Saturday, March 22, 2014

Developer targets area surrounding Rockford’s Meijer for tax abatements - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

First Rockford Group will ask the Winnebago County Board this Thursday to abate the county’s portion of property taxes on 334,000 square feet of land near Perryville and Rote roads, site of the planned Rockford store. The deal would cost the county about $689,000 over the life of the five-year abatement.
First Rockford Group CEO Sunil Puri said the tax break would sweeten the pot for investors looking to set up shop near the superstore. And if businesses do come, the additional county sales tax revenue and new jobs would overshadow the loss of property tax dollars.
“Our job is to expedite these projects. We are trying to hook as many people as we can during 12 months of construction,” he said.

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Developer targets area surrounding Rockford’s Meijer for tax abatements - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

The Daily Northwestern : Evanston votes to abolish township

Joseph Diebold, Managing Editor
March 18, 2014 •

By a near two-to-one margin, city voters elected Tuesday to abolish Evanston Township.

With 44 of 53 precincts reporting, 63.23 percent of more than 7,500 voters had chosen to support the referendum to abolish the township.

The township, which has the same boundaries as the city of Evanston, provides tax advice to residents and general assistance to the needy. The referendum was subject to lengthy debate. Advocates argued it was not providing the necessary assistance and would save money if abolished, and opponents said the city is not prepared to absorb the township services.

Under Illinois law, all township services will be transferred to the municipal government. Two years ago, a similar ratio of voters elected to pursue dissolution in a nonbinding referendum.

Above is take from:  The Daily Northwestern : Evanston votes to abolish township

Doctor accused of sex assault on Des Plaines woman - chicagotribune.com

By Jonathan BullingtonTribune reporter

Charles S. Dehaan, 59, was arrested Friday morning at his home in Belvidere on charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, according to Des Plaines Police Department Cmdr. Randy Akin. He is expected to appear in bond court on Sunday.

Starting in January of 2009, Dehaan allegedly began making in-home monthly visits to a 59-year old Des Plaines woman recovering from surgery, police said. During the course of those medical examinations, Dehaan allegedly began to fondle the woman's breast and genital area, police said, and also exposed himself while exhibiting "evidence of sexual arousal."

His alleged actions continued through July of 2012, Akin said, but the patient’s medical condition prevented her from stopping them…..

Dehaan is also the subject of a federal indictment earlier this year on allegations of Medicare fraud, court documents show.

Read the entire story by clicking on the following:  Doctor accused of sex assault on Des Plaines woman - chicagotribune.com

Cigarette Taxes and Cigarette Smuggling by State | Tax Foundation

By Joseph Henchman, Scott Drenkard

New York is the highest net importer of smuggled cigarettes, totaling 56.9 percent of the total cigarette market in the state. New York also has the highest state cigarette tax ($4.35 per pack), not counting the local New York City cigarette tax (an additional $1.50 per pack). Smuggling in New York has risen sharply since 2006 (+59 percent), as has the tax rate (+190 percent).

Other peer-reviewed studies provide support for these findings.[2] Recently, a study in Tobacco Control examined littered packs of cigarettes in five northeast cities, finding that 58.7 percent of packs did not have proper local stamps. The authors estimated 30.5 to 42.1 percent of packs were trafficked.[3]

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Cigarette Taxes and Cigarette Smuggling by State | Tax Foundation

Residents tour animal shelter at dog chip event... - Belvidere Daily Republican(facebook)

 

Belvidere Daily Republican added 7 new photos.

March 20 at 2:38pm ·

Residents tour animal shelter at dog chip event

By Tricia Goecks
Editor

BELVIDERE – A converted vet’s clinic on Appleton is the current home of the Boone County Animal Services and Adoption Center. The BCAS sponsored a low cost micro chipping clinic and offered visitors with a rare glimpse of the cramped facilities.

Kris Toohey and Christy Spurlock from the Measuring Cup were on hand to sell baked goods outside of the shelter. The duo donated 50 percent of the proceeds to the BCAS.

“We want people to see the facility. Where the kennel is set up we have intake dogs with dogs who are waiting for a foster homes in the same ward so we cannot allow public entrance,” operations supervisor Roger Tresemer said. “If we have a new facility we will have a ward for intake dogs, an adoption ward for dogs as well as an intake ward for cats and an adoption ward for cats.”

Because of the tight space, the BCAS keeps new arrivals at the facility during a seven day incubation period. For dogs that are picked up as strays, BCAS staff posts the dog’s photo on their Facebook page with the hope of reuniting the dog with its humans. Approximately half of the time, the dog owners come in to retrieve their dog.

For the dogs that remain, many of the dogs are sent to live with 1 of 11 dog foster families. “The foster carer’s job is see what behaviors they have and to help them get healthy. We see if they have issues with children, housetraining, and we work on that,” BCAS volunteer Kathy Coil said.

Coil and her husband have fostered 24 dogs over the past 2 years and eyed a black and white Shih Tzu as her next foster dog. “He looks like he has been loved. Those little things get out,” Coil said.

Coil admitted that it she gets attached to the dogs that she fosters and cries when it is time to send her foster dogs to their new forever family. “I feel so bad for her,” Tresemer said. “Every single time she tears up.”

“I tried two different ways to foster them out. Sometimes I come in and meet the family and I find that is harder on me. I try to tell them about the dog and I find that I break down,” Coil added. “So I found now that I bring them in here before the new parents get her and then I just cry all the way home.”

“I don’t want them to feel like I am giving up my dog to them.”

“I was a foster failure that’s why I don’t do it,” Tresemer said. “I adopted them all.”

“You’re a softie,” Coil chided him.

Coil explained that among the benefits of the BCAS placing dogs with foster families. “These dogs are not living in the kennel,” Coil said. “And these people are trying like heck to make them adoptable.”

The love that the BCAS staff has for the animals in its care is obvious. Animal control officer Justin Unger slipped into the kennel with a pit bull mix that he picked up along the side of the road a week earlier. The dog leapt for joy into Unger’s arms as though they had been separated for eons.

One of the most tragic cases that the BCAS had was a newborn puppy who was found in a Wheaties box outside of the shelter’s front door. Someone had attempted to force open the puppy’s eyes which resulted in the dog losing its eyes. The puppy was named Wheatie and was adopted by a member of the BCAS staff.

Tresemer hoped that the shelter will be able to move into a larger facility. “We want a more efficient effective animal control program for the county,” Tresemer said. “Many board members have toured the board and come to the consensus that we need a new facility.”

The BCAS accepts monetary and product donations. Items that the BCAS needs are cotton balls, paper towels, canine shampoo, stainless steel water dishes, collars, treats, dog foods and bleach. The shelter is located at 1230 S. Appleton Road in Belvidere.

Residents tour animal shelter at dog chip event... - Belvidere Daily Republican

America must kill this fish | The Verge

By Arielle Duhaime-Ross

…the four Asian carp species in US waterways all have one thing in common: incredibly effective gills that can filter much smaller particles than the average native fish. So scientists at the USGS are trying to produce poison particles so small that only Asian carp pick them out of the water.

But small particles alone, which some other species can ingest, won't cut it for such a large and dispersed population of fish, so researchers are going one step further by putting the carp's unique digestive system to good use. "The particles are designed to be broken down, but only by the enzymes in the carp's gut," Chapman says. Other fish that might ingest the particles, such as largemouth bass or catfish, don't produce this enzyme, so they won't be affected. "And when carp break it down," he says, "they release the toxin and it causes them to die."….

"Carp eggs require a certain amount of drift in the water to survive," Chapman explains. "If the eggs settle to the bottom, it can have a lethal effect on the fish."

If researchers can build dams that only come up halfway to the water's surface, they might be able to interrupt the drift in the carp's favorite spawning locations. "….

Yet none of the current solutions are perfect, Irons says. And even if the methods in development turn out to be effective, "blocking the Chicago canal might still be necessary,"

 

 

Click on the following to read all of the story:  America must kill this fish | The Verge

Garden Prairie Organics Applies for Expansion (again)

 

Here is the notification to local officials.

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Here is the legal notice from the Boone County Journal, March 21, page 12 (http://www.boonecountyjournal.com/news/2014/Boone-County-News-03-21-14.pdf#page=1)

 

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In April 2013 Garden Prairie Organics was denied a similar request.    SEE:  http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2013/04/garden-prairie-organics-denied_30.html