Your source for community news and sports 7 days a week.
Coming face to DIXON, OREGON SENIORS ADVANCE TO STATE face with fun GIRLS GOLF, B1
ASHTON, A10
TELEGRAPH
Monday, October 10, 2016 n SERVING DIXON AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1851
ILLINOIS | JOBLESS BENEFITS
State claims worst spot on list State fails to get back hundreds of millions in overpaid unemployment claims SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Illinois is billions in debt, has billions in overdue bills and can’t seem to remove itself from a budget morass, yet it’s the nation’s worst in reclaiming hundreds of millions of dollars in overpaid unemployment benefits, an Associated Press analysis of federal labor data found. The abysmal performance – claiming only about $264 million of the $714 mil-
lion in overpayments from 2012 to 2016 – is one reason the U.S. Labor Department said that it would step in to help Illinois meet standards for management, recordkeeping and timeliness, according to an Aug. 31 letter obtained by the AP under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Illinois’ 37 percent recovery rate is the worst among all U.S. states and territories, which average 66 percent, the AP found.
That unclaimed $452 million can’t be used to alleviate social services that have suffered because of the state’s 21-month budget crisis, because it’s earmarked for current legitimate jobless claims or must be held in savings to pay out for unemployment in the future. The Illinois Department of Employment Security handles about 600,000 unemployment claims a year and col-
lects $2.3 billion annually in unemployment insurance taxes from employers. But the review shows IDES didn’t reclaim more than 60 percent of what it had improperly paid to ineligible claimants who either cashed unemployment checks intentionally, through oversight or because they misunderstood the rules after they started working again. CLAIMS continued on A54
SPEAK BOLDLY TOASTMASTERS
DIXON
With fingers flying, Brayden Wollemberg, 10, of Crystal Lake works the cube during competition Saturday morning in Dixon.
Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
Sandra Carl displays the word of the day during the Toastmasters meeting in Sterling. Members get extra credit for using the word during their speeches.
The toast of the town for 60 years Local club helps people hone their communication skills BY DANA FRANCIS For Sauk Valley Media
Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
SQ UA RE O
F
COMMUNICATION continued on A54
Y RACHEL RODGERS B rrodgers@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5529 @rj_rodgers
CU BE RS F
With 43 quintillion combinations at their fingertips, Rubik’s Cube competitors had their hands full
STERLING – Some people speak softly and carry a big stick. Others speak boldly and talk about goats. Take Paul Kane. The president of the local Speak Boldly Toastmasters Club bought a billy goat, one that wanted nothing to do with the Sterling farmer, and ran off at its first opportunity. He was a goat with his own agenda. The solution? Kane’s cattle buyer told him to “get yourself a nanny goat.” So he did, and he tied her up outside. Then, about an hour later, the billy goat returned to the farm and hasn’t left since.
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
DIXON – John Brechon can solve a Rubik’s Cube faster than it takes most people to tie their shoes. The 20-year-old Dixon native is a nationally ranked “cuber,” as they’re called in the competitive circuit, and he unscrambled a normal Online extra 3x3 cube in 7.16 secRead this story at onds on Saturday. saukvalley.com Brechon and his parents, Jean and Marty, to see video from have hosted World Saturday’s Rubik’s Cube competition Cube Association competitions in Dixon where 106 cubers since 2010, bringing came to Dixon. hundreds of children and adults to the area to put their fast thinking and quick hands to the test. “It’s competitive and really gets your blood flowing,” he said after taking home two firstplace wins from the all-day event. It started as a challenge to himself to solve the puzzle, and the hobby led him to discover a whole new community. RUBIK’S CUBE continued on A34
Candidates come out swinging in Round 2 ST. LOUIS – Donald Trump took a scorched-earth approach to trying to right his faltering campaign Sunday night, lashing out at his rival – and even threatening her with imprisonment – during a presidential debate where he confronted the turmoil that’s pushing his party toward mutiny. Before an audience projected to be in the tens of millions, the GOP nominee faced his first public grilling over a 2005 video in which he boasted of sexually mauling women and getting away with tawdry behavior because of his celebrity; Trump responded by angrily accusing Bill and Hillary Clinton of worse misdeeds. “Never, was there anybody in the history of politics in this nation that was so abusive to women” as Bill Clinton, said Trump, who had three of the former president’s accusers in the debate hall in St. Louis as his guests. “Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously.” DEBATE continued on A54
$1.00
TODAY’S EDITION: 20 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 166 ISSUE 113
INDEX
ABBY.................... A7 COMICS................B6 CROSSWORD.......B9
FIRE SAFETY.....A8-9 LIFESTYLE............ A7 LOTTERY.............. A2
OBITUARIES......... A4 OPINION............... A6 POLICE................. A2
Today’s weather High 75. Low 57. More on A3.
TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE PAPER, CALL 815-284-2224
Need work? Check out your classifieds, B7.