ELGIN — Numbers were on the agenda Tuesday night as the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce held its 104th annual dinner. Those numbers, according to new Chamber President Carol Gieske, include her being the first woman to head the Elgin business organization. She replaces Leo Nelson, who retired from that post at the Chamber in December, after 11 years. Nelson, however, has not completely stepped down from a leadership role at the Chamber. He has stayed on as a director of the Elgin Development Group, tasked as the economic development engine for the city of Elgin. The two-year-old agreement between …

ELGIN — A historic marker, identifying the site of the famous Illinois Watch Case Co./Simpson Electric building that was torn down last year, has gone missing. Whoever pulled the historical marker sign from the site — likely believing the cast-aluminum sign to be made of the more valuable bronze or copper — was probably disappointed if he or she tried to sell it as scrap metal. While replacing the sign will cost an estimated $2,000 for the city of Elgin and its insurers, the salvage value of the sign is likely only about $20, officials said. Bill Briska, chairman of …

Jeff Reynolds has seen some pretty amazing sights atop some of the world’s most remote and challenging mountains, often with just a few close friends. In March through May, the 1983 Larkin High School graduate and Elgin native — along with just four experienced mountaineers in his group — is set see the top of the world when the group scales Mount Everest. A total of 19 people are heading with Reynolds to Nepal for the trek, organized through S2 Mountaineering, a nonprofit group he helped organize to promote safe, responsible mountaineering. Rather than a for-profit trekking company, S2 is …

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois State Board of Education announced Tuesday it has completed a waiver to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That waiver, approved by the state board, proposes using multiple measures to evaluate the nearly 4,000 public schools in Illinois, according to a written statement by ISBE. Its overarching goal is to cut in half achievement gaps and the percent of students not making progress by 2018. “Under this waiver, Illinois will move forward with a comprehensive accountability system that uses multiple measures of gauging student performance to ensure college and career readiness,” State Superintendent of Education …

ELGIN — There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, that most college students and their parents fill out each year. There’s the misconception that if you fill out FAFSA incorrectly once, that’s it ­— you’re done, you can’t apply for aid again, according to Kim Wagner, managing director of student financial services at Elgin Community College. “No, come back. We’ll help you,” Wagner said. Or the misconception that applications must be submitted by a specific date, like filing taxes, she said. Actually, in Illinois, the director said, “You …

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin says Republicans in the U.S. House should start over rather than push forward with a troubled bill on long-term funding for transportation. He said Tuesday that the bill stands little chance of passing with so much opposition. Urban Democrats and Republicans alike, including Democratic Congressman Daniel Lipinski and Republicans Robert Dold and Judy Biggert, worry the bill would put city transit agencies in jeopardy, Instead, Durbin is promoting an alternative Senate bill that he says has bipartisan support and does not touch the steady, reliable funding transit agencies get from the federal gasoline …

Only minor damage is reported after an earthquake centered in southeast Missouri shook at least nine states. The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 4.0 earthquake was centered near the town of East Prairie, Mo. Geological Survey geophysicist Amy Vaughan says several people in Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee reported being awakened by the quake that happened at 3:58 a.m. A few residents of North Carolina, Alabama, Indiana and Georgia also felt it. East Prairie City Administrator Lonnie Thurmond says the shaking lasted about seven seconds. Vaughan says he’s heard reports of cracks in sidewalks and walls, some broken …

There are slightly more than a half-million people living in Kane County and most of them live in a city that takes care of plowing snow, repairing streets, hiring police and picking up garbage. On a typical resident’s tax bill, county government services represents about 5 percent of the total. That means for most residents who stay out of the court system and don’t use social service agencies, their only interaction with the county is on property assessments, visits to the forest preserves and Election Day. And yet, County Board chairman is a high-profile, sought-after position. The person in that …