Daily Herald (Newspaper) - April 15, 2004, Chicago, Illinois Suburban Living Who Donald ptek Ted Coxs thoughts plus firing facts Big Picture Northwest Focus Sports Praise tar new CeM from our columnists Thursday April 15 2004 PADDOCK PUBLICATIONS No NS 500 Dist 15 asked to spare art music 150 turn out to protest potential budget cuts BY CHAD BROOKS Daily Herald Staff Writer More than 150 parents and students packed Walter Sundling Junior High on Wednesday night to express concerns over potential budget cuts in Palatine Township Ele mentary District 15 The school board was pre sented with a list of million in budget cuts for the 20052006 school year that will need to be enacted if the community decides not to support a tax increase referendum in the upcoming November elections Included in the list of poten tial cuts is the cutting of 63 teachers as well as reducing the special education budget The item that drew the most response from parents and stu dents however was the possible complete elimination of the districts band and orchestra programs reducing the entire music and art pro grams by half Parents teachers and stu dents pleaded with the board to consider other options Music teacher Linda Sullivan said tests show that students who participate in music achieve higher overall test scores Music and the arts are an integral part of life and they are not just extras Sullivan said A complete elimination of the program is not acceptable Donna Werling a Fremd High School senior attended the meeting with several other members of the Fremd music program to let board member know that they would not be the students they are today what they learned in Distric 15s music programs School would be nowhere near the positive place it is today if music programs are eliminated Werling said Parent Kathy Wilkinson said seeing the high school students show their support shows jus how important the issue is Even the students realize thi importance of the program and the benefits they can Illinois malpractice insurance costs are becoming a burden for many physicians DAVE Dr Roop Shivpuri retired early from her Elgin obstetrics practice because of the cost of medical malpractice insurance When doctors cant afford to practice BY SARA BURNETT Daily Herald Staff Writer Some of Dr Roop patients cried when they learned she wouldnt be able to deliver their babies An Elgin for 24 years Shivpuri delivered an estimated 10000 babies during her career including many of her patients previous children and a few of the women themselves But at least 10 years short of her planned retirement the 58yearold decided in December to quit her obstetrics and refer all of her pregnant patients to two area doctors The decision was both a financial force of hand and a kind of protest brought on by medical malpractice insurance premiums that jumped 55 percent in just one year Shiv puri said Do I miss delivering Absolutely Thats the fun part of the field Shivpuri said But I was forced to do this it wasnt my See DOCTORS on PAGE 11 US years behind in terror war CIA leader warns commission WASHINGTON Enormous intelligence and law enforce ment gaps that contributed to the Sept 11 attacks are being filled but it will take years more for America to build the needed systems to effectively combat terrorists the heads of the FBI and CIA said Wednesday CIA Director George Tenet and FBI Director Robert Mueller went before the commission investigating the 2001 hijack ings after the panels staff released statements harshly criticizing the CIA for failing to fully appreciate the threat posed by prior to Sept 11 and questioning die efforts It was a damning report of a George Tenet Page 9 soldiers Iraq tours being extended past one year mark system mats broken that does nt function said commission member John Lehman a former Navy secretary referring to flaws found in the intelligence system Tenet making his second appearance before the commis sion in three weeks said in the 1990s the CIA lost 25 percent of its personnel was not hiring new analysts and faced disarray in its training of clandestine officers who work overseas to Sue PANEL on PAGE 9 How to get the most from your tax refund Science Monitor WASHINGTON Caroline Nielson already knows what shes doing with her federal income tax refund Nielson an Amtrak employee is using her refund check to pay for a dream trip with her sister to Paris this summer If youre like Nielson and the majority of Americas 130 mil lion taxpayers a refund check from the Internal Revenue Ser vice should soon be arriving in your mailbox And this year you should be getting a little extra money back from Uncle Sam Early refund statistics show the average refund is up or 45 percent from last year to Historically about 77 percent of taxpayers get refunds And many of them treat the windfall as found money Theres a natural urge to want to just go out and blow it Page 10 Only four suburban post offices will be open until midnight tonight all but I think people also have to think of to make that refund money work for says Steven Street an accoun tant with Ross Moncure in Alexandria Va Paying off debt The decision about what to do with that refund check depends upon your individual financial position But some recent research appears to indicate most Ameri cans are not just going out and buying TVs Of See TAX on PAGE 10 Serving in Mideast fuels passion of Elk Grove pilot MARK HERALD FILE PHOTO Air Force 1 st Lt Gina Stramaglio of Elk Grove Village is one of a dozen women in the 350th Air Refueling Squadron based in Kansas BY AMES BOYKIN Daily Herald Staff Writer Something ignited in Gina Stra maglio on a trip to the Nazi concentration camps haunted by the horrific memories of the millions killed behind their walls A Loyola University student trav eling to Europe for a class about World War II the Elk Grove Village woman returned home to tell her mom she had decided against med ical school Learning about the US soldiers who liberated Holocaust survivors from their murderous captors changed her course Stramaglio had a new passion She said I want to preserve what these men and women fought and died said her mom Karen Stra maglio She applied to join the US Air Force after graduation and began her service in October 2001 just one month after terrorists declared war on America I always loved to fly and I just wanted to serve my country said 29yearold 1st Lt Gina Stramaglio And I thought that was die best way to combine the two Stramaglio who stopped at home this week to visit her friends and family before she is deployed to die Middle East has watched the sive images of the war in Iraq from miles as we all have But unlike most of us she hears the voices of those fighting in the e mails she receives from her Air Force colleagues serving north of Iraq where headlines have screamed of violence and insur gence in recent weeks It was there that four American civilian contractors were killed and mutilated March 31 In the first weeks of April at least Sec MIDEAST on PAGE 11 Weather Ah now this is spring High of 70 and sunny Fast Track Classified Illinois Best Newspaper Local Focus Vouching for reincarnation Well former Arling ton Heights trustee Ralph Clarbour is skeptical but hell appear on ABCs Primetime Thurs day to tell what he saw of a World WarH air battle that a Louisiana boy is said to be dreaming about because he was in it Page 4 Breakfast of champions Terry OBrien won the World Cop Donut Eating Championship by downing one every 19 seconds for three minutes Page 3 Your weekend starts now The Chicago areas most compute entertainment guide Today In Neighbor Meet the Spider Woman Kiss of the Spider Woman opens in Des Plaines while Volkening Her Farm in Schaumburg gets into spring Section 5 Coming Friday in Time out On deck The play mat launched the acting careers na and Dennis Franz Bleacher Bums is being revived at the Royal George Theatre Back to the present Mark Guar ino talks to Ben Kweller whose new CD is firmly rooted in the music of the 60s and 70s Whats brewing Bartara Vitello takes you to Sheffields a tavern in Chicago index 42 jittery 114 Vr 5 43 33 Cm t3 44 Sec 5 21 43 33 61 Television 42 42 610
