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PR’s Jenkins, CL Central’s Blake and Jacobs’ Wormsley getting earlier-than-usual recruiting interest / C1 NWHerald.com
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5 turf bids up for review
CRAFT BEER INDUSTRY EVOLVING LOCALLY, NATIONALLY
Field proposals to be discussed at D-200 meeting BY HANNAH PROKOP hprokop@shawmedia.com
Photos by Matthew Apgar – mapgar@shawmedia.com
Scorched Earth Brewing Company brewmaster Dan Payson holds up a glass of Scorched Earth Zwickelbier as he discusses the process involved in making craft beer
Breweries keep an eye on state, federal legislation By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com As the craft beer industry continues to evolve, new business owner Mike Dallas of Scorched Earth Brewing Company said progress certainly has been made both near and far, but there’s still a long way to go. There are now 3,400 breweries scattered throughout the nation, with an average of 1.5 breweries opening every day, said Katie Marisic, manager of federal affairs for the Brewers Association, an organization that works to promote independent American brewers. Those in the beer-brewing world have attributed the growth, in part, to recent and forthcoming legislative action, but local brewers also emphasized the importance of focusing on local attention alongside that. In McHenry County, the three
breweries – Chain O’ Lakes Brewing Company in McHenry, Crystal Lake Brewing and Scorched Earth out of Algonquin – are relatively new, all opening within the past year or two. “I think the state of Illinois has been behind,” Dallas said, adding he thinks the state has made moves to help foster the craft beer industry into what it’s been for years in other parts of the country. Illinois legislation sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk in early June – in part upping the number of barrels of beer a brewery can produce a year from 30,000 to 120,000 – is not expected to affect the three breweries in McHenry County in the foreseeable future. However, the local brewers said it does bring to light the fact that state and federal rulings could play a significant role in the industry’s growth, in addition
See BREWERS, page A5
Brewmaster Dan Payson points out the brew company’s only empty wooden barrel as he discusses the process involved in making craft beer Thursday in Algonquin.
Voice your opinion: Should Illinois limit restrictions on the craft beer industry?
WOODSTOCK – Five bids for the proposed Woodstock High School artificial turf field project were submitted to Woodstock School District 200 on Monday. Companies that submitted bids and the projected cost for the project include: Berger Excavating Contractors Inc., $793,133.25; Copenhaver Construction, $682,695; Elanar Construction Inc., $624,055; Team Reil Inc., $599,947; and Gavers Asphalt Paving and Excavating, $574,995.55, according to a document provided by Risa Hanson, District 200 chief financial officer. The bids will be reviewed at a special Woodstock School District 200 Board meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Clay Professional Development Center, 112 Grove St. The Renaissance Committee’s turf campaign, which has raised more than $802,000 to install an artificial turf field at Woodstock High School, has been met with some controversy. About a week ago, Voters in Action, a citizen activism group, started handing out more than 2,000 flyers to stop the turf campaign, Voters in Action founder and Woodstock resident Joe Tirio said. Tirio said he also has worked with Barb Gessert, who previously collected signatures for a petition against the proposed field and sent out a survey to gauge the community’s opinion on the field. Voters in Action added a petition on its website for those who oppose the field and a summary of concerns regarding the safety and cost of the project. “I think they’re trying to do a good thing for the kids,” Tirio said of the Renaissance Committee, “but weren’t
Vote online at NWHerald.com.
See DISTRICT 200, page A5
Marijuana industry ramping up donations to 2016 hopefuls By KRISTEN WYATT The Associated Press DENVER – Presidential candidates are talking about marijuana in ways unimaginable not long ago. White House hopefuls in both parties are taking donations from people in the new marijuana industry, which is investing heavily in political activism as a route to expanded legalization and that landed its first major candidate, Rand Paul, at a trade show last month. Several Republicans, like Democrats, are saying they
won’t interfere with states that are legalizing a drug still forbidden under federal law. And at conservative policy gatherings, Republicans are discussing whether drug sentences should be eased. A quarter century after Bill Clinton confessed he tried marijuana but insisted “I didn’t inhale,” the taboo against marijuana is shrinking at the highest level of politics, just as it appears to be with the public. “When I was growing up, it was political suicide for a candidate to talk about pot being legal,” said Tim Cullen, own-
er of Colorado Harvest Co., a chain of medical and recreational marijuana dispensaries. Cullen attended a Hillary Rodham Clinton fundraiser in New Mexico last month and talked to the Hillary D e m o c r a t - Rodham ic candidate Clinton about her position on legalizing pot. “She’s not outwardly hostile to the idea, which is a big step forward,” Cullen said.
“She’s willing to openly talk about it at least.” A slim majority of Americans, 53 percent, said in a Pew Research Center survey in March that the drug should be legal. As recently as 2006, Rand Paul less than a third supported marijuana legalization in another measure of public opinion, the General Social Survey. Politicians are shifting,
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but slowly. Republican candidates Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Rick Perry are among those who say states should decide marijuana laws, even as they brand legalization a bad idea. In June, Rick Perry Paul became the first major-party presidential candidate to hold a fundraiser with the new marijuana industry, courting about 40 donors in Denver.
But the Kentucky senator used a private back door, and aides erected a screen so photographers couldn’t see the candidate standing by a green Cannabis Business Summit sign. Paul didn’t talk about pot at a public meet-and-greet afterward. A few days earlier in the same building, six other GOP presidential contenders talked to about 4,000 people at a gathering of Western conservatives. There, Perry defended the right of states to change marijuana laws, even if they
See MARIJUANA, page A5
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