I still haven't found Jerry Crundwell, the former husband of Rita Crundwell, accused of misappropriating millions of dollars from the city of Dixon.
But recently, Greg Crundwell, Jerry's son, returned my message.
I found Greg because a reader told me that he had found information on ancestry.com that indicated Greg was Jerry's son from another relationship. I found Greg's Facebook page and learned that he was a driver for a Salem, Ill., trucking company.
Like father, like son. Jerry, we believe, also was a truck driver.
Greg was irritated that I had called his workplace. I told him we were trying to find any information we could about Rita Crundwell's life. After all, thousands of people in Dixon are interested, not to mention those elsewhere in the Sauk Valley.
He said he let his father know that I wanted to speak with him. He said he didn't know whether Jerry would call.
"What he chooses to do is his business," he said. "If he wants to talk with you, he can."
As for Rita Crundwell, the former Dixon comptroller, Jerry said, "She's not a Crundwell. She was married to a Crundwell. That's in the past."
Greg said he had been following the developments on Rita Crundwell's case online.
"I'm sorry this happened to the people of Dixon, but there's no connection to us," he said.
I asked him which state his father lived in. He declined to say.
Our call only lasted a couple of minutes.
We have little information about Jerry Crundwell.
We know that Rita Humphrey married Jerry Crundwell in 1974. Their marriage announcement identified him as being an engineer with a firm that now has offices in Decatur, Rockford and Chicago.
Some readers have said that he was actually a surveyor, not an engineer, for the Interstate 88 project in the 1970s.
Others say they know for sure that Jerry later was a truck driver. In 1990, he got a ticket for an overweight violation in Lee County, indicating he was driving a big rig.
Some readers also have told me that Jerry was known as Walt. My interview with Greg wasn't long enough to ask about his father's name.
The Crundwells divorced in 1987.
Sauk Valley Media reporter David Giuliani covers the Whiteside and Lee county governments, Morrison and other smaller communities. He can be reached at dgiuliani@saukvalley or at 800-798-4085, ext. 525.
Sometimes I can predict the outcome of governing bodies' votes.
Other times, I'm wildly off. That was the case with the Lee County Board's recent 18-4 vote against a proposed wind energy ordinance.
I thought the vote would have been closer.
It came after a year and half's work by the Zoning Board of Appeals.
The new ordinance would have been much more restrictive of wind turbines than the existing one. The proposed rules included longer setbacks, more studies on the effects of shadow flicker and noise, requirements to take down turbines after they're no longer operating and a program to protect the property values of nearby landowners.
During the drafting, no one argued that the current ordinance was sufficient. Even wind farm proponents didn't disagree that more regulations were needed.
So what happens now?
Now, the zoning board will conduct hearings on Mainstream Renewable Power's plan for 60 turbines in the southwestern part of the county. The County Board will have the final say.
Mainstream said its plan largely followed the proposed ordinance. That's smart politics. After all, the zoning board drafted the new rules.
But what happens after that?
That's hard to say. Since the board's decision, no one has come forward publicly to lobby the county to revisit the issue.
Opponents of wind farms wanted even stricter amendments to the proposed ordinance. But at least one County Board member, John Nicholson, R-Franklin Grove, said he voted against the ordinance because he didn't want to give the anti-wind energy forces a chance to amend it.
Did the opponents overplay their hand? Possibly. They are now left with the much weaker existing ordinance.
Sauk Valley Media reporter David Giuliani covers the Whiteside and Lee county governments, Morrison and other smaller communities. He can be reached at dgiuliani@saukvalley or at 800-798-4085, ext. 525.
We are trying to get all of the information we can on Rita Crundwell, the former Dixon city comptroller accused of misappropriating millions in city funds.
And we're finding what we can on those close to her.
In a recent item, I wrote that her former husband, Jerry Crundwell, is a mystery man.
He's becoming less of one, thanks to tips from readers.
In 1987, Rita Crundwell filed for divorce against her husband, who, she told the court, had moved to Salem months before. She got to keep their house and Oldsmobile. He got the pickup truck.
Their 1974 marriage announcement identified him as being an engineer with a firm that now has offices in Decatur, Rockford and Chicago.
I spoke with an engineer who has been with that firm since 1982, and he said he knew no one by the name of Crundwell.
One reader called to tell me that Crundwell had left engineering and became a truck driver.
Another reader said Jerry Crundwell's name shows up in online court records. Admittedly, I should have checked there in the first place.
In 1990, Crundwell got a ticket for an overweight vehicle violation in Lee County, indicating he was a truck driver. In 2000, he was cited for disregarding a traffic light in Whiteside County.
Ogle County records indicated he got a ticket there in 1994, but it appeared as if authorities didn't follow through on it.
His birthday is Feb. 10, 1940, according to the records. At 72, he is probably now retired.
I also looked at the records in Marion County, where Salem is. Other Crundwells are listed, but not Jerry. So he likely kept his nose clean in his hometown, where he graduated high school in 1958.
His brother died in Florida in February, and Jerry Crundwell was listed as one of the survivors in the obituary.
But we still don't know where Jerry Crundwell lives. Do you?
Sauk Valley Media reporter David Giuliani covers the Whiteside and Lee county governments, Morrison and other smaller communities. He can be reached at dgiuliani@saukvalley or at 800-798-4085, ext. 525.
Last June, Jessica Russie, 28, and Mary Dunaway, 26, walked into the Whiteside County clerk's office and applied for a civil union license.
Such a license gives gay and lesbian couples many of the rights that accompany traditional marriage.
Russie and Dunaway were the first couple to seek such a license in Whiteside County. It was not long after civil unions became legal in Illinois.
The reaction of the local public to this development – muted.
Not long before, the Whiteside and Lee county boards unanimously approved proposals to set the same fees for civil unions as marriages.
Not one member of either board publicly expressed discomfort with the idea of civil unions.
Last week, President Barack Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage. Depending on your political leanings, you probably consider the president's stand either opportunistic or principled. Whatever the case, it's a sign that society is shifting.
Why?
It's very simple: People are born every day, and people die every day.
Younger people are much more accepting of gays and lesbians. They grew up with "Will and Grace." The older people are, the more likely they are to oppose same-sex marriage. Polls bear this out.
This life cycle also affects other issues – legalized marijuana comes to mind. Younger people are much more open to the idea.
Even in the newspaper business, the life cycle is having a profound effect. When you see an older person in an obituary, you can bet that the person was likely a newspaper subscriber. Their younger families members probably are not.
In Illinois, the gay and lesbian community pushed for civil unions. Now, their goal is marriage. Gov. Pat Quinn made clear last week he agrees.
When I interviewed Dunaway, she said she wanted civil unions because they are better than being second-class citizens.
"It's not as good as marriage, but it's a step in the right direction," she said.
The question: When will the next step happen?
Sauk Valley Media reporter David Giuliani covers the Whiteside and Lee county governments, Morrison and other smaller communities. He can be reached at dgiuliani@saukvalley or at 800-798-4085, ext. 525.
On April 10, we ran a letter by Katie Rosenthal of Sterling.
In it, she wrote that she had supported Greg Aguilar, a candidate in the March 20 Democratic primary in the 17th Congressional District. But she opposed the winner, Cheri Bustos, a former East Moline alderwoman.
As such, Rosenthal threw her support behind someone on the other side of the political spectrum, Rep. Bobby Schilling, the Republican candidate and tea party favorite.
In her letter, she spoke in language that seemed to come straight from a political operative.
"Alderwoman Bustos never saw a tax increase or fee hike she didn't like," Rosenthal wrote. "In fact, she voted for all of them, costing hard-working East Moline families thousands of dollars while costing the city of East Moline millions of dollars in lost economic development."
A few days after her letter appeared, I traveled to Moline and picked up a copy of that town's newspaper, The Dispatch.
On the opinion page, the same letter appeared. This time, her information stated she was a Rock Island resident.
Wait a minute! How could she live in both places?
When I returned, I got Rosenthal's phone number from our opinion page editor and called the writer.
A woman with a younger-sounding voice answered. When she found out I was from the newspaper, she quickly hung up.
Busted.
When I called again, I got voicemail. The woman announced herself as Caitlyn, not Katie.
I contacted other newspapers in the congressional district and found that she also submitted letters to the Peoria Journal Star and the Rockford Register Star. In Rockford, she gave the paper a Loves Park address.
Those newspapers didn't run the letter.
I found out from The Dispatch that Rosenthal listed an address at Augustana College in Rock Island.
In January, Rosenthal, listing Rock Island as her residence, wrote a letter to the Quad-City Times, announcing her support for Aguilar and criticizing Bustos in the process.
Were these letters the result of a Schilling campaign worried about facing Bustos?
The campaign said it didn't know who wrote the letters.
Sauk Valley Media verifies all letters, but no system is perfect.
One thing is for sure: You won't be seeing any more letters by "Katie Rosenthal" in our publications.
Sauk Valley Media reporter David Giuliani covers the Whiteside and Lee county governments, Morrison and other smaller communities. He can be reached at dgiuliani@saukvalley or at 800-798-4085, ext. 525.
