Quincy Herald Whig

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Published: 8/10/2012 | Updated: 5/18/2013

FRONT PAGE

DROUGHT-SEVERITY: The Plains states where the production of corn and soybeans is key are being hit harder by excessive drought conditions in the wake of the hottest month on record in the continental U.S., contributing to a surge in global food prices. The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday showed that the amount of the contiguous U.S. mired in drought conditions dropped a little more than 1 percentage point, to 78.14 percent as of Tuesday. But the expanse still gripped by extreme or exceptional drought -- the two worst classifications -- rose to 24.14 percent, up nearly 2 percentage points from the previous week. Since last week, extreme or exceptional drought in Illinois spiked roughly 10 percentage points, to 81.18 percent.

SUMMER JOBS: Some schools are starting classes early, including John Wood Community College, but this isn't causing much concern for businesses that rely on students for summer help, including the Quincy Park District.

HEALTH CARE-TAXES: Who gets whacked by higher taxes in President Barack Obama's health care law? The wealthiest 2 percent of Americans take the biggest hit, starting next year. The pain also will be shared by some who aren't so well off -- people swept up in a hodgepodge of tax changes that will help finance health coverage for millions in need. For the vast majority, however, the health care law won't mean paying more to the IRS.

THE SCOOP

WILSON COLUMN: Children who are living through one of the worst droughts and heat waves on record are not going to form the indelible memories that earlier generations carried with them from the 1930s or 1950s.

BOOKS-HE-SHE-GAP: According to a study released Thursday, the "he-she" gap in books -- one that has always favored the masculine -- has dramatically narrowed. The ratio of male to female pronouns was roughly 3.5:1 until 1950, when the gap began to widen as more women stayed home after World War II, and peaked at around 4.5:1 in the mid-1960s. The ratio had shrunk to 3:1 by 1975, and less than 2:1 by 2005. "These trends in language quantify one of the largest, and most rapid, cultural changes ever observed: The incredible increase in women's status since the late 1960s in the U.S.," Jean M. Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University.

WORLD/NATION

SIKH TEMPLE-SHOOTING: Thousands of mourners are expected to gather to pay their final respects to the six worshippers gunned down by a white supremacist at their Sikh temple over the weekend. Organizers initially allocated two hours for a wake and visitation at a nearby high school. But they added two hours to accommodate both mourners from around the world and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as a last-minute speaker.

ROMNEY-MORE THAN ECONOMY: For months, Mitt Romney has seemed to have one main focus -- bludgeoning President Barack Obama on the economy. Now, the Republican presidential candidate has started poking at Obama from all sides as he looks to gain ground.

FOOD STAMP FRAUD: The Agriculture Department comes out with new steps to fight fraud in food stamps, a federal program that has taken center stage as Congress struggles to adopt a long-term farm policy bill. The actions announced by Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon include giving the department new authority to penalize retailers who traffic in food stamps and requiring states to make use of federal databases to ensure that food benefits go to those who are eligible.

SYRIA: BEIRUT: Syrian forces pound districts of Aleppo with tank and artillery shells as outgunned rebels struggle to hold on to territory in the country's largest city.

KOMEN-LEADERSHIP SHAKE-UP: As her sister lay dying from breast cancer in the early 1980s, Nancy Brinker made a promise to her: She would do everything possible to end the disease. It was a commitment she fulfilled by founding a breast cancer charity that grew into the world's largest -- a fundraising powerhouse that collected hundreds of millions of dollars and virtually created the idea of using foot races to fight disease. Now Brinker, who has long been the public face of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is stepping down as chief executive, six months after the organization's hotly debated decision to briefly end funding for Planned Parenthood.

BRIEFLY: A New Jersey mother is suing a production company after an instructional breast-feeding video she appeared in was taken by a third party and used to create pornography; A weakening Tropical Storm Ernesto makes its second landfall in Mexico, causing the drowning deaths of two fishermen; Postal Service: Expect more red ink, another payment default unless Congress provides relief; Walk above the beach: Daredevil Wallenda says sand complicated tightrope walk in Atlantic City; Disability groups boycott some Babybel cheese after slogan offends mentally ill in France; Analysts expect West Coast gas prices to surpass $4 a gallon after a fire knocked out a key section of one of the nation's largest oil refineries.

LOCAL

COMMON CORE MANAGER: The Quincy Federation of Teachers has hired Marilyn Smith to serve as project manager for an educational campaign about the common core state standards being adopted in the Quincy School District. The QFT recently received a one-year, $75,000 grant from the American Federation of Teachers to educate the public about the new standards and what they will mean for teaching and learning in Quincy's public schools. Smith will lead this effort while working under the direction of a steering committee comprised of QFT and school district personnel.

LOOKING FOR NEW LOCATIONS: With the Park District offices' ultimate move to its new riverfront location sometime in 2013, officials are looking for new locations for some of the programs and services it provides at its current 1310 Washington site. We look at some of those possibilities.

ALI BOOK: When the words swarming into Zakiah Ali's head during long, sleepless nighttime hours become too much, she has to "scribble" them down. After almost 60 years of scribbling, Ali has accrued hundreds of poems, letters and short stories. Those pieces of her life have finally come together in a novel, "Stray Thoughts/Winged Words." Ali self-published the collection, her first book, at the end of July.

BOATING FATALITY SENTENCE: A Quincy woman was found guilty Thursday of careless operation of a watercraft involving a fatal boating accident last year.

DRUG ARRESTS: Three people were lodged in Adams County Jail after their arrests Thursday from two investigations by the West Central Illinois Task Force. Charles D. Miller, 38, and Mandi V. Higgins, 35, both of Mendon, were arrested by agents for unlawful possession of methamphetamine manufacturing materials and unlawful possession of meth after they were observed taking possession bag of meth manufacturing materials, according to a news release from the task force. A search of their residence resulted in additional evidence being seized.

NORTH FIFTH ACCIDENT: A car northbound on North Fifth Street collided with an eastbound semi-tractor-trailer at the intersection of U.S. 24 late Thursday morning. Quincy Police reported that a 2002 Chevrolet Blazer driven by Jessica L. Benz, 19, of Quincy, was stopped at the stop sign on North Fifth when she attempted to continue heading north and was hit by a 2004 Mack Truck heading east on U.S. 24, driven by Dennis E. Smith Sr., 39, of Quincy.

REGION

TEACHER ABUSE: School administrators in McLean County can be sued for failing to warn a neighboring district that it was about to hire a teacher who has a record of sexual misconduct with students, a divided Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Teacher Jon White went on to abuse at least eight girls in his new job. The case echoes the Penn State scandal, in which university officials had reason to believe a former coach was abusing minors but did not take action to stop it. In McLean County, administrators at Unit District No. 5 had gotten multiple complaints about White and suspended him twice, for viewing pornography on a school computer and for making suggestive remarks to a fifth-grader. White was forced to resign.

COMMERCE COMMISSION-PRIVACY: The Illinois state auditor found significant personal information about consumers filing complaints with the Illinois Commerce Commission published on the agency's website. Auditor General William Holland reported Thursday that the public could search the ICC's "e-Docket" complaint system and find names and addresses, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and even credit history and medical data. The disclosures appeared to violate state law, he said.

VATICAN-SISTERS CRACKDOWN: American nuns accused of straying far from Roman Catholic doctrine will decide at a national meeting next week whether they should accept or resist a Vatican-ordered overhaul. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 80 percent of the 57,000 U.S. sisters, is gathering for the first time since the Vatican said the sisters have been promoting "radical feminist themes" about the priesthood, artificial contraception and homosexuality.

JOPLIN MOSQUE-REBUILDING: Members of Joplin's Islamic community whose mosque was destroyed in a recent fire hope to call on the camaraderie that the southwest Missouri city displayed in the wake of last year's devastating tornado. "This great community is not going to be taken by fear," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relation, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. Awad said he admired how Joplin responded to the May 22, 2011 tornado that killed 161 people and destroyed a broad swath of the southwest Missouri city.

JACKSON-LEAVE OF ABSENCE: U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who disappeared on a secretive medical leave two months ago, is expected back home within a matter of weeks, an aide said. Jackson, 47, currently is being treated for depression and gastrointestinal issues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and has been away from the public eye since June 10 when family members said he collapsed at their Washington home. Jackson aide Rick Bryant said he recently spoke with Jackson, who asked Bryant to reach out to mayors and get updates on projects in his district, which includes parts of Chicago and stretches south.

CLERK-NEPOTISM: Shortly after taking office in 2003, Cass County Clerk Janet Burlingame broke one of the cardinal rules for elected officials in Missouri by hiring her son and husband to work for her. Nearly a decade later, county officials are trying to get the third-term clerk kicked out of office for violating nepotism provisions in the state constitution. Cass County prosecutor Teresa Hensley filed the official paperwork Wednesday.

BRIEFLY: A child who contracted a new strain of swine flu has become the first Illinois case of the illness; School officials in Bloomington say preliminary budget figures for fiscal year 2013 show a deficit of $2.28 million; State officials say heat and drought caused the death of about 20,000 fish in a northwest Missouri lake; Architects and preservation advocates are praising a change to Illinois law that may help save historic schools from the wrecking ball; Gov. Pat Quinn wants a federal investigation of the Megabus.com transportation company, which saw two fatal accidents in Illinois in less than a week; Flavored tobacco rolling papers are now banned in Illinois. Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill into law that bans the sale of non-menthol flavored wrapping paper more commonly called "blunt warps."

BUSINESS

AIRLINES-ON TIME: Fliers rejoice: U.S. airlines are more punctual and less likely to lose your bag than at any time in more than two decades. Travelers still have to put up with packed planes, rising fees and unpredictable security lines, but they are late to fewer business meetings and missing fewer chances to tuck their kids into bed. Nearly 84 percent of domestic flights arrived within 15 minutes of their schedule time in the first half of the year -- the best performance since the government started tracking such data in 1988.

OIL PRICES: The average price of gasoline is now higher than it was a year ago for the first time since late April. The national average for retail gasoline was $3.662 per gallon Thursday, a penny higher than it was on this date in 2011. Analysts expect prices to continue to rise through Labor Day because of refinery and pipeline issues that have affected supplies.

GOOGLE-FTC-PRIVACY: Google is paying a record $22.5 million fine to settle allegations that it broke a privacy promise by secretly tracking millions of Web surfers who use Apple's Safari browser.

CONSUMER AGENCY-MORTGAGE RULES: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau releases new guidelines for companies that collect mortgage payments.

BRIEFCASE: Missouri officials have recalled some milk products produced by a dairy in northwest Missouri; DeVry Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit plunged as the for-profit education company struggled with lower enrollment, restructuring expenses and other charges; An employee of the St. Louis Community Credit Union is facing federal charges accusing her of taking more than $100,000 from the company; J.C. Penney Co. Inc. reports quarterly financial results before the market opens.

POLICE

BOWLING GREEN FATAL: A 16-year-old Bowling Green driver was killed in a one-car accident at 10:25 a.m. Thursday in PIke County, Mo.

DREW PETERSON TRIAL: Drew Peterson's third wife told a friend a year before she was found dead in her bathtub that the former suburban Chicago police officer once broke into her home, grabbed her by the throat, pinned her down and asked a threatening question, the friend testified. "She said that her husband said, "â Why don't you just die?"' Mary Parks told jurors, her voice quivering as she delivered more of hearsay evidence that's at the heart of the state's case. Peterson, an ex-Bolingbrook police sergeant, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his third wife, 40-year-old Kathleen Savio, who once studied nursing with Parks.

STATE PARK-BODY FOUND: Authorities are investigating the death of a Fairview Heights man whose body was pulled from a lake at Frank Holten State Park.

DISMEMBERED BOY: New York City man showed no emotion as he pleaded guilty Thursday to charges he abducted and dismembered an 8-year-old boy.

ESCAPE-DEPUTY'S CAR: A Missouri county jail inmate was captured after taking off in a deputy's patrol vehicle.

MORGAN NICK-IDENTITY THEFT: A Missouri woman has pleaded not guilty in Arkansas to computer fraud after authorities say she attempted to steal the identity of a girl who vanished from an Arkansas ball field in 1995.

FORMER DEPUTY-PRISON: A former southern Illinois sheriff's deputy has been ordered to spend six months in federal prison for assisting her felon husband in possessing firearms he wasn't entitled to have.

NEGLECTED MOTHER: One of three siblings accused of neglecting their elderly mother to the point that her leg had to be amputated because of gangrene has been sentenced to three years in prison.

ST LOUIS-BUILDING JUMP: A 22-year-old man is dead after jumping from the eighth floor of a downtown St. Louis hotel.

DOG BEATING-SENTENCE: A Des Plaines man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to repeatedly striking and injuring his small pet dog.

SPORTS

U.S. GOLDEN AGAIN: The U.S. women's soccer team won its third straight Olympics gold medal on Thursday, getting revenge for its World Cup loss to Japan last year. However, the U.S. stars face an uncertain future when they return home since there is no pro league to play in any longer.

PGA FIELD ATTACKS KIAWAH: On a clam day at Kiawah Island, the PGA Championship field attacked the course and went low during Thursday's opening round.

BACK ON TRACK: The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs each earned wins on Thursday.