High speed chase in
Trempealeau leads
to teen’s arrest, A8
SCOREBOARD SPONSORED BY
Packers rally
Full coverage
>> Five scores in the second
of Sunday’s
half matched for biggest
games in
comeback in franchise history
SPORTS
www.riverbank.biz
MINNESOTA
PHILADELPHIA
48
30
SAN FRANCISCO
TAMPA BAY
33
14
KANSAS CITY
OAKLAND
56
31
CHICAGO
CLEVELAND
38
31
SEATTLE
N.Y. GIANTS
23
0
ARIZONA
TENNESSEE
37
34
ATLANTA
WASHINGTON
27
26
MIAMI
NEW ENGLAND
24
20
CAROLINA
N.Y. JETS
30
20
MONDAY, December 16, 2013
$1.00 >> Serving the region since 1904
N. La Crosse ........................784-8900
S. La Crosse ........................788-6300
Stoddard..............................457-2100
De Soto ................................648-2130
Ferryville .............................734-3440
>> lacrossetribune.com
AP-GfK POLL
MONDAY PROFILE: MASONIC LODGE
Health
law seen
as eroding
coverage
WASHINGTON
(AP)
—
Americans who already have
health insurance are blaming
President Barack Obama’s health
care overhaul for their rising premiums and deductibles, and
overall 3 in 4 say the rollout of
coverage for the uninsured has
gone poorly.
PHOTOS BY RORY O’DRISCOLL/LA CROSSE TRIBUNE
ABOVE: Dave O’Neill, left, worshipful master of the La Crosse Masonic Lodge 190, and Randy Erickson, worshipful master of the Frontier
Badger Lodge 45, stand in the La Crosse Masonic Center on South Eight Street. BELOW: The Masonic Emblem. The square is a reminder for a
Mason to square himself with virtue; the compass to circumscribe his passions. “Basically, it’s all about self control,” said Todd Wohlert.
A sense of camaraderie
New generations of Freemasons seek to shed cryptic image
By CHRIS HUBBUCH
chubbuch@lacrossetribune.com
Dan Truax remembers
when one of his closest friends
joined the Freemasons.
He gave him a sideways
look and a crooked smile and
said “You’re doing what?”
That was about four years
ago. Now the 44-year-old
Onalaska man is a Mason himself; his buddy, Dave O’Neill,
is preparing to serve his first
term as head of their lodge.
Having found an outlet for
their desire to better themselves and their community —
and a sense of camaraderie
they hadn’t felt since their
days in the Air Force, they are
hoping to dispel some of the
myths that surround the centuries-old group.
“The only thing I had any
knowledge of was from what
the movies show,” Truax said.
“That whole mystery side of it
CURIOUS ABOUT
FREEMASONRY?
Each of La Crosse’s two
lodges will install their 2014
officers at a public ceremony
Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the
La Crosse Masonic Center,
118 S. Eighth St. Parking is
available behind the building.
Masons will be offering a
tour of their building and
answering questions about
the brotherhood.
— it didn’t take long to realize
that’s purely Hollywood talking.”
After years of dwindling
membership, the fraternal
organization — whose ranks
included many of the nation’s
founding fathers — is attracting a new crop of younger
members who aim to return
the group to its standing as a
pillar of the community.
Truax and O’Neill, who is
45, are part of a new generation of members bringing new
blood and spirit to the organization, which is modeled on
the craftsman guilds responsible for building Europe’s
cathedrals and traces its modern roots to the early 1800s.
“Rightly or wrongly, people
with private insurance
looking at next year are
really worried about
what is going to happen.
The website is not the
whole story.”
Robert Blendon, a professor
at the Harvard School of
Public Health who tracks public
opinion on health care issues
An Associated Press-GfK poll
finds that health care remains
politically charged going into
next year’s congressional elections. Keeping the refurbished
HealthCare.gov website running
smoothly is just one of Obama’s
challenges, maybe not the
biggest.
The poll found a striking level
of unease about the law among
people who have health insurance and aren’t looking for any
more government help. Those
are the 85 percent of Americans
who the White House says don’t
have to be worried about the
president’s historic push to
expand coverage for the uninsured.
In the survey, nearly half of
those with job-based or other
private coverage say their policies will be changing next year —
mostly for the worse. Nearly
4 in 5 (77 percent) blame the
changes on the Affordable Care
Act, even though the trend
toward leaner coverage predates
the law’s passage.
Sixty-nine percent say their
See POLL, A5
See MASONS, A5
Mandela buried in rolling hills of South Africa
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
The Associated Press
QUNU, South Africa — His
flag-draped casket resting on a
carpet of animal skins, Nelson
Mandela was laid to rest Sunday
in the green, rolling hills of the
eastern hamlet where he began
his extraordinary journey — one
that led him from prison to the
presidency, a global symbol of
endurance and reconciliation in
the fight against South Africa’s
racist rule.
Artillery boomed and military aircraft roared through a
cloud-studded sky, as the simple and the celebrated gathered
to pay their final respects in
Mandela’s native village of Qunu
at a state funeral that blended
ancient tribal rituals with a display of the might of the new,
22/1
FO R ECAST A 10
integrated South Africa.
“Yours was truly a long walk
to freedom, and now you have
achieved the ultimate freedom
in the bosom of your maker,”
Brig.
Gen.
Monwabisi
Jamangile, chaplain-general of
the South African military, said
as Mandela’s casket was lowered
into the ground at the family
gravesite. “Rest in peace.”
“I realized that the old man is
no more, no more with us,” said
Bayanda Nyengule, head of a
local museum about Mandela,
his voice cracking as he
described the burial attended by
several hundred mourners after
a larger funeral ceremony during
which some 4,500 people,
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
including heads of state, royalty Shembe priest Michael Notychanga prays Sunday in the direction of the
and celebrities, paid their last home of former South African president Nelson Mandela on a hill where
in the distance you can see the dome where his funeral service takes
place in Qunu, South Africa.
See MANDELA, A5
INSIDE
Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B8
Classified . . . . . . . . . .B5-10
Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B8
Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . .B9
Lotteries . . . . . . . . . . . . .A10
Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A5
Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A5
Obituaries . . . . . . . . . .A8,9
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A6
Puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B9
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B1-4
THREE WISHES:
TIME TO VOTE
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual
Adoration and the La Crosse
Tribune are partnering to grant
three wishes this holiday season.
The Tribune has featured 12 stories
about groups or individuals who
could use a little extra help.
Beginning today, readers will be
able to vote online to help select the
three wishes they would like to see
granted. To read past stories and to
vote for your favorite, go to
lacrossetribune.com/3wishes.
Voting ends Monday.
State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A2
Sudoku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B9
TV listings . . . . . . . . . . . .B9
World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A5
6
18134 00003
4