The City of DeKalb late this afternoon released the names of those who expressed interest in or were referred or suggested to fill the open 3rd Ward aldermanic seat. This, of course, only after the state told the city to do so.

Those who expressed interest were: Sarah Cliffe, Jeff Latimer, Mac McIntyre, John Newquist, Ata Shakir, Kay Shelton, Darrel Tribel, Jim Schneider, and Pam Verbic, who was appointed to the seat.

Those referred by someone else were: Roger Johnson, Tom May, and Jeff Wahlen.

Those suggested by others: Sylvia Fuentes, Jessica Lyons, Emily Prieto, Margo Sutorius, and Dana York.

The city – on its own – also released the names of the three people who came forward in regard to the 7th Ward opening. They were: Eric Calmeyer, Lisa Kammes, Austin Quick, and Monica Sanders-O'Leary. Kammes was appointed to the seat.

UPDATE: Full story is here.

The Daily Chronicle won 22 awards in the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association Editorial Excellence contest, including seven first-place honors.

Daily Chronicle photographer Beck Diefenbach took first place in four photo categories – Features, General News, Portrait, and Sports Action. Diefenbach swept the Portrait category by also winning second and third place. He also finished third in Sports Action and Features.

Photographer Rob Winner finished first and third in the Sports Feature category. He also finished second in Sports Action and third in General News.

The Daily Chronicle's other first-place awards included sportswriter John Sahly in Sports Columns and Daily-Chronicle.com in Web Site. Sahly also finished third in Sports Features.

News Editor Kate Schott received two second-place awards – in Deadline News and Entertainment.

Sports Editor Jon Styf received three honors – second place in Sports Columns and Sports Features, and third place in Sports News.

Reporter John Puterbaugh won third place in Entertainment.

The Daily Chronicle took second place in general excellence, finishing behind the Courier-News in Elgin.

The Daily Chronicle competed in Division C of the contest, which was for newspapers with a circulation of 15,000 and under. The awards will be presented at the Illinois Press Association/Illinois Associated Press Editors Association annual meeting April 29 in Springfield.

The Daily Chronicle's Sports section made history this week at the Associated Press Sports Editors' contest judging in Kissimmee, Fla.

The section was named one of the 10 best Sports sections in the country for papers with a circulation under 20,000. Our prep football preview section also was named one of the 10 best special sections in the country for papers under 20,000 in circulation.

The two section awards are believed to be the first in Daily Chronicle history. You might recall that APSE in December named Daily-Chronicle.com / HuskieWire.com one of the 10 best sports Web sites in the country for sites with under 1 million unique visitors.

On top of that, Daily Chronicle Sports Editor Jon Styf and Sportswriter John Sahly were named top 10 columnists nationally for newspapers with circulation under 40,000. A winner in that contest will named at a later date.

Kudos to Styf and his staff for these accomplishments.

I wanted to address some ridiculous comments and observations made by story-commenters regarding the Ivan Krpan story.

Let me make this as clear as possible: The Daily Chronicle does not make editorial decisions – in print or online – based on advertisers. Let me repeat: Advertising does not affect editorial decisions at the Daily Chronicle.

Now I know that will disappoint some of you conspiracy theorists out there who like to bring it up three or four times a week. But it's just not true.

The latest round of speculation has surfaced in the wake of developer Ivan Krpan's theft charge. Krpan is well-known in the community and is an outspoken person in the Daily-Chronicle.com story-commenter community.

The reason you can't comment on the story reporting Krpan's theft charge can be found in our rules for commenting, which state:

"Comments will not be allowed on local stories involving crimes or fatalities immediately after a crime or fatality occurs. Comments may be allowed on these stories as the case proceeds to court, but we reserve the right to suspend commenting on any story if there is abuse of our terms of service."

It is as simple as that. This rule was put into place because the debate and opinons expressed on these kinds of stories are not constructive 99 percent of time.

And because of the rule that states off-topic comments are not allowed, any Krpan-related comments left on other stories will be taken down.

I appreciate the fact that readers view Daily-Chronicle.com as a place to come and share their opinions, but we have rules in place to officiate that outlet.

And we have to follow the rules, even when an outspoken, well-known developer is charged with a crime.

While the possible county landfill expansion and its Monday public hearing have dominated public discussion, it appears an interesting tidbit regarding the county's efforts to expand and renovate the jail and courthouse has slipped through the cracks.

At its Feb. 17 meeting, the DeKalb County Board – by a 22-1 vote – authorized a bond issuance of $45 million to finance expansions to the county courthouse and jail.

At that time, we reported that a public hearing at the March county board meeting and that the board passing another resolution to instruct administrators to sell the bonds were the next steps in the process.

Some have accused the county of ignoring the voters, who have rejected jail expansion through referendums in the past, by pushing forward with the project anyway and finding a way to sidestep the referendum process.

A little birdy, however, pointed me to the actual bond issuance ordinance and instructed me to take a look Section 6. It reads:

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Section 6. Publication. This ordinance shall be published in the “Daily Chronicle,” a newspaper of general circulation in the County. The publication of this ordinance shall be accompanied by the publication of the notice required by Section 15 of the Local Government Debt Reform Act.

For a period of 30 days after such publication, a petition may be filed with the County Clerk signed by electors numbering the greater of (i) 7.5% of the registered voters in the County or (ii) 200 of those registered voters or 15% of those registered voters, which ever is less, asking that the issuance of the Bonds be submitted to referendum.  If no petition is filed within such 30 day period, then the Bonds shall be authorized to be issued.

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So, if enough signatures are collected, voters can force this bond issuance to referendum.

Our story on the petition is here.

We received word today that the Public Access Counselor in Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office is asking Northern Illinois University for a response to our Request for Review related to NIU's denial of information we are seeking.

You will recall that a review panel commissioned by NIU cleared NIU Police Chief Don Grady of wrongdoing in December. Last month, we asked the university, among other things, for a list of who the panel interviewed, the testimony of those witnesses, and the statements about Grady that were submitted to the panel.

NIU provided us the panel members' hiring forms and two days' worth of interview schedules, which were blank.

The university cited the exemption that allows records in the possession of any public body created in the course of administrative enforcement proceedings to be withheld, particularly because providing us the list would unavoidably disclose the identity of a confidential source, confidential information furnished only by the confidential source, or persons who file complaints with or provide information to administrative, investigative, law enforcement, or penal agencies.

Of course, there was not a court reporter present during the panel's questioning of witnesses – or, at least, that's what an NIU spokeswoman told us – so, in theory, there is no testimony to provide us. Makes you wonder what the university would have done had the panel found Grady guilty of wrongdoing. There would have been no record of testimony supporting that finding.

Anyway, we had the right to "appeal" or ask the AG's office for a review of NIU's denial. Today's letter says the office has "determined that further inquiry into the matter is warranted," and it has "asked the University to provide a response to [our] Request for Review to allow us to further evaluate the University's denial of [our] request."

All this relates to an editorial in the Northern Star that accused Grady of threatening an editor – Justin Weaver – and laid out a laundry list of concerns regarding Grady's performance as police cheif.

Some of you have asked before why we haven't pursued or reported Weaver's thoughts on the panel's report. We have asked to speak with Weaver and he has declined to speak. We will try again.

It is true. DeKalb County Administrator Ray Bockman sent out an e-mail Friday, essentially placing a gag order on County Board members regarding the proposed landfill extension.

Bockman has told us there are legal reasons behind the e-mail and that DeKalb County State's Attorney John Farrell can explain those reasons. We are awaiting a call back from Farrell. A complete story is forthcoming.

Meanwhile, Bockman's e-mail is below:

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From: Bockman, Ray 
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 4:10 PM
To: Andersen, Kenneth ; Anderson, Larry A.; Chambliss, Kevin; DeFauw, Sally; Dubin, Eileen ; Emerson, John; Fauci, Julia; Gudmunson, John; Haines, Michael; Hulseberg, John ; marlenedallen@*********.com; Metzger, Jeffery L.; newport, Scott; Oncken; Pat LaVigne; Stoddard, Paul ; Stuckert Sr., Michael  ; Tobias, Ruth Anne; Tobias, Ruth Anne; Todd, Mark; Turner, Anita J.; Vary, Patricia; Walt, Steve
Cc: Supple, Mary; Farrell, John
Subject: Landfill Applications - Discussion
 
 
Unlike the windfarm, the hearing process for the landfill expansion forbids not only any contact with the applicant (Waste Mgt) but also with any other interested parties.  Whether they are for or against the application, whether they are your constituents or not contact with them is prohibited.
If you are contacted by anyone regarding this matter please tell them that you may not discuss it until after the County Board has voted on it.  You are to rely on the record created through the hearing process and upon evidence introduced at that hearing only in making your decision.
Complaints and/or questions should be referred to the DeKalb County States Attorney - you can funnel them to me or go directly to the SA.
 
Mary please be sure the other board members get this notice

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3:20 p.m. UPDATE: We now have a story on the landfill e-mail and the reason behind Bockman's e-mail. Read it here: County board advised to keep silent about landfill

Northern Illinois University held a news conference this morning regarding the early-morning shooting on campus. What was missing? Any kind of law enforcement presence.

NIU President John Peters was front and center to provide the details surrounding the shooting, which involved one student shooting another student in the leg around 3:30 a.m. outside Stevenson North.

But nobody from the NIU Police Department was at the news conference to speak about the incident. I can't be the only one who finds this bizarre. Am I?

The school held a news conference to talk about a shooting on campus in which the suspect was apprehended by NIU Police, and that same NIU Police Department is leading the investigation. Yet nobody from that department was on hand to answer questions. Really?

NIU spokesman Brad Hoey told Daily Chronicle News Editor Kate Schott that NIU Police Chief Donald Grady wasn't in attendance because he was leading the investigation. OK, fine. How about another representative from the department?

You can read the latest regarding the shooting here.

The University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Foundation today released what is thought to be the first set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in the U.S.

Where does DeKalb County rank? The county comes in 27th out of 101 ranked Illinois counties.

According to the report's Web site, researchers used five measures to assess the level of overall health – or "health outcomes": the rate of people dying before age 75; the percentage of people who reported being in fair or poor health; the number of days people reported being in poor physical health; number of days in poor mental health; and the rate of low-birth weight infants.

DeKalb County ranked 13th in mortality, 58th in morbidity, 12th in health behaviors, 84th in clinical care, 10th in social and economic factors, and 40th in physical environment.

The results for those counties bordering DeKalb County were a mixed bag. Kendall County came in as the healthiest county in Illinois, while McHenry County ranked 5th, Kane County was 11th, Ogle County was 24th, Boone County was 29th, Lee County was 41st, and LaSalle County was 80th. Winnebago County checked in at 77th.

Hardin County was ranked last, and Pope County was not ranked at all.

You can check out DeKalb County's snapshot here.

As a former sports editor, I feel safe in speaking for a majority of sports editors when I say: I hate the Olympics.

Now, please don't misunderstand me. I don't hate what the Olympics are about. I hate what the Olympics do to the newspaper.

Granted, the Internet has made it easier to provide Olympics coverage. The Internet is 24/7. It knows no deadlines or space restrictions. The print product? Not so much, and this can be especially challenging when the Games are being held three time zones away.

So, sports editors dislike the Olympics for time, space and resource reasons. That will be our little secret. Please don't share it with the world.

As I have discovered with many sports, I have been able to become a fan and get more excited about certain sports the further I get from that part of my career. Now, there are certain parts of the Olympics that I look forward to and get genuinely excited about.

For the Winter Olympics, that's men's hockey and curling. I don't know what it is about curling, but I got hooked watching it four years ago during the Olympics, and I'm charged for the curling competition in Vancouver to start Tuesday. Go ahead and take your shots at me. I can take it.

How about you? Are you excited about any particular event or sports in these Winter Olympics?