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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
PREP BASEBALL • SPORTS, B1
ANNIVERSARY • MARKETPLACE, A5
DeKalb seeks consistency as Barbs lose to Yorkville
Josie’s Antiques marks 25 years in Maple Park
DeKalb’s Patrick Aves
Severe weather warnings Pot law Experts offer advice on preparing for season’s emergencies
brings hope, concern Medical marijuana bill awaits Ill. Senate action By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com
Rob Winner file photo – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Brake lights from a pickup truck heading westbound on Owens Road near the intersection of Somonauk and Owens roads in Pierce Township can be seen as lightning strikes during a thunderstorm in July. BELOW: Evergreen Village Mobile Home Park resident Larry Hunter waits April 18 on a flooded street for a family member to retrieve some items from her home in Sycamore. By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com DeKALB – A tornado is expected to hit Northern Illinois University once every 50 years, with the last one touching down near a residence hall in 1981. One is expected to strike within DeKalb’s city limits once every 30 years, said NIU meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste. The last time a tornado hit DeKalb was in 1994, destroying a house on Cherry Road. It’s not very frequent, but that’s no excuse to be complacent, Sebenste said. “If you live in your house all your life in the city of DeKalb ... you are more likely to see a tornado from your house at some point in your lifetime,” he said. “... It might not hit your house, but you might see it.” Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes typically strike in spring, but Sebenste encouraged residents to be prepared to deal with high winds, thunderstorms, hail and other weather calamities a little later
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
this year. “Generally, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are common from April to June,” Sebenste said. “However, this year, because it’s been exceedingly cold in the northern parts of the hemisphere, the severe weather season is being delayed and pushed back.” Disaster experts recommend people take shelter if a tornado warning has been declared. For most homeowners,
this will either be a basement or an inner room in the house. Apartment dwellers, especially those living in higher-level floors, should see if they have a common shelter or basement area they could go to, said Dennis Miller, the coordinator of the DeKalb County Emergency Service Disaster Agency. Larger apartment buildings can lose the entire side of their buildings during a tornado,
said Timothy Reinhold, the senior vice president for research and chief engineer at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. This is because the connections between the frame and the walls are usually weaker. “You could lose that whole section,” Reinhold said. Candace Iskowitz, the public affairs director at the Insurance Institute, said that there’s not much apartment dwellers can do, except buy renter’s insurance. Reinhold said there are various businesses that will build tornado shelters or harden certain parts of a home, like an interior walk-in closet, that will provide additional protection during a tornado. Tornadoes aren’t DeKalb’s only problem. The county just came off the heels of flooding that led to the evacuation of Evergreen Village Mobile Home Park. Miller said the area also experiences severe winter storms
See SEVERE, page A3
SOMONAUK – Multiple sclerosis made Jim Champion a prisoner in his own body. The 59-pill drug cocktail he took on a regular basis didn’t seem to help him, said his wife, Sandy, who lives with her husband in Somonauk. When the doctors increased his prescription for methadone by one pill, he nearly overdosed. Relief came in 2003 when one of her cousins gave Jim Champion marijuana. Within 10 minutes of smoking it, he was smiling, hungry and his muscles were relaxed. “After all of those years, he is down to 24 pills a day,” Sandy Champion, 47, said. “Hopefully, with the passage of this bill, we’ll be down even more.” The Champions now make trips to Springfield, advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana in Illinois. They and others scored a major victory when a legalization proposal passed the Illinois House earlier this month in a 61-57 vote. Under the bill, patients with “debilitating medical conditions” and a doctor’s prescription could apply for a license that would allow them or a caregiver to buy up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in a twoweek period. For the Champions, it would mean no longer having to buy an illegal drug on the street, which can lead to dangerous situations. “I don’t like to be considered a criminal in the state of Illinois, but I have to find some
About the bill House Bill 1 would allow people with certain debilitating medical conditions to obtain prescriptions of medical marijuana. Those conditions include cancer, glaucoma, positive status for HIV, AIDS, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis, among others. For more information and to read the full text of the legislation, go to shawurl. com/l5z.
Local votes State Rep. Robert Pritchard, R-Hinckley, voted yes on the bill. State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, voted no.
See MARIJUANA, page A3
Consumers keep spending despite higher taxes Rising home prices, less debt help buoy buying from January to March By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER The Associated Press WASHINGTON – This year got off to a sour start for U.S. workers: Their pay, already gasping to keep pace with inflation, was suddenly lessened by a Social Security tax increase. Which raised a worrisome question: Would consumers stop spending and further slow the economy? Nope. Not yet, anyway. On Friday, the government said consumers spent 3.2 percent more on an annual basis in the January-March quarter than in the previous quarter – the biggest jump in two years. And in a report Monday, the government said consumers increased their spending in
each month, by 0.2 percent in March, 0.7 percent in February and 0.3 percent in January. The spending increases highlighted a broader improvement in Americans’ financial health that is blunting the impact of the tax increase and raising hopes for more sustainable growth. Consumers have shed debt. Gasoline has gotten cheaper. Rising home values and record stock prices have restored household wealth to its pre-recession high. And employers are steadily adding jobs, which means more people have money to spend. “No one should write off the consumer simply because of the 2 percentage-point increase in payroll taxes,” says Bernard Baumohl, chief econo-
mist at the Economic Outlook Group. “Overall household finances are in the best shape in more than five years.” Spending weakened toward the end of the January-March quarter. Spending at retailers fell in March by 0.4 percent, the worst showing in nine months. And more spending on utilities accounted for up to one-fourth of the increase in consumer spending in the January-March quarter, according to JPMorgan Chase economist Michael Feroli, because of colder weather. Spending on utilities isn’t a barometer of consumer confidence the way spending on household goods, such as appliances or furniture, would be.
See SPENDING, page A4
AP file photo
A woman walks past a retail store’s window display April 10 in Baltimore. Despite less pay, U.S. consumers keep spending, thanks to cheaper gas, rising stocks and low debt rates.
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