STATE TUESDAY ILLINOIS ROUNDUP
July 8, 2014 Northwest Herald Section B • Page 2
NWHerald.com
Facebook.com/NWHerald
Quinn stopped in the central Illinois community of Washington on Monday. It was among the hardest hit communities when roughly two dozen tornadoes hit on Nov. 17. More than half a dozen people died as a result. The money will go toward local governments to help make repairs. It comes through several agencies, including the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Recipients include the communities of Washington, Pekin and Gifford. The state was denied federal disaster assistance.
Fresh doctors face medical boot camp
News from across the state
1
Willis family find fame decades after tragedy
CHICAGO – Two decades after six children died in a van crash that led to the investigation and later corruption conviction of then Illinois Gov. George Ryan, the family’s next generation is making a musical name for itself. The 12 grandchildren of the Rev. Duane “Scott” Willis and Janet Willis have appeared on “America’s Got Talent.” They range in age from 3 to 22 and specialize in Irish music. The Willis’ family was at the center of Illinois politics in the 1990s. Now the Tennessee-based young members of “The Willis Clan” are earning a musical reputation. They are the children of Toby Willis, whose siblings died in the 1994 crash. Toby Willis, 44, and his wife Brenda Willis, said the older Willis couple is “proud grandparents.” “I think they want to show people a positive side,” Brenda Willis told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s been very tragic and very negative over all these years. I think they’re very excited about putting a positive spin on the story and showing the beautiful things that have come since then and how the family is strong and together and has been able to pick up the pieces and go on.” “The Willis Clan” has performed at the Grand Ole Opry and Disney World.
2
Flooding closes 2 Mississippi River bridges
ST. LOUIS – Two Mississippi
@NWHerald
5
Hunter wants to sell big-game slingshot, sues DNR
AP photo
Chief Medical Resident Julia Vermylen (right) critiques interns June 25 after a breaking bad news exercise during intern boot camp, taught by Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Brand-new doctors often launch right into patient care within weeks of graduating from medical school. To make sure their skills are up to par, many medical schools and hospitals run crash courses in the basics for these new interns.
River bridges closed because of flooding, and with more storms in the forecast, there was growing concern Monday that conditions could worsen in parts of Missouri and Illinois. The Champ Clark Bridge at Louisiana, Missouri, closed at 5 p.m. Sunday, creating an inconvenience for those who travel between Missouri and Illinois on U.S. 54. The next nearest bridge is in Hannibal, Missouri, 35 miles to the north. The river is expected to crest almost 10 feet above flood stage in Louisiana on Tuesday, but it could be the weekend before water is off the road on
the Illinois side of the crossing. The Quincy Memorial Bridge in Quincy shut down Monday morning. The impact there wasn’t as severe because Quincy – with 41,000 residents, the largest Mississippi River town between Davenport, Iowa (population 100,000) and St. Louis – has two bridges. Illinois Department of Transportation spokeswoman Paris Ervin said all traffic is being routed to the Bayview Bridge, which sits higher than the Memorial and is not threatened. Water levels on the Mississippi shot up in the past couple of weeks due to a series of strong
storms in the upper Midwest. Flooding has closed roads and swamped thousands of acres of farmland in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
3
Illinois GOP lawmaker named to leadership
SPRINGFIELD – A Republican lawmaker who voted in favor of same-sex marriage has been named to a leadership post in the Illinois House. Ed Sullivan is a Mundelein Republican. He was one of three House GOP lawmakers who voted in favor of the legislation the General Assembly passed last December. He also survived
a primary campaign against an opponent who criticized his vote. House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs announced Monday that Sullivan would be named to the caucus leadership team. Sullivan takes the spot left vacant by state Rep. JoAnn Osmond of Antioch who recently retired.
4
Quinn announces $11.6M for disaster recovery
WASHINGTON, Ill. – Gov. Pat Quinn has announced $11.6 million in aid for communities recovering from deadly tornadoes that occurred in November 2013.
TUSCOLA – John “Chief A.J.” Huffer enjoys stalking big game. And he likes to do it with a modified slingshot he says can fire arrows fast enough to take down deer. Huffer sells the device he calls a sling bow. And he’d like to see it in the hands of hunters on the trail of deer and other big animals. But while the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said the sling bow is OK for smaller animals, it isn’t approved for deer. According to The Herald & Review in Decatur, the 76-yearold Tuscola man has filed a federal lawsuit against the DNR. Tuscola is about 20 miles south of Champaign. Huffer says he’s being required to meet performance standards that manufacturers of bows do not. He said the DNR says his slingshot doesn’t generate the velocity needed to be a humane hunting weapon. The DNR did not respond to a request for comment.
– Wire reports
14 killed, dozens hurt in Chicago shootings Police superintendent: City needs tougher punishments for crimes involving firearms By DON BABWIN The Associated Press CHICAGO – Extra police officers on Chicago’s streets weren’t enough to quell a long weekend of violence that ended with 14 people shot to death and dozens more injured. During a Monday news conference, just hours after two more people were shot to death earlier in the day, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said his department’s best efforts could not prevent the bloodshed that spiked dramatically on Sunday. Chicago’s total of 53 shooting incidents for the holiday weekend easily eclipsed Detroit and New York combined, which had a total of 46 shooting incidents, 10 of which were fatal. “Going into the holiday weekend we had a plan, including putting hundreds more officers on the streets and what were the results?” McCarthy asked. “The results were a lot of shootings, a lot of murders, unfortunately.” The shootings during the Fourth of July holiday weekend included eight incidents that involved police, according to McCarthy. In five of those instances, officers shot at suspects. Two people – both 16 – were killed in those shootouts. McCarthy said that based on preliminary investigations, all of the officer-involved shootings appear to have been justified, including one in which officers fired after a suspect who tried to run them over with his car. Even with the weekend shootings, Chicago police are on pace with last year for of-
AP photo/Sun-Times Media, Alex Wroblewski
A woman talks to a Chicago police officer on Sunday near the scene where a man was shot in the leg on the city’s South Side.
“Possession of a loaded firearm is not even considered a violent felony in the state of Illinois for sentencing purposes.” Garry McCarthy Chicago police superintendent
ficer-involved shootings, with 33 so far in 2014, compared with 35 at the same time last year, according to McCarthy. The Associated Press took its tally of shooting deaths for the holiday weekend from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, from Thursday through Sunday. The number of shooting incidents came from Chicago police and was for Thursday evening through Sunday. The two deaths early Monday morning were not included in the weekend totals. McCarthy, who came to the nation’s third-largest city from New York, used the op-
portunity to again highlight the number of guns that are on Chicago’s streets. While Chicago has tough gun sales and possession ordinances, McCarthy maintains that Illinois needs stiffer penalties for people who violate gun laws. McCarthy said his officers are seeing more suspects who are reluctant to throw down their guns when confronted by police because they’re more concerned with harsh treatment from their gangs if they lose their weapons than the legal system if they are arrested with them. “Possession of a loaded firearm is not even considered a violent felony in the state of Illinois for sentencing purposes,” McCarthy said, noting that gangs, on the other hand, may severely beat a member who loses a gun. The latest spate of shootings also indicates how dangerous the streets can be, particularly in the summer when the warm weather puts more people on the streets.
adno=0265885