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Fund aims to help victims at Fort Hood Families affected by past mass shootings form new charity By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com Family members of those killed in mass shootings in recent years have helped start a new charity dedicated to making sure money donated goes to those affected by a tragedy. The National Compassion Fund was activated to help families who suffered in the wake of the April 2 Fort Hood shooting where Spc. Ivan Lopez killed three soldiers and wounded 16 others before killing himself. The account for the Fort Hood shooting was created on Monday, said Mai Fernandez, the executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, which is overseeing the fund. So far about $1,000 has been raised, Fernandez said. She added there hasn’t been a huge amount of marketing thus far and said she expects the fundraiser will continue for three or four months. After that, money will be dispersed to those
affected. Fernandez said running the compassion fund for the Fort Hood shooting is a beta test. “We’re trying out this concept, nobody has done it before up until now,” Fernandez said. After past John Larimer, mass shootings, such Crystal Lake as in the Aunative killed rora, Colo., in 2012 movie theater Aurora, Colo., where Crystal movie theater Lake native shooting. John Larimer was killed, charities popped up taking donations for victims and even using pictures of people who had died. However, money didn’t directly go to victims or their families. Money was used to pay for administrative costs, or distributed to other causes that had little to do with the donor’s intent.
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Dawn Peterson poses for a portrait outside her barn Tuesday at Oney’s Tree Farm west of Woodstock. Peterson has made suggestions to improve the proposed Unified Development Ordinance, which she says would make her large historic barn and gift shop too big for county requirements.
Offering helpful hints Agritourism business owners suggest tweaks to county’s proposed Unified Development Ordinance
See CHARITY, page A6
Bogus tax refunds a growing problem Report: IRS issues thieves nearly $4 billion By ERIC TUCKER The Associated Press WASHINGTON – An Internet connection and a bunch of stolen identities are all it takes for crooks to collect billions of dollars in bogus federal tax refunds. And the scam is proving too pervasive to stop. A government report released in November said the IRS issued nearly $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the previous year to thieves who were using other people’s personal information. Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the “scale, scope and execution of these fraud schemes” has grown substantially and the Justice
By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – For three weeks over the holidays, Oney’s Tree Farm becomes an agritourism business as shoppers look for Christmas trees, decorative wreaths and other holiday fare. For almost half a century, customers have flocked to the 200-acre tree and landscape farm west of Woodstock to cut down their own trees or buy them precut, and visit the 2,400-square-foot historic barn that serves as the business’ gift shop. Ron and Dawn Peterson bought the business in 1984, and Dawn has run it alone since her husband died last year. But she noticed a snag when she reviewed McHenry County’s proposed Unified Development Ordinance. While it defines and protects the county’s lucrative agritourism industry, it limits the size of gift shops for temporary agritourism uses to either 600 square feet or 40 percent of the structure, whichever is smaller, unless they meet applicable building code requirements. Peterson’s custom-made wreaths alone take up 1,000 square feet, and her checkout area alone would gobble up more than half of the 600-square-foot limit. That is, unless she brings the historic barn up to modern county code for a seasonal retail business that makes up about 5 percent of Oney’s gross revenue. “It’s a 110-year-old building,” Peter-
Department in the past year has charged 880 people. Who’s involved? In a video message released ahead of the April 15 tax filing deadline, Holder said the scams “are carried out by a variety of actors, from greedy tax return preparers to identity brokers who profit from the sale of personal information to gangs and drug rings looking for easy access to cash.” Even Holder isn’t immune. Two men pleaded guilty in Georgia last year to trying to get a tax refund by using his name, Social Security number and date of birth on tax forms. The IRS says it opened nearly 1,500 criminal investigations related to identity theft in fiscal 2013, a 66 percent increase over the previous year, and has strengthened filters that help detect where the scams are coming from. It says it
See TAX FRAUD, page A6
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On the Net You can read the proposed Unified Development Ordinance and learn how to submit written comment at shawurl. com/10wo.
son said with a laugh. “To get that up to commercial grade is going to be very cost prohibitive.” Tweaking or eliminating the limit is one of several changes Peterson and others are requesting as the Zoning Board of Appeals solicits public comment on the proposed 300-page ordinance in the months before it goes to the County Board for ratification. The last public hearing was held Monday, and people can submit written comments until next Friday. More than three years in the making, the ordinance updates the county’s zoning, sign and other development-related ordinances and combines them into one document. The ordinance only applies to unincorporated areas. The zoning board
has scheduled two meetings April 23 and April 24 to recommend changes to the ordinance based on the public comments received. Ralph Arndt, who co-owns Prairie Sky Orchard north of Union with his wife, SueEllen, said he submitted several common-sense changes. He, too, wants the retail area expanded – 600 square feet is slightly larger than a two-car garage and is not friendly for people with baby strollers or wheelchairs, he said. But Arndt also noticed that while the ordinance would allow his 2 ½-acre apple orchard and other small operations to sell outside produce in lean years, it would forbid them from making pies, jams or anything else unless the fruit was grown on their property. And in a quirk he said was likely an oversight, he would not be allowed to sell bottled water to people outside picking his apples. Arndt, like Peterson, made clear that he is happy the ordinance actually defines agritourism. The lack of a definition means that new businesses or changes to existing ones require conditional use permits, which has led to more than a few headaches for County Board members and businesspeople alike. “There’s been a lot of confusion over the years. We have a joke – if you want three different answers to the same question, go to the county,” Arndt said.
See AGRITOURISM, page A6
McHenry County’s
HUNTLEY
VILLAGE TO GET FIRST TRAIN STATION The village will soon have its first train station, after Gov. Pat Quinn announced Thursday a $223 million plan to restart Amtrak service between Chicago and Rockford. Huntley, along with Elgin and Belvidere, are included as stops along the new route. For more, see page B1.
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