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Ja n ua r y 17, 2015 • $1 . 0 0
TROJANS PUT UP FIGHT Huntley girls hoops holds off C-G to advance to 5-0 in FVC Valley play / C1 NWHerald.com
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Giant beaver tooth discovered MCCD worker found fossil near Marengo By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com
Photo provided
A giant beaver tooth found along an old slough in the 2,974-acre Kishwaukee Corridor near Marengo is seen. The giant beaver became extinct about 13,400 years ago.
Supreme Court to weigh gay marriage
MARENGO – It looked like a bone, but it was too heavy and had lines like nothing Erich Parpart had seen on a bone. The McHenry County Conservation District maintenance worker was out with a crew not long before Christmas, walking through a field in the nearly 3,000-acre Kishwaukee Corridor near Marengo and looking
for concrete foundations of longgone buildings. Their findings would be put in a report compiled with the end goal of removing the foundations as part of a future ecological restoration project. Parpart’s unexpected discovery sat in the maintenance shop for a few days, everyone taking a stab at guessing what it could be. A tusk – maybe from a mammoth? A Tyrannosaurus rex bone? A cow bone?
Parpart, a Wonder Lake resident who has been with the conservation district about a year, knew it wasn’t a cow bone. He was raised on a farm outside Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up digging cow bones out of fields. His guess was a tooth or tusk. “It was large and had sweeping curve that didn’t look like it would fit on anything that’s around today,” he said.
See GIANT TOOTH, page A5
CARY FAMILY’S MIRACLE BABY
‘Heart-iversary’ celebration
By MARK SHERMAN The Associated Press WASHINGTON – Setting the stage for a potentially historic ruling, the Supreme Court announced Friday it will decide whether same-sex couples have a right to marry everywhere in America under the Constitution. The justices will take up gayrights cases that ask them to overturn bans in four states and declare for the entire nation that people can marry the partners of their choice, regardless of gender. At issue The cases will be The justices argued in April, will consider and a decision is expected in June. two related Proponents of questions: Whether the same-sex marriage Constitution said they expect the court to settle the requires matter once and for states to isall with a decision sue marriage that invalidates licenses to state provisions same-sex that define marcouples, and riage as between a whether man and a woman. states must “We are now recognize that much clossame-sex er to being fully marriages recognized as a performed family, and we are elsewhere. thrilled,” said April DeBoer, a nurse from Hazel Park, Michigan, after the justices said they would hear an appeal from her and partner Jayne Rowse. “This opportunity for our case to be heard by the Supreme Court gives us and families like ours so much reason to be hopeful.” Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama administration would urge the court “to make marriage equality a reality for all Americans.”
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Demetri Tsilimigras lifts his 18-month-old son, Pano, while sitting at the kitchen table Thursday with his wife, Eleni, 3-year-old daughter, Anthi, and Pano’s twin sister, Katina, at their home in Cary. When Pano was just a few months old, he started showing symptoms of what the doctors thought was acid reflux. It turned out to be cardiomyopathy. By the time he was 9 months old, he had gone through three major surgeries, including open heart surgery and then a heart transplant.
Family thankful one year after 18-month-old’s heart transplant tism were derailed. That same November, baby Pano started showing signs of what doctors first thought was CARY – In November 2013, Demetri and Ele- acid reflux. He was vomiting. He was weak. He ni Tsilimigras ordered invitations to the bap- was tired. tism for their twin babies. Further testing revealed not acid reflux, but On Jan. 12, 2014, family and friends were cardiomyopathy – a disease of the heart muscle to be invited to St. Sophia, a Greek Orthodox that can lead to heart failure. Doctors rushed Church in Elgin, to celebrate twins Pano and him to the cardiology unit at Lurie Children’s Katina’s baptism. Hospital in Chicago, and he immediately underBut soon, the Cary family’s plans for a bap- went emergency open-heart surgery.
By CHELSEA McDOUGALL
cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
Then his parents got news that would knock the wind out of them. It wasn’t what they thought. It was worse. At 6 months old, Pano’s heart was working at only 10 percent of its capacity and he needed a heart transplant. “Our world just came crashing down,” Eleni said. “I was hysterical. I couldn’t breath. It was a dagger in my heart, I was numb.”
See TRANSPLANT, page A5
See GAY MARRIAGE, page A5
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Crystal Lake discount grocer plans to move to larger location on Route 14 / A3 LOCAL NEWS
New hire knows the ropes Rick Morrissey: In Fox, the Bears get a head coach who has seen and done just about everything in the NFL / C1
More housing at area shelter Home of the Sparrow expands facility in McHenry; can help more families / A3
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