Holiday touches
Court lessons
Arcola Christmas Walk has old-fashioned charm/D1
Eisenhower is unable to hold Normal/B1
Herald&Review WWW.HERALD-REVIEW.COM
SATURDAY DECEMBER 6, 2008
Lawmakers target governor Some claim revelation of secret taping saps Blagojevich’s clout By KURT ERICKSON and MIKE RIOPELL H&R Springfield Bureau Writers
Clip & play Mega Moolah! In today’s paper:
$50,000
CAT cuts back Caterpillar Inc. has started cutting ties with some contract workers as it tries to lower costs. The cuts are part of a plan that includes limiting travel, meetings and events. Money A7
SPRINGFIELD — Reports that Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been taped secretly by federal investigators added new fuel Friday to calls for the Chicago Democrat to step down or be impeached. A handful of state lawmakers said the Illinois House should be prepared to hold hearings regarding the second-term governor’s impeachment
THE ISSUE Tracking the news
Ethics The latest: Federal authorities investigating corruption reportedly have secretly taped Gov. Rod Blagojevich. What’s next: Blagojevich has not been charged with any crime, but some lawmakers say he has lost the ability to govern. when the General Assembly returns to work in January. “The governor has no credibility in Springfield. He can’t lead,” said state Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth.
The Chicago Tribune reported Friday that Blagojevich has been recorded secretly by federal authorities who are investigating corruption. The newspaper also reported that a top Blagojevich fundraiser, lobbyist John Wyma, is cooperating in the politically charged probe. Wyma, 42, was chief of staff when Blagojevich was in Congress and is a close friend of the governor. Zachary T. Fardon, Wyma’s attorney, denied his client ever wore a wire or made recordings of the governor for the FBI and was unaware of any such recordings.
GOVERNOR/A2 Associated Press
SAVING ON HEATING
Keeping the
Winning chances
home fires burning
The Black Hole and Cups for Candy were among the carnival-style games at the Probability Fair at Mount Zion Grade School, hosted by high school students who study probability and statistics under teacher Vickie Marshall. Local A3
Dr. Paul McMullan works with the ThermoSuit, which is on the top of the patient at Ochsner Hospital in Jefferson, La. A pump inflates the plastic pool around the patient as doctors Velcro on a plastic topsheet. Tubes spray naked patients with frigid water as other tubes drain it away, taking the heat from the patient’s skin with it.
ThermoSuit puts a heart attack on ice Rapid cooling could be key to limiting long-term damage By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Medical Writer
Life-or-death defense Gun rights advocates who have helped pass castle doctrine laws say it removes an unfair legal penalty for people exercising a constitutional right in a life-or-death emergency, though some officials are skeptical of self-defense claims. Nation A5
Lake Decatur level watch Normal winter pool level . . . .612.5 Normal summer pool level . . .614.4 Yesterday’s level . . . . . . . . .613.86
YOUR WEATHER
Herald & Review photos/Kelly J. Huff
Lakeside Tree Service job foreman Mikey Dyer Jr. uses a professional log splitter to cut the wood segments to length before splitting each section into six equal pieces. Lakeside has stockpiled acres of firewood to be sold for home heating this winter. By VALERIE WELLS H&R Staff Writer
HIGH
L O W
33 12 Today: Morning snow, cloudy Tonight: Partly cloudy and cold Details/B8
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75 cents Our 136th year
Issue 341 Four sections
D
ECATUR — Clay Whitney has a method for determining how many people are heating with wood. “We haven’t had a request for (bellows) for years,” said Whitney, owner of Clayton Sales Co., a fireplace and wood stove supply shop on East Eldorado Street. “Last week, we had three or four calls from people who wanted to know if we handled bellows.” As times get tough and power bills escalate, more people are considering wood stoves and fireplaces as alternatives. But at the same time, that economic slowdown has kept homeowners from hiring tree services to cut down as many trees as in past years, so the wood to fill those stoves and fireplaces is in shorter supply. “There’s barely any (wood) at all,” said Michael Connelly of Lakeside Tree Service. “I’ve got plenty of it, but I’ve been stocking up. I saw
HEAT/A2
Lakeside Tree Service owner Michael Connelly and his personal assistant, Josh Wright, take another order for a bundle of precut firewood from the cab of his truck.
COOL/A2
Board hopes to raise state’s grade on higher education affordability Proposal comes amid governor’s call for colleges to cut spending By MIKE RIOPELL
Delivery: 421-6990 Newsroom: 421-6979 Outside Decatur: 1-800-437-2533
More people are seeking fireplaces, wood stoves to warm their homes
NEW ORLEANS — It took five mighty shocks to get Cynthia Crawford’s heart to start beating again after she collapsed at Ochsner Clinic a few weeks ago. A dramatic rescue, to be sure, yet it was routine care she could have had at any hospital. What came next, though, was not. As she lay unconscious, barely clinging to life, doctors placed her in an inflatable cocoon-like pool that sprayed her naked body with hundreds of icy cold jets of water, plunging her into hypothermia. “Like jumping in the North Sea,” said the cardiologist leading her care, Dr. Paul McMullan. Days later, Crawford was recovering without the brain damage she might have suffered. For years, doctors have tried cooling people to limit damage from head and spinal cord injuries, strokes and even prematurity and birth trauma in newborns. It’s also used for cardiac arrest, when someone’s heart has stopped. In January, New York will join several other cities requiring ambulances to take many cardiac arrest patients to hospitals that offer cooling. Now, doctors will be testing a new and dramatically speedier way of doing this for a much more common problem: heart attacks, which strike a million Americans each year. “It’s extremely appealing” because the cooling system is noninvasive and can be used in an ordinary hospital room, said Dr. George Sopko of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is paying for this first-of-a-kind study. Animal research suggests it will help, “but we need the hard evidence” from human tests to know, he said.
H&R Springfield Bureau Writer
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Board of Higher Education hopes a
proposal it could adopt Tuesday could start easing the continually rising costs of going to college. Its “Public Agenda” comes as a recent national report on colleges gave Illinois a grade of “F” in affordability and as Gov. Rod Blagojevich has asked universities to cut back on their spending this year. Some of the board’s agenda seeks
changes to help low- and middleincome families better afford college. The report describes the situation as having two states of Illinois, one of which can afford college more easily than the other. “One Illinois is pretty well-educated and remains prosperous,” said Judy Irwin, executive director of the Board of Higher Education.
The panel plans to adopt the blueprint at a meeting in Chicago. In the meantime, Blagojevich recently asked all public universities not to spend about 2.5 percent of the money the state sent them, leaving more cost hikes for students nearly inevitable.
COLLEGES/A2