heroin abuse take effect in Illinois and elsewhere, the price could continue to go up. Manufacturers appear to be taking advantage of the focus on what experts say is a heroin-abuse epidemic, said Williams, administrative director of pharmacy services. “It’s an opportunity for them to say, ‘We’ve got a captured market and we can increase the cost and drive our profit margins,’” he said. Naxolone – the “gold standard,” according to Williams – blocks receptors in the brain that are stimulated by opioids and allows the victim of an overdose to start breathing again. Available since 1971, its use will jump because a state law that took effect this month requires emergency responders to carry it. A dose that cost as little as $5 two years ago now is about $40, Williams said. Coroner Richard Jorgensen of DuPage County, where more than 2,000 trained officers have carried the drug since 2014, says the price could spike just as officials must replace unused portions reaching their twoyear expiration date. Hospira is one of the few companies that manufacture the drug in generic form. As for price, a spokesman would only
Christian Gallt, Rylie Kassel; and many nieces, nephews cousins who loved her dearly. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, 5 brothers, and 1 sister. Lucy loved spending time with her family. She was happiest when surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was a wonderful example of faith, hope and selflessness, always cooking,
baking and giving of herself and will be missed by all who knew and loved her. A celebration of her life was held September 19, at 10:00 a.m. at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Rockdale, followed by a luncheon where many memories of Lucy’s life were shared. The family wishes to thank all who loved and cared for Lucy throughout her life. Donations in her name may be
made To St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Rockdale Illinois or to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Arrangements by Blackburn-Giegerich-Sonntag Funeral Home.
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Murder charges dropped against mom in child’s death
BLOOMINGTON – A judge has dismissed murder charges against a central Illinois woman accused of failing to take her critically ill child to a doctor after he was repeatedly beaten by her former boyfriend. The Pantagraph in Bloomington reported Judge Robert Freitag on Friday dropped the murder charges after he concluded the state had violated the speedy trial rights of Danielle Fischer. But Freitag kept in place child endangerment charges. The decision follows a delay Monday in the trial of Fischer in the March 2013 death of 3-yearold Robbie Cramer. At that time, her lawyer, Jane Foster, claimed the 160-day deadline for bringing a person who is not in custody to trial after he or she demands a trial was exceeded by 74 days. Fischer’s then-boyfriend, Nicholas Compton, was convicted of murder last year for causing the internal injuries that lead to the boy’s death.
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Heroin-treatment drug increases in popularity, price
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Great Lakes beaches targeted for annual cleanup
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Hundreds of beach cleanups will take place in six Great Lakes states this weekend. The Alliance for the Great Lakes’ annual Adopt-a-Beach event takes place Saturday, with cleanups in most places lasting from 9 a.m. until noon. Participating groups will fan out along beaches in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin. More than 7,000 volunteers joined the cleanup last year. They cleared 25,251 pounds of trash from 277 shoreline locations. Adopt-a-Beach is part of the annual International Coastal Cleanup. Participants include individuals, families and schools, as well as community, scouting and religious groups.
– Wire reports
OBITUARIES • Continued from page 24
LUCILLE SEMPLINSKI Lucille “Lucy” Semplinski (Olejniczak) passed away peacefully on the morning of September 11 2015, at the age of 95. Lucy was the daughter of Stephen and Cecilia Olejniczak, a lifelong resident of Rockdale, Illinois, and a dedicated parishioner of St. Joseph
Catholic Church. She was united in marriage to Peter Semplinski on April 6, 1940. Peter preceded her in death after 61 years of marriage. Lucy is survived by her son, Paul, (Carolyn) Semplinski; daughter, Donna (Donald) Kiss; sister, Rosemary Tolbert; granddaughters, Natalie (Rob) Chose, Carole (Eric) Kassel, Paula (Chris) Gallt; great, grandchildren, Jake Kassel, Cameron Gallt. Peyton Gallt, Matthew Kassel,