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Boston bomber declared guilty
RAUNER VISITS COUNTY TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC AGENDA
‘Turnaround’ travels
Jury will now pick his punishment By DENISE LAVOIE The Associated Press
Photos by Matthew Apgar – mapgar@shawmedia.com
Gov. Bruce Rauner answers questions from students Wednesday as he takes a tour of Johnsburg High School in Johnsburg. Rauner spoke to students in the vocational programs as well as the AP government classes.
Gov. seeks local support for plans By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – Gov. Bruce Rauner urged local support for his turnaround agenda in McHenry County on Wednesday ahead of what he said would be an aggressive effort to get support from state lawmakers. Speaking to a crowd of about 20 McHenry County Board members, municipal leaders and others at the Woodstock Opera House, Rauner stressed the need for local control over right-to-work and prevailing wage issues. He followed his Woodstock visit with a trip to Johnsburg High School. “We need to change direction,” Rauner said. “That’s the reason I decided to run for governor, to help us change the direction of the state. We can thrive. We can thrive if we free up our economy to compete and we get a control on our bureaucracy costs.” Rauner outlined his plan to create “employee empowerment zones” across the state where local governments or voters
See RAUNER, page A5
Rauner exits a truck regularly worked on by Johnsburg High School vocational students on Wednesday.
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Woodstock balks on Rauner resolution City Council tables it after criticism from labor unions By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – Woodstock City Council members balked on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” resolution aimed at organized labor, after a large contingent of labor unions addressed the council and criticized the measure.
Rauner has asked cities and villages throughout the state to join his push against unions and pass the resolution. It urges state lawmakers to grant local governments and voters the choice to create right-to-work zones and details changes to prevailing wage and workers’ compensation laws. On Tuesday, hundreds of area union members came to Woodstock to address the council before members were set to discuss and vote on Rauner’s resolution. The large turnout forced city officials to relocate the meeting to the larger Woodstock High School. The council ultimately voted 5-2 to table the resolution – a re-
quest initiated by Mayor Brian Sager. Numerous council members later defended the decision but also reiterated to the Northwest Herald their support for some ideas detailed in Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” resolution. “The dialogue overall, the intensity and seriousness of the issue, and my sense of the council at that moment in time led me to support the mayor’s recommendation to table it,” said Councilman Mike Turner. “It does not change my support and belief in the resolution.” Turner in the past has criticized the state’s prevailing wage
law. Last summer, Woodstock council members briefly rejected the prevailing wage ordinance mandated by the state, only to approve it because of legal concerns. Along with Sager and Turner, council members Mark Saladin, Maureen Larson and Joseph Starzynski voted to table the resolution. Outgoing member Julie Dillon and member RB Thompson voted against Sager’s motion. The large labor union presence at Woodstock has been matched elsewhere in the state, as some municipalities start discussions on Rauner’s resolution.
See WOODSTOCK, page A5
BOSTON – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all charges Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing by a jury that will now decide whether the 21-yearold should be executed or shown mercy for what his lawyer says was a crime masterminded by his big brother. The former college student stood with his hands folded, fidgeted and looked down at the defense table in federal court as he listened to the word “guilty” recited on all 30 counts against him, including conspiracy and deadly use of a weapon of mass destruction. Seventeen of those counts Dzhokhar are punishable by Tsarnaev death. T h e v e r d i c t , What’s reached after a day and a half of delib- next erations, was pracIn the penaltically a foregone conclusion, given ty phase, the his lawyer’s star- jury will hear tling admission at evidence on the trial’s outset whether Tsarthat Tsarnaev car- naev should ried out the terror get the death a t t a c k w i t h h i s penalty or n o w - d e a d o l d e r spend the brother, Tamerlan. rest of his life T h e d e f e n s e in prison. The strategy is to try 12-member to save Tsarnaev’s jury must be life in the upcoming unanimous penalty phase by arguing he fell un- for a death der Tamerlan’s evil sentence; otherwise the influence. The two shrap- penalty will nel-packed pres- be life behind sure-cooker bombs bars. that exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013, killed three spectators and wounded more than 260 other people, turning the traditionally celebratory home stretch of the world-famous race into a scene of carnage and putting the city on edge for days. Tsarnaev was found responsible not only for those deaths but for the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who was gunned down days later during the brothers’ getaway attempt. “It’s not a happy occasion, but it’s something,” said Karen Brassard, who suffered shrapnel wounds and attended the trial. “One more step behind us.” She said Tsarnaev appeared “arrogant” and uninterested during the trial, and she wasn’t surprised when she saw no remorse on his face as the verdicts were read. She refused to say whether she believes he deserves the death penalty, but she rejected the defense argument that he was simply following his brother’s lead. “He was in college. He was a grown man who knew what the consequences would be,” Brassard said. “I believe he was ‘all in’ with the brother.”
See BOMBING, page A5
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