TROJANS WIN HOMECOMING
October 5, 2014 • $1.50
Using speed and strong offensive line, Cary-Grove rolls past McHenry, 54-20 / C1
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53 39 Complete forecast on page A12
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Woodstock weighs new ideas for courthouse
POLICE DEPARTMENTS PICK UP MILITARY SURPLUS
Council members say what they’d like to see By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com
received at little cost under the federal Law Enforcement Support Office program. They range from 60 cold-weather caps valued at $5.34 each to a strippeddown Humvee weather station for the McHenry County Emergency Management Agency, valued at almost $1 million, that cost the county just less than $370 to obtain. And Spring Grove’s new MRAP has company, records show. The police department also has recently acquired two dump trucks, an all-terrain vehicle, three Kawasaki Mules, a tractor, a forklift, a cargo trailer, a forklift trailer and a trailer-mounted military field kitchen. But free, or almost free, surplus gear comes with a
WOODSTOCK – Throw a brew pub, cultural center and office space into the mix. Woodstock officials’ ongoing effort to rejuvenate the historic Old Courthouse recently got more complicated. During a special brainstorming session this week, City Council members directed city staff to explore members’ own ideas for the building, after officials spent the year seeking private investors’ ideas on the Old Courthouse. The council’s vision, if achieved, would transform the building into a mixture of different spaces, anchored on the first floor by a brew pub or another restaurant with regional appeal. Other council ideas to fill out the Old Courthouse included a few small business incubators, office space, and a cultural or community center. “If it’s a whole building of galleries, incubators, and little itty-bitty things, then it’s an itty-bitty draw,” said Councilman Mike Turner. “Let’s shoot high, so we can find that anchor.” The decision to add more possibilities to the Old Courthouse’s future comes at an interesting time for the council members, as they try to redevelop a property the city acquired in 2011. Members recently allowed the Public House restaurant in Woodstock to relocate to the lower level of the building, under a 10-year lease agreement that includes a buyout option. In January, city officials started seeking proposals from investors interested in the property, as part of the city’s original agreement to find a private owner for both the Old Courthouse and adjoining Sheriff’s House. By the summer, the council received three proposals. A Texas-based investment corporation wanted to turn much of the two historic properties into one- and two-bedroom residential units.
See MILITARIZATION page A5
See COURTHOUSE, page A5
GEAR OF WAR Photo Illustration by Kyle Grillot– kgrillot@shawmedia.com
More than 100 military firearms, mostly M-16 rifles, two armored vehicles, 14 trucks and 19 tactical shotguns, along with a long list of “general issue” equipment have been given to McHenry County police departments in the past eight years. In 1997, Congress expanded the Law Enforcement Support Office program to transfer excess Department of Defense equipment for general law enforcement purposes.
Local governments concerned about hidden costs Voice your opinion
By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com The first notice that Spring Grove Village President Mark Eisenberg had that his police chief wanted to obtain a 40-ton armored vehicle was when he saw it parked behind Village Hall. A number of Chief Tom Sanders’ acquisitions at almost no cost through government surplus have been beneficial to the village, such as a Humvee that now does a yeoman’s job clearing snow with a plow attachment. But the answer Eisenberg received when he asked Sanders why the department needs a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle designed to protect soldiers from mines and improvised explosive devices – just in case – did not satisfy him.
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“As far as that machine goes, I’m as confused as you are as to why we need it,” Eisenberg said. The two MRAPs in McHenry County, the other now belonging to the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office for its SWAT team, are only two lines on a long spreadsheet of government surplus that has flowed to local police departments. A federal program now under scrutiny after police response to unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, has added millions of dollars worth of weapons and other military equipment to the inventories of state and local
law enforcement, according to newly-updated federal records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Items acquired range from the deadly to the harmless to the questionable. More than 100 military firearms, mostly old M-16 rifles, have been given to McHenry County police departments over the past eight years – records available to the public that track weapons only specify the county in which the department is located. Besides the MRAPs, county police departments over the past four years have snapped up 14 Humvees, some armored. Valued at $733,300, the sheriff’s office MRAP accounts for about a quarter of the $2.47 million in vehicles and equipment it listed in a May 2014 draft presentation on the items it has
U.S.: Militants use beheadings to make up for losses By LARA JAKES The Associated Press WASHINGTON – For months, Islamic State militants rampaged across Syria and Iraq, seizing cities, taking hostages and terrorizing all who dared to confront them. The tide began to turn in mid-August, when U.S. airstrikes pushed them from key Iraqi battlegrounds. Then, on Aug. 19, the group released a video that showed the behead-
ing of American freelance journalist James Foley. The pattern continued. Within days of a military defeat, the group would release images of more beheadings – at least nine over six weeks – of Western journalists, aid workers and Muslim soldiers. The tactic signals that even as the Islamic State group suffers battlefield losses, it is holding on to its edge in the propaganda war. U.S. offi-
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cials say that’s the only way the militants can continue to maintain support and attract new recruits. On Friday, the Islamic State group released a new video showing the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning after nearly two straight weeks of daily airstrikes against their fighters. “Certainly since the bombing campaign, the reverses, they’re no longer boasting of taking places – because
they’re not taking places. They’re losing places,” Alberto Fernandez, who heads the State Department’s office for counterterrorism propaganda, said in a recent interview. “So what do they do? They boast about cutting people’s heads off. They’re trying to substitute that for military victory.” That may be some propaganda by the U.S itself. But the trend still is frightening, considering the Islamic State
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Defensive coordinator hopes to see Jared Allen make bigger impact / C1 PLANIT STYLE
group is holding what U.S. intelligence officials believe are as many as 20 hostages, including at least two Americans. This past week, the militants suffered a series of setbacks, with U.S. and allied airstrikes Friday hitting Syrian oil refineries and a training camp. Earlier strikes pushed militants back from some of their positions in Iraq. But the Islamic State group this past week also besieged
the Iraqi town of Hit and ambushed an Iraqi army unit north of Ramadi, kept its tight grip on Fallujah, and closed in on the Syrian town of Kobani. In the video of Henning’s beheading, a masked militant warns the U.S. that the gruesome attacks on individuals will continue as long as the airstrikes do. He also threatened an American hostage,
See BEHEADINGS, page A9
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Tony’s goes on Former owner Tony Sacketos sells Tony’s cafe to Algonquin couple who plan to build on his legacy / D1
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The power of pink Bull Valley resident grows pink pumpkins to raise breast cancer awareness / INSIDE
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