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Page 2
L
Big Picture Lake County Focus
dai l yheral d. com dh Wednesday, August 5, 2009 11r137:rNo. 295r4475
Bv Russrtt Ltssnu
rlissau@dailyherald.com
Nearly $60 million in tax-
free loans could soon be avail-
able to Lake County busi-
nesses through the federal
stimulus program, ocials
said Tuesday.
e eort would allow new
and existing businesses to
borrow money for building-
related construction projects,
Lake County nance direc-
tor Gary Gordon said dur-
ing a public discussion of the
proposal.
e concept is part of the
stimulus plans recovery zone
program.
To qualify as a recovery
zone, a community must have
signicant poverty, unem-
ployment, foreclosure rates or
general distress, county o-
cials said.
Regions also could be
declared recovery zones if
theyre impacted by the clo-
sure or realignment of a mili-
tary base, or if they meet other
criteria.
Based on its estimated 9 per-
cent unemployment rate and
other factors, Gordon said, the
county qualies.
Businesses throughout the
Chicago area could be eligi-
ble for funding in their home
counties, too.
I assume all of the counties
in Illinois will make this desig-
nation, Gordon said.
For companies to get the
loans, the Lake County Board
rst must apply for recovery-
zone status. e boards health
and community services com-
mittee on Tuesday approved a
draft resolution that would do
just that.
e full board could vote on
the resolution at its next meet-
ing, Aug. 11 in Waukegan.
An estimated $15 billion is
set aside within the federal
stimulus plan for such recov-
ery-zone loans. It will be allo-
cated among states, counties
and large municipalities.
More than $1 billion could
be headed to Illinois, Gordon
said. Of that sum, Lake County
is set to receive about $59.6
million.
Other Chicago-area coun-
ties will need to be approved
Tax-free
loans
for area
retailers?
County qualies for
nearly $60 million
POKER
FACE
Bv Attssn GuorNtNcru
agroeninger@dailyherald.com
When Judy Gerber of Bar-
rington told her teenage son Alex
to get a job, she never imagined
hed create a Web site that now
boasts more than 70,000 users.
When she learned the site was
for gambling and purportedly
legal, well, that gave her pause
on both fronts.
e legal part sounded too
good to be true, she acknowl-
edged. But then again, she rea-
soned that it seemed quite
harmless compared to what
teenagers could be doing these
days in the summer.
Inspired by his own love of
cards and a similar Web site for
sports betting, Alex launched
his Internet poker enterprise last
summer.
e result, centpoker.com,
allows users to play poker online
S TE VE L UNDY/ sl undy@dai l yheral d. com
Seventeen-year-old Alex Gerber of Barrington is the architect of a poker Web
site that allows users to win money without betting any of their own.
Users of centpoker.com, created o] Alex 0eroer
of Barrington, pla] Texas Hold 'Em.
Each new pla]er is granted 1OO chips, worth
aoout 8 cents total, and uses those to place oets.
0nce a pla]er earns $1O, he or she can cash out
and keep that mone].
Pla]ers who lose all their chips are simpl] granted
1OO more.
All the mone] used for pa]outs comes from
advertising on the site. Alex works with PastTimer
Nedia, which helps startups fnd advertisers and
opportunities, and a 0oogle program provides him
with additional ads.
The site's current pot is aoout $2,OOO, with more
than $1,7OO cashed out to date.
The highest-paid pla]er has received just $144.
How centpoker.com works
A Barrington teenager enters the real world of work with his own
But some question
whether his gambling
Web site is too real
See POKER on PAGE 5
Bv Mtc Znwtstn
mzawislak@dailyherald.com
When the visitors rst began
spending winters in the little cot-
tage, the road out front was a
country lane.
at changed as decades passed
and Lake County began to ll with
new homes and trac. Yet cracks
and crevices in the cinder block
basement walls remained a per-
fect place during cold months
for a hearty colony of western fox
snakes.
Every fall, as many as 200 of
the nonpoisonous rodent-eaters
would emerge from marshes out
back, slither hundreds of yards up
the hill and lodge inside.
Safe and undisturbed with a
southern exposure, the basement
quarters were preferred by the
mild-mannered creatures over
the traditional woodchuck hole or
dead tree.
To them, this must have been
Camelot, said Mike Corn, the
Snakes can no longer live like kings
S TE VE L UNDY/ sl undy@dai l yheral d. com
College of Lake County biology Professor Mike
Corn sets a snake trap near a home in Lake
Villa that has been a hibernation destination for
fox snakes, like the one on the left.
But Lake County biologists plan to relocate them from their Camelot
See KINGS on PAGE 5
See LOANS on PAGE 6
Bv S1rvr Zntusv
szalusky@dailyherald.com
e family known as the
Bualo Grove village board
has grown increasingly
dysfunctional.
at much was clear at
Mondays meeting, when Vil-
lage President Elliott Hartstein
let Trustees Jerey Braiman
and Lisa Stone air their
dierences.
Braiman delivered a pre-
pared statement of around 12
pages, after which Stone deliv-
ered her rebuttal. ey spent
more time making their cases
than the board spent on actual
business in open session.
In the end, however, the
Cold War atmosphere that
has persisted between the two
erstwhile election rivals not
only failed to thaw, but grew
even frostier.
Stone even seemed to dis-
lodge Hartstein from his
peacemaking perch with
critical remarks about Vil-
lage Manager William Brimm
and Village Attorney William
Raysa.
e major bone of conten-
tion was Stones allegation
that e-mail communications
among village board mem-
bers violated the Open Meet-
ings Act. A major part of the
discussion revolved around
213 documents that were
missing from the response to
Freedom of Information Act
requests by a resident and a
Chicago newspaper.
Braiman said Monday that
Stone left him no choice but
to clarify the record after her
unwarranted and slander-
ous attacks against him and
Inghting continues in Buffalo Grove
See FIGHTING on PAGE 6
Bv JrnN H. Lrr
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea Former President
Bill Clinton brought two freed U.S. journalists
out of North Korea early today following rare
talks with reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, who
pardoned the women sentenced to hard labor
for entering the country illegally.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling were heading
back to the U.S. with Clinton,
his spokesman Matt McKenna
said, less than 24 hours after
the former U.S. leader landed
in the North Korean capital on
a private, humanitarian trip to
secure their release.
e women, dressed in
short-sleeved shirts and jeans,
appeared healthy as they
climbed the steps to the plane
and shook hands with Clinton
before getting into the jet, APTN
footage in Pyongyang showed.
Clinton waved, put his hand
over his heart and then saluted.
North Korean ocials waved
as the plane took o. McKenna
said the ight was bound for
Los Angeles, where the journal-
ists will be reunited with their
families. e White House had no comment.
eir departure was a jubilant conclusion to
a more than four-month ordeal for the women
arrested near the North Korean-Chinese bor-
der in March while on a reporting trip for Cur-
rent TV, the media venture founded by former
Vice President Al Gore. ey were sentenced
in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry
Long
ordeal
ended
Clinton leaves N. Korea
with freed U.S. journalists
Euna Lee
Laura Ling
See FREED on PAGE 8
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