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PROFICIENT CL South’s Garrett Bright is Northwest Herald’s Baseball Player of the Year / C4
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Court returns vest to bikers
ILLINOIS’ NEXT FISCAL YEAR BEGINS WEDNESDAY
‘Uncharted territory’ Michael Madigan Ill. House speaker
Outlaws continue legal battle over remaining items By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
John Cullerton Ill. Senate president
Voice your opinion: Whose side are you on in the Illinois budget battle? Vote online at NWHerald.com.
AP file photos
Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks at an event March 4 in Springfield. On Thursday, Rauner vetoed the bulk of the state budget that lawmakers sent him. Rauner announced he vetoed 19 budget bills legislative Democrats acknowledge add up to a spending plan that is as much as $4 billion short of revenue.
McHenry County lawmakers sound off on state budget impasse By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com It won’t be the first time if Illinois starts its next budget year Wednesday without an actual budget in place. In 2007, the General Assembly had to pass a one-month temporary budget as lawmakers feuded with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. A full budget for fiscal 2008 was not ap-
proved for another six weeks. The dynamics of this budget showdown, however, are far different from the Blagojevich era, when lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were somewhat united against the machinations of the Democratic governor who would later be impeached and sent to federal prison. Illinois has its first divided government in 12 years with the election of Republican Gov. Bruce
Rauner, who last week vetoed all but the education portion of a 2016 budget that’s unbalanced by between $3 billion and $4 billion. What’s more, Rauner has rejected the idea of any type of temporary budget, linking the Democratic majority’s wants and needs to reforms he ran on last year to help fix a state in an economic crisis he said voters gave him a mandate to fix. Without either a temporary or
permanent budget in place, Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said most payments handled by the office will stop Wednesday, from paychecks for state workers to reimbursement for hospitals, vendors and other groups. Local lawmakers, who will return to Springfield on Tuesday – the session never was formally
WOODSTOCK – One of the leather vests seized from Outlaw Motorcycle Club members was returned to the club as the appeal over the remaining three is pending. McHenry County sheriff’s police seized four leather vests from Outlaw club members after a bar fight in Wonder Lake in 2013. Three vests were worn by club members Luciano Flores, Kathleen McKevitt and Robert Bellmore and forfeited as part of their plea deals. A fourth was returned to the motorcycle club earlier this month. Joel Rabb, the attorney for the Outlaws, unsuccessfully has argued the vests were property of the club, and not of the three men who forfeited the items. A judge ultimately sided with prosecutors and ordered the three vests to remain in the custody of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office. The Outlaws acted together, the vests identified their club membership, and they participated in the fight, McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather said in her April ruling. A video played at one of the hearings showed club members entering the bar wearing the vests and later violently
See BUDGET, page A4 See OUTLAWS, page A4
Cities facing slow-motion catastrophe Fear of longer commutes puts pressure on officials to alleviate traffic By JOAN LOWY and JUSTIN PRITCHARD The Associated Press At 4:35 a.m. each weekday, Stan Paul drives out of his Southern California suburb with 10 passengers in a van, headed to his job as an undergraduate counselor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Some 80 miles and 90 minutes later, the vanpoolers finally arrive to start their workday. On the return trip, Los An-
geles’ infamously snarled traffic often stretches their afternoon commute to three hours. Since Paul joined in 2001, he has spent roughly 1½ years aboard the vanpool and traveled far enough to complete a round trip to the moon. “These super commuters, they don’t just give you a day’s work,” he said. “They give you their lives.” Transportation experts said Paul’s long journey offers a warning for the future, when traffic rivaling a major
LOCAL NEWS
Inside Q Many options, no single solution to nation’s traffic snarls. PAGE B4
holiday might someday be the norm for many more Americans. “If we don’t change, in 2045, the transportation system that powered our rise as a nation will instead slow us down,” the Department of Transportation said in report
earlier this year titled “Beyond Traffic.” “Transit systems will be so backed up that riders will wonder not just when they will get to work, but if they will get there at all,” the report said. “At the airports, and on the highway, every day will be like Thanksgiving is today.” That prediction has opened a growing divide between cities, such as L.A., that have
SPORTS
Who will shine in 2015-16? The Northwest Herald sports staff discusses upcoming high school sports season / C2 STYLE
‘The sinkings are hilarious’ 1,700 line the shore as cardboard crafts take to Crystal Lake for 31st annual America’s Cardboard Cup Regatta / A3
See GRIDLOCK, page A9
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AP photo
UCLA employee and volunteer vanpool driver Fredrick Merrick, who commutes 80 miles each way from Moreno Valley, Calif., to the Westwood section of Los Angeles, is reflected in the rear view mirror as he drives a 12-passenger van through traffic May 22 on his way back home.
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