"Chicago Tribune" Reader

"Chicago Tribune" Reader

Some jurors in Fenger murder trial urged mercy

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 06:04 PM PDT

Judge's failure to disclose note from several jury members cited in request for new trial in beating case

Several members of a jury that two months ago convicted a South Side man in the murder of Fenger High School sophomore Derrion Albert sent an unusual note to the judge at the time that asked him to show mercy at sentencing, defense attorneys revealed Tuesday.

Naperville man gets life in stepdaughter slaying

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 04:24 PM PDT

DuPage County judge says sentence is deserved and calls man "shockingly evil and hateful"

Calling him "shockingly evil and hateful," a DuPage County judge Tuesday sentenced a Naperville man to life in prison without parole for murdering his teenage stepdaughter.

Ill. abortion measure advances through agriculture committee

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 04:45 PM PDT

Bills introduced to delay debit-card swipe-fee limits

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 04:50 PM PDT

Marni Yang found guilty in slaying

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 05:41 PM PDT

A jury in Lake County has found Marni Yang guilty in the 2007 murder of the pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle.

Cops: $5 million in pot found in load of carrots

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 04:07 PM PDT

Two Florida men have been charged with smuggling more than $5 million worth of marijuana after Cook County sheriff's police pulled over a semi-trailer truck in Mount Prospect and discovered the drugs hidden in a load of carrots.

Lean Cuisine dishes recalled for 'foreign materials'

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 08:33 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- More than 10,000 pounds of Lean Cuisine frozen spaghetti and meatball dishes have been recalled because of the possible presence of foreign materials, the Department of Agriculture said late on Monday.

Japan: Mounting humanitarian, nuclear crisis after quake (The Newsroom)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 03:09 PM PDT

The Newsroom - A nuclear power plant damaged by fire and explosions emitted a burst of radiation Tuesday, panicking an already edgy Japan and leaving the government struggling to contain a spiraling crisis caused by last week's earthquake and tsunami. Radiation levels in …

GOP prepares assault on NPR; questions over video remain

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 02:37 PM PDT

A House committee schedules an 'emergency' session Wednesday to consider a bill that would permanently bar NPR or its affiliates from receiving federal funds. The move comes even though the video that brought down the broadcaster's chief fundraiser and CEO was apparently manipulated.

House Republicans are preparing a new effort to strip NPR of all federal support, even as new questions have emerged from last week's scandal that forced an NPR fundraiser, as well as its chief executive, to resign.

Desperate measures to contain radiation

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 05:48 PM PDT

The operator of Japan's stricken nuclear power plant is considering spraying water and boric acid by helicopters and fire trucks into its troubled reactors to prevent further radiation from leaking.

Signs of reconciliation in Wisconsin statehouse

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 02:29 PM PDT

MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin state senators are starting to take steps to reconcile following the Democrats' decision to flee the state for three weeks to block passage of a bill taking away most collective bargaining rights for public workers.

New body scanners for Cook County Jail

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 06:44 PM PDT

In a move to improve security for both inmates and corrections officers, the Cook County Jail has installed four new full-body scanners to replace the L-3 technology commonly used at airports, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.

Wis. Democrat proposes quorum changes

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 08:00 AM PDT

One of the 14 Wisconsin Democrats who fled the state to block a vote is now floating a proposal that would make such a move ineffective in the future.

Bahrain: State of emergency as uprising continues

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 08:18 AM PDT

The move by King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa to quell a growing uprising is akin to three months of martial law for Bahrain. With hundreds of foreign military and police in the nation to support the government, protesters and their foes set up rival checkpoints.

Bahrain's king declared a three-month state of emergency Tuesday in an effort to quell a month-old uprising as rival groups of protesters and gangs set up more checkpoints around the capital.

Naperville man gets life in stepdaughter slaying

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 10:51 AM PDT

A Naperville man who twice avoided DuPage County prosecutor's attempts to have him sentenced to death for murdering his teenage stepdaughter will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Kids' musical instruments booming with bacteria

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 07:13 AM PDT

The musical instruments kids play in school bands and orchestras are traveling denizens of bacteria and fungi, say the authors of a new study. Music education is great for kids, they note, but please, please wash the instruments!

Verdict reached in Marni Yang trial

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 12:15 PM PDT

The shooting of Rhoni Reuter was a "carefully planned-out execution" for which Marni Yang should be held responsible, a prosecutor in Yang's murder trial told the jury during closing statements this morning.

City to offer 4,000 fewer summer jobs

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 09:45 AM PDT

LIFE slideshow: The 1948 Fukui Quake, Western Japan (The Newsroom)

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 09:16 AM PDT

The Newsroom - June 28, 1948: The Fukui Quake, Western Japan "On the afternoon of June 28," LIFE magazine reported in its July 12, 1948 issue, "LIFE correspondent Carl Mydans was in the Japanese city of Fukui, 250 miles west of Tokyo. He …

Man fined $100 for tossing puppy from car

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 07:50 AM PDT

A Chicago man accused of throwing a puppy out of his car onto a busy Elmhurst highway pleaded guilty today to animal cruelty and was ordered not to own or possess an animal for the next year.