McHenry County | featured news

WASHINGTON – Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened President Donald Trump on Friday ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings. The president took retribution only two days after his acquittal by the Senate.

First came news that Trump had ousted Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the decorated soldier and national security aide who played a central role in the Democrats’ impeachment case.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Extreme wind gusts, blowing snow and widespread flooding made traveling treacherous on Friday as a storm system moved into the northeastern U.S., leaving rising water and at least five deaths in its wake across the South.

More than 400,000 homes and businesses were without power Friday after the National Weather Service warned of gusts up to 60 mph from Virginia into New England. Falling trees damaged homes and power lines in many places.

WASHINGTON – New York residents will be cut off from “trusted traveler” programs that speed up their reentry into the country, a senior Homeland Security official said Thursday, blaming a new state law that prohibits immigration agents from accessing motor vehicle records.

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers will face the inconvenience of slower reentry because of a law that acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said puts public safety at risk by preventing federal agents from quickly accessing vehicle and criminal records.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – With urgency rising in their presidential nomination fight, the Democrats’ top presidential contenders clashed over experience and electability in a fiery debate Friday night that tested the strength of a new front-runner, former Midwestern mayor Pete Buttigieg, and struggling former Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden, on the offensive throughout the high-stakes face-off, predicted he would “take a hit” in New Hampshire’s next-up primary election after a weak showing in Iowa.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wreckage from the helicopter that crashed last month and killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others did not show any outward evidence of engine failure, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.

Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and the others died in the Jan. 26 crash in Calabasas, California. The group was flying to a girls basketball tournament at his Mamba Sports Academy.

A 35-year-old Crystal Lake man accused of entering another man's home and stabbing him multiple times pleaded not guilty Friday to attempted murder and other charges.

Michael A.

An Island Lake man faces between six and 12 years in prison after pleading guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a child in 2012.

If 59-year-old Robert Ballarini's case had gone to trial and he were convicted of more than one count of predatory criminal sexual assault pertaining to two separate victims, he would have received a mandatory natural-life prison sentence, prosecutors said.

Instead, Ballarini, of the 600 block of Nantucket Way, accepted a partially negotiated plea deal on Friday morning.

A McHenry man remained at the county jail Friday after police say he delivered the heroin-fentanyl combination that killed McHenry woman Jessica Hocin.

Hocin was found dead on June 1 at the McHenry home where she lived with 36-year-old Russell Levand, according to a criminal complaint filed with the McHenry County Circuit Clerk's Office.

No injuries were reported after a barn fire Thursday night in Woodstock.

The Woodstock Fire/Rescue District responded at 11:14 p.m. Thursday to the fire south of a home in the 13800 block of Pleasant Valley Road in unincorporated Woodstock.

Animals were evacuated from the barn before firefighters arrived, and all have been accounted for, officials said.

Students from 10 high schools in McHenry County tested their knowledge during the annual Academic Challenge on Friday at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake.

The event, formerly known as the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering program, is conducted by Eastern Illinois University and featured student scholars from Barrington, Cary-Grove, Crystal Lake Central, Crystal Lake South, Marengo, Marian Central, Prairie Ridge, Richmond-Burton, Woodstock and Woodstock North.

Students began their day with registration befo