Fox Valley Faces of the Year

A regular guy charged with a very irregular crime. A top cop back on the job after illness nearly ended more than just his law enforcement career. A rising political star up north. Another local politician making the wrong kinds of headlines.

These were some of the faces in the Fox Valley to make news in 2008.

Edward Bachner

To those who knew him before June 30, 2008, Edward Bachner was a pretty typical guy in his mid 30s. Happily married. House in the suburbs. Regular at his church.

But according to federal authorities, Bachner had a darker side hidden from most.

That side came to light June 30 when the FBI's anti-terrorism task force raided Bachner's Lake in the Hills home and placed him under arrest after tracking to him a shipment of the deadly poison Tetrodotoxin.

In charges that followed, Bachner was accused of possessing the toxin, which is produced from the innards of the puffer fish, for use as a weapon. Authorities also revealed that Bachner had been investigated - but never charged - in connection with claims he tried to solicit someone over the Internet to kill his wife.

Bachner, who has been in federal custody since his arrest, has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial.

Russell Laine

Laine has been Algonquin's police chief for 23 years. Early in 2008, it seemed unlikely he'd be around for his 24th.

In fact some wondered whether Laine, stricken with a severe case of double pneumonia, would even live to see 2009.

But after four months in the hospital, nearly five weeks of which were spent in a medically induced coma, Laine was back on the job by late August.

"It's wonderful," Laine said of being back at the police station. "It's the best medicine you can find."

Jose Torres

After the inauspicious exit of former superintendent Connie Neale, Elgin Area School District U-46 badly needed a leader who could rally the community around the struggling school system.

Enter Jose Torres, a former Chicago schools administrator hired in May to lead the state's second-largest district.

Since taking over, Torres has created several initiatives to boost the district's academic performance: from sending dropouts a letter encouraging their return to the establishment of a mentoring program for at-risk male students.

More recently, he's launched "Library Card Challenge," a program inspiring students to obtain cards for their local public library. In October alone, about 8,000 U-46 students signed up for a library card.

Paul Humpfer

Though many in Carpentersville may wish otherwise, village Trustee Paul Humpfer remained in the news for much of 2008 as he fought domestic battery charges in court and efforts to oust him from his board spot at village hall.

Humpfer was found guilty in March of four domestic battery charges stemming from a May 2007 altercation with his wife. In October, a Kane County judge spared him a potential one-year jail term, and instead sentenced the trustee to one year of conditional discharge, a $1,000 fine and a 26-week domestic violence course.

Through it all, Humpfer steadfastly rejected calls to step down - most notably from Village President Bill Sarto. However, after his sentencing he admitted he was unsure of where his future in village politics stood.

Keith Farnham

It's probably safe to say that on New Year's Day 2008, not many in the Fox Valley knew who Keith Farnham was, or that he had his sights set on the Illinois General Assembly seat held by three-term incumbent Ruth Munson.

They know now.

Farnham, running his first political campaign of any sort, rode a Democratic tide to Springfield, and in the process pulled what most considered an election night upset by knocking off the Republican incumbent by a mere 322 votes.

A Navy veteran and owner of a commercial painting company, Farnham hit Munson hard on claims she did not support veterans while promising to do more to aid business development in Elgin, Carpentersville and other parts of northern Kane County represented by the 43rd House district.

Now comes the hard part: keeping those promises while working in a state government with more than just the people's business on its mind.

Barbara Wheeler

McHenry County Board member Barbara Wheeler may have fallen short in her bid to unseat incumbent Ken Koehler as the board's chairman earlier this month, but the Republican from Crystal Lake served notice in 2008 that she could be a force to be reckoned with for years to come in local politics.

Wheeler, chairman of the county board's Planning and Development Committee, was in recent years the driving force behind a formal ordinance outlining the county's efforts to promote conservation friendly design.

She also is a leading voice on the board on environmental and water preservation issues. Expect to be hearing more from, and about, her in 2009.