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April 5, 2015 • $1.50
Owens, Heustis lead Huntley to 1st Huntley Invite title in four seasons / C1
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Tougher DUI law in the pipeline Bill result of family of WL girl killed by repeat offender By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com
H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
McHenry County election judge Ed Erickson works with an electronic touchscreen poll book Wednesday as he waits for early voters at the McHenry County Administration Building in Woodstock. McHenry County Clerk Mary McClellan has implemented the new voter check-in device that slashes waiting time for voters and increases the accuracy of voters’ personal information.
Ready to vote? Election Central
By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com
Visit NWHerald.com/election-central to learn more about the candidates and the issues in Tuesday’s consolidated election.
OK, voters, it’s up to you this Tuesday. More than 40 races to determine who represents you – or who doesn’t – on city councils, school boards and other elected bodies are contested. There are high-profile races and small ones, races with established candidates and ones with spirited write-in campaigns, races with a handful of candidates and races with very crowded fields. But all have one thing in common – the winners have the final say in what we end up forking over in property taxes. About two-thirds of the munic-
On the Web You can view a copy of the ballot for your particular precinct on the McHenry County Clerk’s website at www.co.mchenry.il.us.
Many contested races in Tuesday’s election
ipal races in McHenry County are contested, as are about half of the school districts, as are the races for two open six-year seats and a McHenry County College Board of Trustees. The most contested races on the ballot are for the District 155 School Board and Woodstock City Council – nine and eight candidates, respectively, are vying for three open seats on each. The debacle surrounding District 155’s decision to expand the bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School at a cost of $1.18 million – not counting the money spent on litigation from a lawsuit filed by angry neighbors – is responsible in significant part for
the large field of candidates. The case is now before the Illinois Supreme Court at the district’s request – the lower and appellate court have sided with the plaintiffs, who argue the bleachers violate the city zoning code, including being too tall and too close to neighboring properties. Only one of the three incumbents is running, compared to the past two elections in which District 155’s incumbents ran unopposed. Various issues are fueling the interest in running for Woodstock City Council, such as perceptions of a sputtering business economy
Joel Mains got a call last November from the Palatine Police Department that would make any father’s blood boil. The drunk driver who killed his stepdaughter a decade earlier in a head-on crash was picked up Nov. 15 – yet again – for driving under the influence. Seventeen-year-old Caitlin Weese was driving back to her Wonder Lake On the Web home on May 22, 2003, when James Stitt, n You can then 23, swerved into read the text of the oncoming lane on Route 72 near House Bill 3533 Gilberts and struck at www.ilga. her head-on. Weese gov. died two days later, n To learn just weeks before her more about the 18th birthday and life of 17-yearher graduation from old Caitlin Larkin High School Weese, visit in Elgin. She was to the Alliance be the maid of honor Against Intoxin her sister’s wed- icated Motording. ists website at S t i t t w a s s e n - http://shawurl. tenced to seven and a com/1tpu. half years in prison, was released in 2009 and got his driver’s license back in January 2013, according to records. He had been convicted of DUI twice before he killed Weese, and was driving with a suspended license that night.
See VOTE, page A7 See DUI, page A7
Pope Francis presides over Easter Vigil service amid martyr concerns The ASSOCIATED PRESS VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis presided over the solemn Easter Vigil service Saturday night amid mounting Vatican concern for modern-day Christian martyrs whose deaths have dominated this Easter season. Francis walked in the dark down an utterly silent St. Peter’s Basilica at the start of the vigil Mass, which precedes the joyous celebration on Easter Sunday commemorating Christ’s resurrection after his cru-
cifixion. In his homily, Francis said the Easter mystery requires the faithful to seek an answer “to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity, and our very existence.” During the late-night service, 10 people from Italy, Portugal, Albania, Kenya and Cambodia were being baptized. On Friday, during the Via Crucis procession at Rome’s Colosseum, Francis denounced the “complicit silence” of the international community before the massacres of Chris-
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tians in many parts of the world by Islamic extremists. The latest was the Kenya university attack by al-Qaida-affiliated Somali militants that left nearly 150 people dead, many of them Christians. Francis has voiced increasing alarm about the attacks, which have led Christians to abandon communities in the Mideast that have existed since Jesus’ time. He is likely to refer to those concerns during his “Urbi et Orbi” message on Easter Sunday.
LOCAL NEWS
‘One fee for everybody’ Huntley School District 158 would level K-8 student fees under proposal / A3 PLANIT STYLE
And then there were two Kaminsky, Dekker lead Wisconsin in hardfought win over unbeaten Kentucky, will face Duke in title game Monday / C1
Ready to say goodbye? Celebrate the final season of ‘Mad Men’ with classic cocktails / Planit 5
AP photo
Pope Francis holds a lit white candle as he celebrates an Easter vigil service Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
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Happy Easter