Two Batavia men charged in Elgin bank heist

These Elgin State Bank security photos were posted

on the FBI's http://bandittrackerchicago.com website.

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Jan. 20, 2012

Federal charges were filed Friday against two Batavia men accused of concealing their faces and brandishing handguns to rob an Elgin bank on Wednesday evening.

Douglas Kelley, 27, and Lucas G. Marin, 29, both of Batavia, were each charged with one count of bank robbery, a felony, in a criminal complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

OCTAVE errs on chamber accusation

Defends other criticisms of business license

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Jan. 19, 2012

Insinuations that the Elgin Chamber of Commerce somehow concealed about 130 member businesses from the city administration when it began its business license program are false, BocaJump learned Wednesday afternoon.

The special interest group Elgin OCTAVE has been pressuring the City Council to dump the business license and publicly has offered a litany of criticisms of the program. But on Tuesday morning, Chuck Keysor, one of OCTAVE’s founders, wrote in an email to supporters and other interested parties that a Freedom of Information Act request he filed with the city revealed documents indicating “the chamber of commerce provided the original list of Elgin businesses to the city, around which the business license program was built. But amazingly, that list was missing about 130 of the chamber's own members! And not only were they not on the first list; they are still not on the newest list received two weeks ago!

“Are you shocked and disturbed yet?!”

Keysor stands behind other chamber criticisms

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Jan. 19, 2012

While acknowledging he ultimately was wrong about who supplied the city with a list of businesses used to initiate Elgin’s business license, OCTAVE spokesman Chuck Keysor said the group continues to stand by other criticisms it has leveled about the issue.

 “… I still stand by the list of all the other issues I raised a few minutes ago,” he wrote, referring to an email he sent in which Keysor outlined an array of issues with the business license program, all of which have been aired publicly before the City Council and in emails to OCTAVE supporters and others following the group.