LOCAL CHICAGO NEWS

06-02-05

2 boys safe after carjacking
Two young boys who were riding along with their father while he delivered newspapers early this morning were found safe after the van they were in was carjacked in west suburban Berwyn, police said.

State to restrict stun-gun buys
Gov. Rod Blagojevich plans to sign legislation Friday that would require people who want to buy Tasers or other stun guns in Illinois to submit to a background check, just as if they were buying a rifle or other firearm.

Unwitting marathon runners go extra mile
All 529 runners who finished Chicago's Lakeshore Marathon set a personal record for the distance.

West Side's story told at last
Manley Career Academy High School senior Maurianna Jones never knew that Martin Luther King Jr. once lived in North Lawndale, so close to where she lives now.

Lawsuit settled in death of pupil
A trial that offered graphic descriptions of a 6th grader's frantic final moments as she choked on marshmallows ended abruptly Thursday when a settlement was reached in her parents' wrongful-death lawsuit.

City's blue bag recycling rate nose-dives
Mayor Richard Daley's residential recycling program has been crippled because the city can no longer send thousands of tons of waste to an Indiana farm, city officials acknowledged Thursday.

City living attractive to more than empty-nesters
A Chicago homicide detective has solved the mystery of the fleeting red-tailed hawks.

Expanding city probe hits zoning inspector
The chief inspector in the city's Zoning Department was put on paid administrative leave Thursday as part of the city's widening investigation into a controversial condominium development.

U.S. prosecutors name names in mob slayings
Federal prosecutors added new details Thursday to an indictment of half a dozen reputed organized crime figures in some of Chicago's most notorious gangland slayings, charging reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. with taking part in 13 of the killings.

State wants CTA to prove it cut costs
Two days after lawmakers passed a budget deal to avert massive service cuts by the Chicago Transit Authority, the state's transportation secretary said he will seek greater accountability from the agency.

Police officers indicted in beating outside bar
A McHenry County grand jury indicted two police officers and a former police officer Thursday in the beating of a man Feb. 20 near Fox Lake.

Stroger calls for probe of job funds
Cook County prosecutors are investigating allegations that at least $180,000 in federal grant money was stolen or misappropriated from a county jobs training program.

Woman using cancer claim is sentenced
After a woman charged with obstruction of justice missed 26 consecutive court appearances claiming she was dying of cancer, the state was prepared to drop all charges.

Animal control director dismissed
Under fire from activists who say their Animal Care and Control Department has been putting too many animals to sleep and selling dead cats and dogs for classroom dissection, DuPage county officials announced Thursday that they have laid off the agency's manager and begun a nationwide search for a replacement.

Governor finds pork not as bad as in 2002
Gov. Rod Blagojevich touted his success in the spring legislative session during a victory lap around the state Thursday while defending millions of dollars in projects for Democratic lawmakers who backed his budget.

Man's `donated' remains reclaimed
A relative claimed a man's cremated remains from the Salvation Army on Thursday, ending a strange saga that began several weeks ago when the ashes turned up in a Waukegan warehouse, apparently donated by mistake.

Midwest teeters on the edge of drought
The West is slowly emerging from an extended six-year drought, while just a few years ago Florida and the whole East Coast were making headlines for widespread drought.

ASK TOM WHY
Dear Tom,

Rain possible during upcoming warm weekend
The steady diet of winds off the still chilly lake is in its final day. By Saturday, winds increase from the south, strong enough to overcome any lingering lake effect.

Today
Chicago: Considerable cloudiness most of the day with little or no chance of rain.

WEATHER WORDS
Lilapsophobia: The irrational or morbid fear of tornadoes and hurricanes. Brontophobia: The irrational or morbid fear of thunder.

06-02-05

Suburban fire victim critically burned
One person sustained critical burns and another was hurt jumping out of a window when an overnight fire struck an apartment building in southwest suburban Bolingbrook, WGN-Ch. 9 reported.

Drug bust conducted in Rogers Park
An anonymous tip about a man allegedly dealing drugs on a North Side street led to an overnight arrest and the seizure of narcotics and $41,000 cash from the suspect's home, police said.

Suburban fire victim critically burned
One person sustained critical burns and another was hurt jumping out of a window when an overnight fire struck an apartment building in southwest suburban Bolingbrook, WGN-Ch. 9 reported.

Drug bust conducted in Rogers Park
An anonymous tip about a man allegedly dealing drugs on a North Side street led to an overnight arrest and the seizure of narcotics and $41,000 cash from the suspect's home, police said.

Blagojevich leaps back in driver's seat
Shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, as the TV lights went on for the live shots of Chicago newscasters broadcasting from their perch over the Senate floor, Gov. Rod Blagojevich strolled in to take a victory lap.

Till is exhumed
The earth above Emmett Till's grave was scraped away just after dawn Wednesday, and steel cables hoisted his burial vault from the ground at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip as family members prayed nearby.

Cultivating trust-- 1 nostril at a time
Trust takes time. But if time is short, trust may bloom from a fine mist of hormones sprayed into your nostrils.

DePaul team seeks stories to help Iraqi victims heal
Daniel Rothenberg is going to Iraq to dredge up the past of a country still haunted by the violence and ethnic hatred that gripped it during Saddam Hussein's brutal 35-year rule.

2 buildings officials quit amid city probe
Two senior officials in the city's Buildings Department have resigned amid an internal investigation into possible wrongdoing, the Daley administration said Wednesday.

Naperville's new lifeline
Among the many challenges Nancy Wiskari faces as the mother of a 4-year-old autistic boy is the constant fear that he will bolt from the family's Naperville home and disappear.

Cop eyed in probe back on street
A Cicero police officer stripped of his badge and suspended earlier this year amid a federal probe of possible civil rights violations has returned to active duty.

County, city opt for past in ballots
The notorious punch-card ballot--and its hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads--will be a relic of the past in Chicago and suburban Cook County by early 2006 following the expected approval of more than $50 million in new voting equipment.

School's flaws ease sting of its last days
When Phillips School in Ford Heights closes the doors Thursday on its final school year, some residents and staff members may feel a tinge of sentimentality, but others will say good riddance.

2 GIs savor new honor: Citizenship
The black eye patch and a Purple Heart ribbon on Justin Villanueva's chest explained his sacrifice with few words.

FBI notes tie casino investors to the mob
A pair of FBI memos released Wednesday in the Illinois Gaming Board's case aimed at stripping Emerald Casino of its riverboat gambling license state that two investors in the casino once planned for suburban Rosemont associated with members of organized crime.

Friend describes pupil's choking
Within minutes after starting to play a game called Chubby Bunny, 6th-grader Catherine "Casey" Fish was in distress, her face turning purple as she struggled to breathe after stuffing marshmallows in her mouth, her best friend testified Wednesday.

Bikers riding high on train
Greg Valent believes northern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin have some of the best bicycling territory in the region.

School eases staffer's car woes
One of the first things a Glenbrook North High School custodian learned after becoming the father of quadruplets in February is that a small car doesn't cut it.

ASK TOM WHY
How much lightning is there?

Warmth surges into Chicagoland
It's meteorological summer now, and this week's temperatures are forecast to respond accordingly.

Today
Chicago: Sunshine becomes mixed with more cloudiness this afternoon. East to southeast winds off the lake hold shoreline areas to the mid 60s while temps warm to the low 80s well inland.

06-01-05

FBI exhumes Till’s body
The concrete burial vault containing the casket of Emmett Till this morning was lifted from the ground, placed on a flatbed truck and taken to the Cook County medical examiner's office with an escort of seven police cars.

Bones found in suburban neighborhood
Authorities today will seek to determine if bones found in northwest suburban Arlington Heights were those of a human or an animal, CLTV reported.

FBI exhumes Till’s body
The concrete burial vault containing the casket of Emmett Till this morning was lifted from the ground, placed on a flatbed truck and taken to the Cook County medical examiner's office with an escort of seven police cars.

Bones found in suburban neighborhood
Authorities today will seek to determine if bones found in northwest suburban Arlington Heights were those of a human or an animal, CLTV reported.

Budget buzzer beater
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Democrats who control the legislature pushed through a roughly $55 billion state budget just hours ahead of their midnight Tuesday deadline, but Republicans complained the deal was loaded with Chicago pork-barrel projects to win crucial votes.

Andersen's conviction overturned
The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the conviction that brought down once-proud accounting giant Andersen, unanimously rejecting the government's interpretation of a federal witness tampering law it had charged the company with violating.

Class rank? It's going the way of slide rules
Bryan Dieckelman applied to college with a 3.59 grade-point average, earning all A's and B's at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire.

Desperate lives at crossroads
Jermaine Edwards estimates he has walked nearly 10 miles every day since he became homeless in January, pounding the pavement around Clark Street and Belmont Avenue until his sneakers became tattered.

Mary Ellen Durbin
Mary Ellen Durbin says she and other idealistic young Catholics in church discussion groups were naive in the summer of 1966 for believing that issues of race and poverty could be overcome with a few open-housing marches and kneel-ins.

Help arrives for family on brink of homelessness
Cheryl Moore had a full-time accounting job. She had children at elite universities.

African-Americans in minority areas more likely to smoke
With prices hovering around $5 a pack in several North Lawndale stores, cigarettes are such a hot commodity in the neighborhood that many men sell "loosies," or single smokes, on the street corner.

Glenview, resident fight on over village's legal-fee rule
Michael Zwick's problems in Glenview began when he complained that a fence his neighbor built in 1998 posed a security concern.

Foe of village ban clears eatery's air
An Oak Park bar and grill whose owner was among the fiercest opponents of a town-proposed smoking ban earlier this year has gone smoke-free.

Once AWOL, war photos have own story to tell
Henry Van Westrop counts himself lucky to have survived three years of gunfire and grenades in the hostile mountains and dark caves of the Philippines in World War II.

DuPage makes homes' odd addresses conform
Ben Ceyer was suffering a blood clot in his lung, but he hobbled down to the end of his driveway to flag down the ambulance.

Flight caps until '08 won't fly, FAA told
Chicago, members of the Illinois congressional delegation and the nation's two largest airlines criticized federal plans to extend hourly flight limits for at least three more years at O'Hare International Airport

Jail fight called bid for `easy money'
A former Cook County Jail inmate testified Tuesday that fellow detainees, led by Nathson Fields, asked him to join them in their plan to start a fight with jail guards so they could sue the county and win "easy money."

Lombard urged to raze old theater
A Lombard Village Board member is seeking to end a long-running drama to save the landmark DuPage Theatre.

City targets landlords for gangs, drug houses
Mayor Richard Daley wanted to use a former drug house on the West Side as the backdrop Tuesday when he announced a new crackdown on bad landlords.

Park fire set, officials say
A fire allegedly set by a drunken camper scorched hundreds of acres of marshland in Zion's Illinois Beach State Park, casting a pall of smoke over large swaths of Lake County but doing no major environmental damage, officials said Tuesday.

Ex-trustee aquitted in investment fraud case
A former New Lenox trustee acquitted of fraud and theft charges last week lashed out Tuesday against the Will County state's attorney's office and its investigators, saying he was burned by overzealous prosecutors for investing clients' money in what he thought was a legitimate business.

ASK TOM WHY
Dear Tom,

Chicago closes the books on a very dry spring
The agricultural community, always weather conscious, is well aware that moisture deficits across Illinois are becoming critical, but, for most of us oblivious to the consequences of meteorological abnormalities, dry weather usually means sunny, pleasant days and a dry commute.

77 years (1928-2004) of summer temperatures at Midway Airport
Meteorologists refer to the year's three warmest months--June, July and August--as "meteorological summer," and through most of that period Chicago's average daily high temperatures are in the 80s. But averages don't tell the real story: 77 years of Chicago weather history indicate that the actual day-to-day temperatures we experience often consist of wide variations around the climatological averages.

Today
Chicago: Abundant sun with a few patches of mid/high clouds. Modestly milder. Northeast winds off the lake strengthen midday, holding shoreline readings to the mid 60s while inland/south temps reach the lower 80s. Partly cloudy and cool tonight.

WEATHER WORD
Sprite: A weak luminous emission that appears directly above a thunderstorm at the same time that a lightning flash occurs within the thunderhead.

05-31-05

Art Institute to add new wing
Seeking to capitalize on Millennium Park's soaring popularity, the Art Institute of Chicago on Tuesday will unveil the final design for its soon-to-be-built new wing, including a superlong footbridge that would shoot like a glistening knife over the park's south end and deposit thousands of parkgoers on the building's rooftop.

Legislature takes aim at gun show `loophole'
Gov. Rod Blagojevich sided with gun-control advocates Monday as he pledged to sign a high-profile gun show bill and vowed to veto a measure pushed through the General Assembly by the National Rifle Association.

Firms try to predict health of workers
Navistar's International Truck and Engine Corp. uncovered a surprising finding two years ago after analyzing employee medical claims.

Higher gas prices are fuel for thought, then disregard
Every year at this time, Irene Warniment looks forward to the interruption in the dull, steady turnpike roar of 18-wheelers when people driving 4-wheeled vehicles clamor for things like Coke, ice cream, jumbo bags of beef jerky and Kaopectate.

Ron Huberman
When Greg Hoffman was the partner of rookie cop Ron Huberman on Beat 2423 in Rogers Park in the mid-1990s, Huberman was the one with the crisp-looking uniform and always-polished shoes.

Topinka rips budget deal
Threatening to upend a pending state budget deal among Democrats, Republican state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka on Monday asked the attorney general to determine whether a plan backed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to divert $2 billion from state pensions was unconstitutional.

Once-bustling land to yield jobs again
The American Can Co. plant in Maywood covered 18 acres, employed thousands of people in its heyday and went down in history--the history of the obscure--as the birthplace in 1935 of the beer can.

More hospitals offer alternative therapies
Barbara Malik slumped with closed eyes in the comfortable chair, forgetting for a few precious moments the cancer in her bones.

Rituals recognize soldiers' sacrifices
When Mildred Taylor of Manteno buried her son James Dean Taylor, 42, six years ago in Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, she was filled with remorse for leaving him where there were only five other tombstones.

ASK TOM WHY
Dear Tom,

Meteorological spring ends quietly and pleasantly
Today's bright sunshine, low humidity, reasonable wind speeds and moderate temperatures define a perfect day, and they come on the final day of the season that meteorologists and climatologists refer to as "meteorological spring"-- March, April and May.

CHICAGO WEATHER
Tracking summer's 80(degrees)-plus days

Today
Chicago: Generous sunshine, low humidity, unlimited visibilities. Winds off the lake hold lakeshore highs to the low and mid 60s, while readings rise to the upper 70s far west and south.

WEATHER HISTORY
Johnstown, Pa.: Location of the nation's worst flash flood. Following heavy rain, a poorly maintained dam above Johnstown collapsed on May 31, 1889. The resulting flash flood killed 2,209