"Chicago Tribune" Reader

"Chicago Tribune" Reader

Obama calls Arizona governor to express sorrow

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 05:07 PM PDT

U.S. President Barack Obama walks with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, right, to a joint press conference after meeting together at State House in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Monday, July 1, 2013. Teeming crowds and blaring horns welcomed President Barack Obama to Tanzania's largest city, where the U.S. president's likeness is everywhere as he arrived on the last leg of his three-country tour of the African continent. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) — President Barack Obama called Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday to receive an update on the state's wildfires and express his condolences to the families of the 19 firefighters who died in the blaze and to all whose lives have been impacted by the fires.

Coroner: Lake Villa twins, 25, died from apparent overdoses

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 04:16 PM PDT

John Meek and his twin brother, Eugene, were found dead in their apartment from what authorities say were accidental drug overdoses.

Beleaguered Sacred Heart Hospital abruptly shuts

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 05:39 PM PDT

Sacred Heart Hospital, whose owner faces federal charges in an alleged kickback and health care fraud scheme, shut down today.

Snowden says Obama trying to block his asylum efforts

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 04:21 PM PDT

Putin: Snowden Must Stop Leaking Secrets to StayThe former spy agency contractor calls himself a " a stateless person."

Ariz. fire chief: Shelters are 'last-ditch effort'

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 04:18 PM PDT

Joanne Barringer, right, comforts her husband Dave Barringer, of Las Vegas, after hanging a T-shirt on the fence outside the Granite Mountain Interagency Hot Shot Crew fire station, Monday, July 1, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz. Barringer, who said he works as a wild land firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service said he was friends with many of the 19 Hotshots who were killed Sunday when an out-of-control blaze overtook the elite group near Yarnell, Ariz. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — A fire chief says lightning sparked a number of wildfires near Prescott, Ariz., the day a nearby blaze killed 19 members of an elite "Hotshots" fire crew.

5-time champ Williams exits Wimbledon in 4th round

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 04:10 PM PDT

Serena Williams of the United States follows through on a return during her Women's singles match against Sabine Lisicki of Germany at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Monday, July 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)LONDON (AP) — For 34 matches over 4½ months, on hard, clay or grass courts, Serena Williams was unbeaten — and, in the minds of many, unbeatable.

New dilemma: divvying up Newtown donations

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 03:57 PM PDT

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2013 file photo, white roses with the faces of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are attached to a telephone pole near the school on the one-month anniversary of the shooting that left 26 dead in Newtown, Conn. Some Newtown families have said they were given a voice late in the process of dispersing the millions of dollars in donated funds, and that the process has been bureaucratic, difficult, unpleasant, and has added to their pain. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)More than six months after losing loved ones in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, families say dealing with questions over how to distribute the millions of dollars sent to help Newtown heal ...

Egypt's military gives Morsi 48-hour ultimatum

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 04:04 PM PDT

Fireworks light the sky as opponents of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi protest outside the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, July 1, 2013. Egypt's powerful military warned on Monday it will intervene if the Islamist president doesn't "meet the people's demands," giving him and his opponents two days to reach an agreement in what it called a last chance. Hundreds of thousands of protesters massed for a second day calling on Mohammed Morsi to step down. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's military gave a "last-chance" ultimatum Monday to President Mohammed Morsi, giving him 48 hours to meet the demands of millions of protesters in the streets seeking his ouster, or the generals will intervene and impose their own plan for the country. Army helicopters swooped over Tahrir Square trailing Egyptian flags, to the cheers of the crowd opposed to the Islamist leader.

Texas lawmakers reconvene for new abortion fight

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 04:11 PM PDT

Pro-abortion rights supporters cheer during a rally outside the Texas capitol, Monday, July 1, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The Texas Senate has convened for a new 30-day special session to take up contentious abortion restrictions bill and other issues. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — State troopers lined the halls of the Texas Capitol, and 5,000 protesters rallied outside against proposed abortion legislation, as lawmakers convened Monday for a second special session that Republican leaders pledged wouldn't descend into chaos like the first.

Portable shelters couldn't save 19 firefighters

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 04:52 PM PDT

Joanne Barringer, right, comforts her husband Dave Barringer, of Las Vegas, after hanging a T-shirt on the fence outside the Granite Mountain Interagency Hot Shot Crew fire station, Monday, July 1, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz. Barringer, who said he works as a wild land firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service said he was friends with many of the 19 Hotshots who were killed Sunday when an out-of-control blaze overtook the elite group near Yarnell, Ariz. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — With no way out, the 19 elite firefighters did what they were trained to do when trapped by a wildfire: They unfurled their foil-lined, heat-resistant tarps and rushed to cover themselves on the ground.

Southern city in Egypt takes on Islamists

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 03:28 PM PDT

Mourners carry the coffin of Mohamed Abdel Hamid Mecca Masjid, who was killed Sunday when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a protests against Egypt's Islamist President, Mohammed Morsi, in Assiut, Egypt, Monday, July 1, 2013. In the city of Assiut, a stronghold of Islamists, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a protest in which tens of thousands were participating, killing one person, wounding several others and sending the crowd running. (AP Photo/Mamdouh Thabet)ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) — The southern Egyptian city of Assiut has long been a haven for radical Islamists, and its Christian minority has largely kept a low profile. That all changed this weekend.

List of Hotshot crew members killed in Ariz. fire

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 03:16 PM PDT

Unidentified members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew from Prescott, Ariz., pose together in this undated photo provided by the City of Prescott. Some of the men in this photograph were among the 19 firefighters killed while battling an out-of-control wildfire near Yarnell, Ariz., on Sunday, June 30, 2013, according to Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo. It was the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years. (AP Photo/City of Prescott)PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — The city of Prescott has released the names of the 19 firefighters who were killed in a wildfire. Fourteen of the victims were in their 20s.

Snowden breaks silence, threatens new disclosures

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 03:32 PM PDT

Activists from Internet Party of Ukraine perform during rally supporting Snowden, in front of U.S. embassy, in KievHe also thanked Ecuador for helping him get to Russia.

Director of embatted Vatican bank, deputy resign amid scandal

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 02:59 PM PDT

Vatican bank director, deputy resign amid scandalThe director of the embattled Vatican bank and his deputy resigned Monday, the latest heads to roll in a broadening finance scandal that has already landed one Vatican monsignor in prison and added urgency ...

Fake reviews of filibuster shoes are short on humor

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 11:01 AM PDT

Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, wears tennis shoes in place of her dress shoes as she begins a one-woman filibuster in an effort to kill an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)Why Rob Walker isn't laughing

Hotshots killed in Ariz. fire remembered, mourned

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 05:46 PM PDT

Unidentified members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew from Prescott, Ariz., pose together in this undated photo provided by the City of Prescott. Some of the men in this photograph were among the 19 firefighters killed while battling an out-of-control wildfire near Yarnell, Ariz., on Sunday, June 30, 2013, according to Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo. It was the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years. (AP Photo/City of Prescott)PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — Nineteen members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, based in Prescott, Ariz., were killed Sunday when a windblown wildfire overcame them north of Phoenix. It was the deadliest single day for U.S. firefighters since Sept. 11. Fourteen of the victims were in their 20s. Here are the stories of some of those who died:

Prosecution wrapping up in WikiLeaks trial

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 02:30 PM PDT

FILE - In this Friday, June 28, 2013 file photo, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., after another day of his court-martial, as he is charged with indirectly aiding the enemy by sending troves of classified material to WikiLeaks. Al-Qaida leaders reveled in WikiLeaks' publication of reams of classified U.S. documents, urging members to study them before devising ways to attack the United States, according to evidence presented by the prosecution Monday, July 1, 2013, in the court-martial of an Army private who leaked the material. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Al-Qaida leaders reveled in WikiLeaks' publication of reams of classified U.S. documents, urging members to study them before devising ways to attack the United States, according to evidence presented by the prosecution Monday in the court-martial of an Army private who leaked the material.

Archdiocese documents show priests paid to leave

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 04:40 PM PDT

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2012 file photo, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan speaks during a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is expected to release thousands of pages of documents related to clergy sex abuse on Monday, July 1, 2013, which church officials say include the depositions of Dolan, the former archbishop of Milwaukee, and Archbishop Rembert Weakland, Dolan's predecessor. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, file)MILWAUKEE (AP) — As more victims of clergy sex abuse came forward, then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan oversaw a plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood after writing to Vatican officials with increasing frustration and concern, warning them about the potential for scandal if they did not defrock problem priests, according to documents released Monday.

Police questioning of Zimmerman grew more pointed

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 02:53 PM PDT

George Zimmerman, right, stands up at the defense table with his attorneys, Mark O'Mara, left, and Don West, center, as he is identified by state witness Doris Singleton, a Sanford police officer, during her testimony in Zimmerman's trial in Seminole circuit court, in Sanford, Fla., Monday, July 1, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Joe Burbank, Pool)SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — Jurors in the George Zimmerman trial on Monday listened to a series of police interviews with detectives growing more pointed in their questioning of the neighborhood watch volunteer's account of how he came to fatally shoot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Homicides down 29 percent for first 6 months

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 03:42 PM PDT

Chicago closed out the first six months of 2013 with the fewest homicides the city has seen in nearly half a century, police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said today.