Courier News

Trial of Cardamone’s mother is a strange case indeed

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:25:51 -0500

For most of us average taxpaying citizens, stepping into a witness box to face prosecutors who want to nail you with a forgery conviction would be an intimidating, terrifying experience. Now imagine having to testify to your innocence while breathing through an oxygen tube, just days after getting a blood transfusion so you would have the energy to climb from your wheelchair into that witness box. But Linda Lynch is not your ordinary citizen. By now, more than a decade after being drawn into the legal system when her son Michael Cardamone was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing students at …

It will take whole community to beat the scourge of heroin

Fri, 24 May 2013 06:22:43 -0500

When Robin, struggling to conceive, found out she was pregnant that Christmas Eve of 1990, she dubbed this child later named Matt as “my miracle baby.” It was a story she shared with Aurora Beacon-News readers — mother and son were even pictured on the front page — in the Christmas Memories edition a few years after Matt’s birth. That was back in 1995 — years before he took his first hit of heroin and turned into a hard-core addict. The Oswego mom still calls Matt her miracle child. After all, he has survived three drug overdoses. The latest near-death …

Cross: Tougher laws needed to protect our kids

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 06:22:45 -0500

State Republicans have declared it’s time to take off the kid gloves. House Republican Leader Tom Cross, a Fox Valley representative from Oswego, was part of a group that recently introduced new legislation it believes will help keep children safer from shootings that have grabbed national headlines and placed yet another black eye on the state of Illinois. “We need to constantly be working on and setting policies in Springfield that protect the next generation,” Cross said of the “Protect Our Children” initiative that focuses on gang violence and prevention, as well as conflict resolution education. After reviewing the proposal, …

Stored cremains also an issue at private funeral homes in Fox Valley

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:44:36 -0500

Unclaimed cremains are not unique to a coroner’s office. The owners of several local mortuaries say they have close to the same number of ashes in storage as Kane County. Despite the fact all fees have been paid, “It can be a challenge” finding families or getting them to pick up the remains, said Robert Healy, president of Healy Chapel, with locations in Aurora and Sugar Grove. Some containers of ashes go back as far as the 1940s. Peter Daleiden, of Daleiden Mortuary in Aurora, said there are times families even hold funeral services but never come back to get …

Baldness to be sign of sister’s lasting love

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 06:42:39 -0500

Phoebe Pruneda already has given considerable thought to what her hair is going to look like for the prom in May. It will be short. Really short. Like peach fuzz short. Buzz-cut short. That’s because the 16-year-old sophomore at East Aurora High School plans to shear all her long dark locks at the St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser March 9 at the Marriott Chicago hotel in Naperville. Phoebe is following a tradition set by her father Joe and big brother Dakota, who have shaved their heads for the Naperville public service project for the past seven years in memory of the …

Local NAMI in the trenches of mental illness treatment reform, awareness

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 07:17:51 -0500

When Laurie Huske was in crisis five years ago, struggling to deal with a loved one diagnosed with bipolar disorder and addictions brought on by his disease, she turned to the NAMI North Kane County chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. The group, founded in 1987 by four mothers who met in the basement of Sherman Hospital in Elgin, became her godsend, her life support — and eventually, she became its president. And more than anything, as the debate continues on how better mental health support figures into the gun violence debate, she wants people to know …

Are adoption rules sheltering too many strays from good homes?

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:34:28 -0500

After acquiring two pets — a mutt and a cat — from a DeKalb shelter over a span of seven years, I figured I had this whole adoption thing pretty much figured out. Go in, pay a fee and take home the newest member of the family. That’s why I was surprised when my daughter fell in love with another kitten at Aurora Animal Control — at barely 2 pounds, Kobe was the runt of a litter born under a porch — and we were told every member of the household had to come in to visit the cat before …

Local agencies struggle to keep up with state’s rising poverty rate

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:19:52 -0500

A few years ago, folks at the Salvation Army in Elgin had a problem. The people coming in to use the thrift store couldn’t even afford the pittance being charged for the used items sold there. “That’s when we went to an Emergency Clothing Closet,” said case manager Lisa Ayala, where clients could pick up two sets of clothing for each person in the family at no cost. That program change is only one anecdotal bit of evidence echoing an alarming new report that the state’s poverty rate has peaked to where one out of three Illinoisans now live in …

Chance encounter lifts survivor’s guilt from WWII vet

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:30:01 -0500

Ken Udstad insists this story not be about him. He’s got a great tale to share, as do most of those old vets still around to reminisce about World War II. But a compelling part of his narrative — his desire to return the Japanese flag he took from the body of a young enemy soldier on this island of Tinian — has already been told on these pages by another writer years ago. That Storyteller chronicled how Udstad, during a reconnaissance mission as part of Co. B of the Fourth Tank Battalion of the Fourth Marine Division, took this …

New church’s benefactor shared riches beyond wealth

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 06:52:42 -0500

In both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the number 12 has significant meaning. It symbolizes completion, as in the 12 tribes of Israel; Jesus’ 12 apostles; the 12 nights of Christmas leading up to the Epiphany; the 12 broken breads at the Last Supper. So it seemed only fitting that Anthony Rich would pass from this earthly world shortly after 12 noon on 12-12-12. The Sugar Grove resident, who built a communication systems empire, had certainly attained tremendous success in the business world throughout his almost 96 years of life. But when he died on Dec. 12, …

Home for holidays special blessing for wounded warriors

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:39:44 -0500

Home for the holidays has taken on special meaning for two local families this year. It means their sons, Army Pvt. First Class Nathan Knutson from Newark and Marine LCpl. Kyle Moser from Oswego — both Purple Heart recipients and still recuperating from serious wounds they received in Afghanistan — will be gathered around the trees in their Fox Valley homes to celebrate with loved ones. And no matter how “strained and drained” this past year has been, says Moser’s mother Pat Zander, this holiday homecoming is “truly a gift.” Kyle Moser was 19 when he lost both his legs …

Two moms: Two different killers put away

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 06:27:26 -0500

Garnett Bailey’s daughter and Karen Dobner’s son died 30 years apart and from two totally different kinds of killers, but both moms had suspicions early on where to put the blame. And this year, their tenacity went a long way in making sure both killers will do no harm again. Larry Galloway is behind bars after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in April, hours before he was to go on trial for murdering Bailey’s 20-year-old daughter Cheryl Lynn Hall back in 1981. And synthetic marijuana, which Karen Dobner’s 19-year-old son Max had purchased legally and smoked before dying in a …

Some neighbors see red over ‘disturbing’ reindeer display

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:15:58 -0500

Mike and Yvonne Hammond may not have the most spectacular holiday decorations in their Century Hills subdivision, but the Naperville couple can certainly lay claim to the most controversial. That’s because, in addition to some sparkling but run-of-the-mill Christmas lights, their home on Cape Road also features a rather unique reindeer display. “Don’t call him Rudolph,” the family insists, because there is no red nose in sight. But there is plenty of red. And that’s where the controversy comes in. You see, the lighted reindeer is hanging upside down from a tree, with strings of crimson-colored bulbs streaming from his …

After writing about shipwreck, WWII vet ‘became more vulnerable’

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:48:57 -0500

Every time I read the obituary of a World War II veteran — whether I knew him or not — I can’t help but feel a sense of melancholy as our country loses yet one more member of this Greatest Generation. Read the obit on Elmer Renner and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. But the passing of this 92-year-old Aurora veteran was especially sad for me because, after writing stories about him over the past 17 years, I couldn’t help but develop a personal relationship with this remarkable man. If you knew Elmer, you would understand why. I first …

Trial to begin on birthday of murdered NIU student — ‘family is devastated’

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:22:21 -0500

It was the second time in three months I spoke to Toni Keller’s grandmother. And for the second time, I heard the heartbreak in 72-year-old Joan Knable’s voice. Another postponement. Another delay until the trial begins for the man accused of killing her beloved granddaughter, a graduate of Naperville’s Neuqua Valley High School who was a freshman at Northern Illinois University when she was murdered more than two years ago. Only this postponement is more devastating for the family because the trial, which had been scheduled to begin Dec. 3, has been moved to Jan. 14 — what would have …