Man killed in extra-alarm fire

Workers board up a burned home in La Grange on Saturday. The fire broke out early this morning, killing a man and sending...

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FCC chairman urges FAA to revise in-flight iPad rules

No, it doesn’t make any sense that you have to turn off your iPad or Kindle during airplane landings, and now the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission wants to see that change. In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski urged the agency to “enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable devices” on flights, The Hill reports. Genachowski...

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Springsteen, Alabama Shakes top Rolling Stone’s 2012 best music

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen and newcomer blues-rock band Alabama Shakes landed the top awards in Rolling Stone magazine‘s annual list of the year’s best music on Friday, which featured many of next year’s leading Grammy nominees.Springsteen‘s 17th studio album “Wrecking Ball” topped the magazine’s list of best albums, with the magazine calling it “rock’s most pointed response...

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Integrys Energy Services tapped to supply Chicago's electricity

The same company that heats homes in Chicago has been picked to provide the electricity that powers them.Integrys Energy Services,...

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Crews recover WWII fighter plane near Waukegan

It had been on the bottom of Lake Michigan for nearly 70 years. But a World War II-era fighter plane was finally retrieved Friday....

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Firm says first BlackBerry 10 phone to debut in March, QWERTY phone won’t launch until June

Research In Motion (RIMM) is gearing up for a series of make-or-break releases that could be considered the most important device launches in the company’s history. Everything is riding on the success of the RIM’s BlackBerry 10 platform, which will be unveiled in its finished state on January 30th next year. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins is on record confirming that BlackBerry 10 will launch in the first...

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“Dancing with the Stars” Burke says voice fine after thyroid surgery

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Dancing with the Stars” co-host Brooke Burke said on Thursday that her surgery for thyroid cancer had gone well and that she had not lost her voice.“Thank God it’s over. I’m clean, surgery went well & I can talk. Losing my voice was my biggest fear. Thx for all your prayers & light,” Burke said in a Twitter posting.Burke, 41, a former winner of ABC-TV’s popular celebrity...

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Lurie Children's Hospital sees surge in patients at new Chicago building

Executives at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago expected a "bump" in patients when the $855 million...

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Urlacher fined $21,000 for second horse-collar tackle

Brian Urlacher again has been fined for making a horse-collar tackle. (José...

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“Community”: Jason Alexander filming “Crazy” guest spot

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Community” might be losing a Chevy Chase, but it’s gaining a Jason Alexander.Former “Seinfeld” star Alexander, who played neurotic bumbler George Costanza on the series, will guest-star on the beleaguered NBC comedy, and while the actor is tight-lipped on the details, he promises that the episode will be a doozy.“Filming a crazy episode of ‘Community’ this week,” the actor...

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Antismoking Outlays Drop Despite Tobacco Revenue

Faced with tight budgets, states have spent less on tobacco prevention over the past two years than in any period since the national tobacco settlement in 1998, despite record high revenues from the settlement and tobacco taxes, according to a report to be released on Thursday. Paul J. Richards/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesState antismoking spending is the lowest since the 1998...

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Clock running out for owners of prime parcels near McCormick Place

The development team behind a long-stalled plan to build hotels and restaurants just north of McCormick Place suffered a serious...

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Jazz legend Dave Brubeck dead

Dave Brubeck, a jazz musician who attained pop-star acclaim with recordings such as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk," died Wednesday morning at Norwalk Hospital, in Norwalk, Conn., said his longtime manager-producer-conductor Russell Gloyd.Brubeck was one day short of his 92nd birthday. He died of heart failure, en route to "a regular treatment...

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Austrian farmers dip into Internet “milking” craze

VIENNA (Reuters) – Dumping a bottle of milk over your head and filming it for a video post on the Internet has become a popular youth craze, but Austrian farmers say the spillage is a crying shame.“Milking”, as the trend is known, is among a variety of tongue-in-cheek stunts in which young people shoot pictures or videos of themselves posing as owls, planks of wood, or famous people and then share...

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And the most overpaid actor award goes to: Eddie Murphy

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Eddie Murphy was once among Hollywood’s top box office draws, but he now has the dubious honor of being crowned its most overpaid actor, according to Forbes magazine.In its annual list, determined by the misalignment between star salaries and their films’ box office take, Murphy, once a one-man gold mine with 1980s hits such as “Trading Places” and “Beverly Hills Cop”, displaced...

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Well: For Athletes, Risks From Ibuprofen Use

Phys EdGretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.Many active people use the painkiller ibuprofen on an almost daily basis. In surveys, up to 70 percent of distance runners and other endurance athletes report that they down the pills before every workout or competition, viewing the drug as a preemptive strike against muscle soreness.But a valuable new study joins growing evidence that ibuprofen and...

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South Loop residents oppose DePaul arena

The prospect of a DePaul University men's basketball arena being constructed on land just north of McCormick Place is drawing...

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Off-duty cop among 11 shot in Chicago overnight

A Cook County correctional officer was shot and wounded on his way home from work. (WGN TV video) At least 11 people were shot...

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Swiss spy agency warns U.S., Britain about huge data leak

ZURICH (Reuters) – Secret information on counter-terrorism shared by foreign governments may have been compromised by a massive data theft by a senior IT technician for the NDB, Switzerland‘s intelligence service, European national security sources said.Intelligence agencies in the United States and Britain are among those who were warned by Swiss authorities that their data could have been put in...

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Howard Stern signs on for more “America’s Got Talent”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Shock jock Howard Stern will return as a judge for his second season on NBC‘s summer talent show “America’s Got Talent,” the broadcaster said on Monday, although the high-priced radio host appears to have done little to improve the show’s ratings.NBC hoped Stern, 58, known for this sexually explicit radio interviews, would attract bigger audiences, but the finale in September...

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Well: New Meaning and Drive in Life After Cancer

When people hear the words “You have cancer,” life is suddenly divided into distinct parts. There was their life before cancer, and then there is life after cancer.The number of people in that second category continues to grow. In June, the National Cancer Institute reported that an estimated 13.7 million living Americans are cancer survivors, and the number will increase to almost 18 million over...

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Baxter to buy Gambro for $4B

Healthcare products maker Baxter International Inc. said on Tuesday that it would buy privately held Swedish dialysis product...

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Injury bug bites Bears; Urlacher, Jennings, Bennett go down

Chicago Tribune reporters break down the Bears' OT loss to the Seahawks on Sunday. Injuries were a significant factor for the...

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Led Zeppelin will Reunite – for “Letterman” interview

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The surviving members of Led Zeppelin will make a rare appearance together on “Late Show With David Letterman” on December 3, CBS said Friday.Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones will drop in on the late-night show for an interview – which isn’t quite the reunion that Zep fans have been patiently waiting for, but it might have to do. With the exception of a one-off...

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Study Bolsters Link Between Routine Hits to Head and Long-Term Brain Disease

The growing evidence of a link between head trauma and long-term, degenerative brain disease was amplified in an extensive study of athletes, military veterans and others who absorbed repeated hits to the head, according to new findings published in the scientific journal Brain. The study, which included brain samples taken posthumously from 85 people who had histories of repeated mild traumatic...

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