Three things to watch in the Illinois Valley this week A6
James Knauf is remembered in L-P seating section A3
SERVING READERS OF THE ILLINOIS VALLEY
www.newstrib.com | Monday, September 9, 2019 | 75 cents
Silence and devastation in Bahamas after wrath of hurricane Dorian lashes east Canada By Michael Weissenstein ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEWSTRIBUNE PHOTOS/SCOTT ANDERSON
A large crowd attends the 14th Annual Jazz’N the Street in downtown La Salle on Saturday. Event organizers from La Salle Business Association, including Bart Hartauer and Leah Inman, said Friday’s BBQ-n-Blues crowd was the largest ever for the annual events on back-to-back nights, and perfect weather this year — as well as the growing reputation of the festival — was drawing similar-sized crowd Saturday night.
Jazz’N the Street: Jump, Jive and Wail Things were hopping in La Salle during back-to-back festivals By Craig Sterrett NEWS EDITOR
Funny how things work out. Musician and businessman Steve Westerman signed up the bands for the Jazz’N the Street festival Saturday. He booked bigband singer Jack Muiccio and his orchestra Saturday, and Muiccio entertained the crowd that filled two blocks of First Street, closing the night with a Bobby Darin standard and a rendition of “Jump, Jive and Wail” that had festival-goers dancing. Westerman “discovered” Muiccio by surprise — though the singer’s known by many in Chicago. How many? On Sunday, Muiccio was scheduled to sing the national anthem before the Chicago White Sox game and “God Bless America” in the seventh inning. “I manage Sherman’s (appliance store). Jack is our Frigidaire and Electrolux supplier,” said Westerman. “We knew each other for a year before we knew each other did music. I told him I’ve got this festival you might be perfect for.” Westerman said it took him a year and a half but he finally booked Muiccio for the show. Funny how that worked out. The entire weekend worked out well for bands, food vendors and La Salle Business Association, said organizers including La Salle Business Association officers Bart Hartauer and Leah Inman. Last year, rain soaked BBQn-Blues and a raccoon caused
TONIGHT T-storm in spots. Weather A8
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Local A3 Lottery A2 Obituaries B6 Opinion A6
COMING TOMORROW Established 1851 No. 175 © 2019 est. 1851
DATE NIGHT Take a look at Stage 212’s upcoming show
Left: Sandra Washington, lead vocalist for the band N.B.T. Experience Funk, tries to make Jeff Schuster of La Salle sing to the music during the jazz festival. The event featured a variety of musicians as well as a wine and imported beer garden and food vendors. Above: Jim Wiertz of La Salle drinks beer out of a wine glass underneath the lights at Jazz’N the Street. a power outage at Jazz’N the Street. This year, clear skies and comfortable weather showed up. “I think (Friday) night was our biggest crowd ever for BBQn-Blues,” said Inman, who estimated the crowd at 2,500 or more. Hartauer said when she and Inman were making announcements from the stage Friday, all they saw for more than two blocks was a “sea of people.” Longtime LBA supporter Dan Burke agreed. “I think the event continues to pick up steam,” Hartauer said. Another good-sized, but slightly-more-formally-dressed, crowd was forming Saturday night at sunset, too.
Inman and Hartauer noted that they work to set up slightly different atmospheres for the Friday BBQ-n-Blues crowd and for the jazz-and-wine crowd. Some vendors feature different food items and beverages, and Friday’s easy-to-clean checkered barbecue tablecloths and flowers are swapped out Saturday for white tablecloths and mums. “We want people to come both nights and experience something different,” Hartauer said. Inman was pleased to meet three ladies from Joliet who took a road trip just to enjoy both festival nights. They checked into a Peru hotel and enjoyed the show Friday and were back, more dressed up and wearing quite a
bit of jewelry Saturday. Spring Valley Mayor Walt Marini came to La Salle on Saturday to check out the music on the main stage, but he also was there to try to book a band next year that was playing on the street at intermission. That band, NBT Experience Funk Inc. (NBT stands for “Nothing But Trouble”) performed old funk tunes, new ones like “Uptown Funk” and had Westerman join in with a B.B. King-style guitar solo on a blues song. Westerman also was pleased that his band that performed for the nightcap Saturday — aptly named Gene-n-Tonic — showed See JAZZ Page A2
MARSH HARBOUR, Bahamas (AP) — The streets are filled with smashed cars, snapped power cables, shattered trees and deep silence. At the airport and dock, hundreds of people clamor for seats on airplanes and berths on ships arriving with aid and departing with people who lost their homes when deadly Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas. Nearly a week after disaster roared in from the sea, the rest of Marsh Harbour on Abaco island felt empty Saturday. A hot wind whistled through stands of decapitated pine trees and homes that collapsed during the most powerful hurricane in the northwestern Bahamas’ recorded history. On Saturday, Dorian hit near the city of Halifax, ripping roofs off apartment buildings, toppling a huge construction crane and uprooting trees. There were no reported deaths in Canada, though the storm was blamed for at least 50 elsewhere along its path. Meanwhile, rescue teams were still trying to reach some Bahamian communities isolated by floodwaters and debris after the disaster that killed at least 43 people. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis says 35 people died on Abaco and eight on Grand Bahama island. The U.S. Coast Guard said it has rescued a total of 290 people in the northern Bahamas following the hurricane. Six MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters and nine cutters are helping in the aid effort, the Coast Guard said. With so much air traffic, Bahamaian officials banned nonaid flights over Grand Bahama and Abaco Islands. The National Emergency Management agency also threatened to revoke flight permission from any pilots charging fees to evacuate people from the islands. Meanwhile, the United Nations said eight tons of food supplies were on the way by ship. Some 14,700 ready-to-eat meals as well as logistical and telecommunications equipment are being delivered, said Herve Verhoosel, spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program. “The needs remain enormous,” Verhoosel said. No official figures were available, but much of the population of Marsh Harbour, home to most of the roughly 20,000 residents of Abaco, seemed to have already left. Many were staying with See DORIAN Page A2
At Sept. 11 memorial, there is new recognition for longer-term toll By Jennifer Peltz
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW YORK (AP) — When the names of nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims are read aloud Wednesday at the World Trade Center, a half-dozen stacks of stone will quietly salute an untold number of people who aren’t on the list. The granite slabs were installed on the memorial plaza this spring. They recognize an initially unseen toll of the 2001 terrorist attacks: firefighters, police and others who died or fell
ill after exposure to toxins unleashed in the wreckage. The unusual addition reflects a memorial that is evolving as the aftermath of 9/11 does. And for families like Joanna Reisman’s, the new 9/11 Memorial Glade gives their loved ones a place in the landscape of remembrance at ground zero. A firefighter’s widow, she emphasizes that the losses thouAP PHOTO sands of families suffered on A visitor touches one of the granite slabs at the 9/11 Memorial Glade at the Sept. 11 were horrific. “We just have to recognize National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. They recognize an initially unseen toll of the 2001 terrorist attacks: firefighters, police and others See MEMORIAL Page A2 who died or fell ill after exposure to toxins unleashed in the wreckage.