"Chicago Tribune" Reader

"Chicago Tribune" Reader

Dragon ship back on Earth after space station trip

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 05:53 PM PDT

This photo provided by SpaceX shows an unmanned Dragon freighter that left the International Space Station with a stash of precious medical samples and aimed for a Pacific splashdown to end the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station used a giant robot arm to release the commercial cargo ship 255 miles up. The California-based SpaceX company steered its capsule back to Earth via parachutes on Sunday afternoon, a couple hundred miles off the Baja California coast. (AP Photo/SpaceX)An unmanned Dragon freighter carrying a stash of precious medical samples from the International Space Station parachuted into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, completing the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA.

Former suspect in Etan Patz case to be freed

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 05:54 PM PDT

FILE - In this May 2012 file photo obtained by The Associated Press, murder suspect Pedro Hernandez is shown. Hernandez confessed to the 1979 murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City. (AP Photo/File)While prosecutors weigh what to do about a suspect who surprisingly surfaced this spring in the landmark 1979 disappearance case of Etan Patz, the man who was the prime suspect for years is about to go free after more than two decades in prison for molesting other children.

Mom raises money to watch daughter's killer die

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 03:30 PM PDT

Friends, family members and strangers have helped Tina Curl's grim dream come to fruition -- to watch the man who raped and murdered her 9-year-old daughter be strapped to a gurney, fight for his final breath as lethal drugs course through his veins. Curl, 50, spent months...

Hurricane Sandy wreaks havoc on presidential race

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 03:33 PM PDT

President Barack Obama speaks as he attends a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate, right, at the National Response Coordination Center at FEMA Headquarters in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012.(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Hurricane Sandy has scrambled the last week of the presidential race, upsetting campaign schedules, putting both President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney off-message, and raising doubts about Election Day and how early voting is going.

NYC schools, transit to close ahead of storm

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 05:21 PM PDT

A technician with the Battery Conservancy removes below-ground fountain operation equipment near the water's edge at Battery Park in New York, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Areas in the Northeast are preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy and a possible flooding storm surge. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)New York City shut down its mass transit system, closed its schools and ordered hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes Sunday in the face of increasingly dire predictions about the wall of water that could hit the nation's largest city as part of the superstorm bearing down on the East Coast.

Storm sets off frantic rush for supplies on East Coast

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 03:46 PM PDT

People pull their luggage at Times Square as Hurricane Sandy approaches New YorkGood luck buying lanterns, generators, propane, or - if you are really unprepared - rain boots and batteries in areas in the path of Hurricane Sandy as it bears down on the U.S. East Coast. The approach of the gigantic storm, which is expected to come ashore on Monday night set off a weekend scramble for supplies from Virginia to New England, causing long lines at gas stations, bare shelves at hardware and home-supply shops, and a run on bread, bottled water and canned foods. "It's been crazy. ...

Pastor of church destroyed in fire vows to return 'stronger'

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 06:53 PM PDT

Two days after a blaze tore through a venerable church in the Englewood neighborhood, its pastor told his congregation Sunday that with God's help they could rebuild.

Romney cancels N.H. rally amid concern over Hurricane Sandy

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 02:42 PM PDT

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign speech Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in Land O' Lakes, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)Mitt Romney is cancelling yet another event amid worries over the impact of Hurricane Sandy. The Romney campaign announced Sunday it would cancel a Tuesday evening rally in Milford, N.H—a stop that would have been Romney's first visit to the swing state in more than a month. Rick Gorka, a Romney spokesman, said the [...]

Romney campaign eyes Sandy as Storm garners voters' focus

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 01:29 PM PDT

Candidato republicano Mitt Romney assume o palco durante comício de campanha junto com vice na chapa Paul Ryan em Celina, OhioCELINA, Ohio – One of Mitt Romney's senior advisers said today that despite impending wall-to-wall news coverage dedicated to Hurricane Sandy, he feels confident that voters in the key swing states in the region have received enough information ahead of the election and reiterated the...

Hurricane's death toll rises to 65 in Caribbean

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 03:04 PM PDT

Residents of Leogane, Haiti find higher ground as the water level continues to rise Friday, Oct. 26, 2012. Residents of Leogane have had five consecutive days of rain in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which caused serious flooding and claimed at least 26 lives in the impoverished country. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald, Carl Juste) MAGS OUTAs Americans braced Sunday for Hurricane Sandy, Haiti was still suffering.

Statue of Liberty reopens on 126th anniversary

Posted: 27 Oct 2012 01:45 PM PDT

Statue of Liberty reopens on 126th anniversaryVisitors Philip Hodges and his mom Marion Hodges pose for a self portrait in front of the Statue of Liberty in New York October 27, 2012. The statue was closed for a year-long project that was the second phase of planned work to improve the visitor's experience and safety while touring the interior of the monument. Starting Sunday visitors will once again be able to climb to Lady Liberty's crown. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri (UNITED STATES)

Execution looms for SD killer, ending 22-year saga

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 12:30 PM PDT

FILE - This July 18, 2012 file frame grab provided by KELO-TV shows convicted killer Donald Moeller during a court appearance in Sioux Falls, S.D. Moeller is scheduled to be executed to be executed the week of Oct. 29, 2012, for the 1990 killing of 9-year-old Becky O'Connell. His death sentence was the first handed down in South Dakota since the 1940s. (AP Photo/Courtesy KELO-TV, File)Torrential overnight rains had washed away the blood so the searchers at first thought the pale form lying on the earthen berm might be a mannequin.

Election surrogates fight over confidence in Ohio, elsewhere

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 12:04 PM PDT

Aides Fight Over Who Is More Confident in OhioReince Priebus knows why the Republicans are going to win on election day. Elections, just like football, are decided by a campaign's ground game. Democrats "are a fraction of where they were in 2008, and we're far ahead of where we were in 2008. And our ground game is better than their ground game," Priebus said on State of the Union. "We're going to do more voter contacts this year compared to all of 2008 and all of 2004 combined," he said. "We have an army on the ground. ...

Trial in 1977 killing asks: Were suspects framed?

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 02:04 PM PDT

FILE - In this April 17, 2012 file photo, Terry Harrington, center, stands with his daughter Nicole Brown, left, his mother Josephine James, right, and family and friends outside the Clarinda Correctional Facility in Clarinda, Iowa, after Gov. Tom Vilsack signed his reprieve. Harrington and Curtis McGhee, wrongfully convicted in the 1977 murder of a retired Iowa police officer, hope to prove during a trial that starts Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, that officers coerced witnesses into fabricating testimony that framed them for killing John Schweer. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)Two black men wrongly convicted in the 1977 murder of a white Iowa police officer hope to prove something they couldn't during trials that sent them to prison for 25 years: that detectives framed them to solve a high-profile case.

Analysis: Fiscal cliff could hit economy harder than many expect

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 10:50 AM PDT

A U.S. flag decorates a for-sale sign at a home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of WashingtonThe United States runs the risk of a recession far deeper than many investors and policymakers may think if lawmakers fail to avert looming tax hikes and cuts to public spending. Absent action by Congress, ...

Massive storm wreaks havoc on presidential race

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 04:23 PM PDT

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign speech Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in Land O' Lakes, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama frantically sought to close the deal with voters with precious few days left in an incredibly close race as this year's October surprise — an unprecedented storm menacing the East Coast — wreaked havoc on their best-laid plans.

Syria truce collapse shows limits of diplomacy

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 12:38 PM PDT

In this Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012 photo, a doctor examines an x-ray while a Syrian elder sits on a hospital trolley suffering partial loss of memory after was shot in the head by a sniper in Aleppo, Syria. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras).Syria's air force fired missiles and dropped barrel bombs on rebel strongholds while opposition fighters attacked regime positions Sunday, flouting a U.N.-backed cease-fire that was supposed to quiet fighting over a long holiday weekend but never took hold.

An uneasy economy, and those living through it

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 11:13 AM PDT

In this Oct. 19, 2012, photo, Ray and Candice Arvin pose inside their home in Charlotte, N.C. Romney supporter, Ray Arvin used to own a small business with five employees, selling equipment to power companies, but he went out of business in 2009. He's now a salesman for another equipment company. Polls consistently find that the economy is the top concern of voters, and Romney tends to get an edge over Obama when people are asked who might do better with it. Whether that truly drives how Americans vote is a crucial question for Election Day. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)Here was Chas Kaufmann's life before the Great Recession: $28,000 in restaurant tabs in a year, cruises, house parties with fireworks. His Mr. Gutter business was booming in the Pennsylvania Poconos.

6 badly hurt in West Side crash

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 02:09 PM PDT

Three children and three adults were seriously injured this afternoon in an accident on the West Side.

AP analysis: Advantage Obama in hunt for 270 electoral votes

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 03:04 PM PDT

President Barack Obama walks to St. John's Episcopal Church from the White House with his daughters Sasha, left, and Malia, in Washington, on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)President Barack Obama is poised to eke out a victory in the race for the 270 electoral votes needed to win re-election, having beaten back Republican Mitt Romney's attempts to convert momentum from the debates into support in all-important Ohio, according to an Associated Press analysis a week before Election Day.