"Chicago Tribune" Reader

"Chicago Tribune" Reader

3 wildfires burn out of control in Colorado

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 05:29 PM PDT

People pulled to over watch from their cars as a fire-fighting slurry plane makes a pass in preparation to drop its load on a wildfire in the Black Forest area north of Colorado Springs, Colo., on Wednesday, June 12, 2013. The number of houses destroyed by the Black Forest fire could grow to around 100, and authorities fear it's possible that some people who stayed behind might have died. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A wildfire fueled by hot temperatures, gusty winds and thick, bone-dry forests has destroyed 92 homes, damaged five more and prompted more than 7,000 residents northeast of Colorado Springs to flee, sheriff's official said Wednesday.

Soledad O'Brien joining HBO's 'Real Sports'

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 05:29 PM PDT

FILE - This March 26, 2013 file photo shows journalist Soledad O'Brien at a birthday party for Chaka Kahn in New York. O'Brien is joining fellow "Today" show alum Bryant Gumbel at HBO's "Real Sports." HBO said Wednesday, June 12, that O'Brien will be a reporter on the monthly magazine show, which is anchored by Gumbel. Her first story, due this month, is about war veterans who use martial arts to help cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, file)NEW YORK (AP) — Soledad O'Brien is joining fellow "Today" show alum Bryant Gumbel at HBO's "Real Sports."

Pa. girl's double-lung transplant deemed success

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 05:39 PM PDT

FILE - In this May 30, 2013 file photo provided by the Murnaghan family, Sarah Murnaghan, center, celebrates the 100th day of her stay in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with her father, Fran, left, and mother, Janet. The 10-year-old suburban Philadelphia girl received a lung transplant there Wednesday, June 12, 2013, her family said. (AP Photo/Murnaghan Family, File)PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation spurred public debate over how organs are allocated underwent a successful double-lung transplant on Wednesday, the girl's family said.

Kin: Pa. girl's double-lung transplant a success

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 05:12 PM PDT

FILE - In this May 30, 2013 file photo provided by the Murnaghan family, Sarah Murnaghan, center, celebrates the 100th day of her stay in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with her father, Fran, left, and mother, Janet. The 10-year-old suburban Philadelphia girl received a lung transplant there Wednesday, June 12, 2013, her family said. (AP Photo/Murnaghan Family, File)PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation spurred public debate over how organs are allocated underwent a successful double-lung transplant on Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said.

Hawks Game Day: Ready for Game 1

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 04:54 PM PDT

The Stanley Cup Final arrived at the United Center on Wednesday night for the first time since 2010, and fans began trickling in about an hour before Game 1 between the Blackhawks and the Bruins.

James: 'Something has to give' in Game 4 of finals

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 04:51 PM PDT

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Game 4 of the NBA Finals will tell more about the Miami Heat than a 66-win regular season ever could.

Coburn questions DOJ on spending under sequestration

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 02:55 PM PDT

Coburn on disaster federal aid: "We'll take the help...prudently"Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn is demanding details from the Department of Justice about the agency's spending on, among other things, employee conferences under sequestration. In a letter obtained by Yahoo News that was sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday, Coburn pointed to the DOJ's history of spending on conferences over the [...]

NSA leaker mysterious despite hours of interviews

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 03:43 PM PDT

This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, in Hong Kong, Sunday, June 9, 2013. The man who told the world about the U.S. government's gigantic data grab also talked a lot about himself. Mostly through his own words, a picture of Edward Snowden is emerging: fresh-faced computer whiz, high school and Army dropout, independent thinker, trustee of official secrets. And leaker on the lam. (AP Photo/The Guardian) MANDATORY CREDITWASHINGTON (AP) — The man who told the world about the U.S. government's gigantic data grab also talks a lot about himself.

Storms pelt Midwest with rain, winds, hail

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 05:43 PM PDT

Lighting flashes over the Chicago skyline, Wednesday, June 12, 2013. An unusually massive line of storms packing hail, lightning and tree-toppling winds was rolling through the Midwest on Wednesday and could affect more than one in five Americans from Iowa to Maryland. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)CHICAGO (AP) — A massive line of storms packing hail, lightning and tree-toppling winds began rolling through the Midwest Wednesday evening and could affect more than one in five Americans from Iowa to Maryland before subsiding.

LeBron not backing down on vow for Game 4

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 03:06 PM PDT

Miami Heat's LeBron James takes part in NBA basketball practice Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in San Antonio. The Heat trail the San Antonio Spurs 2-1 in the best-of-seven games series. Game 4 of the NBA finals series is scheduled for Thursday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A day later, LeBron James didn't back down.

FEMA denies aid for Texas fertilizer plant blast

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 03:14 PM PDT

This April 18, 2013 aerial photo shows a destroyed fertilizer plant, top, following an explosion in West, Texas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is refusing to provide money to help rebuild West, the small Texas town where a deadly fertilizer plant explosion leveled numerous homes and a school, and killed 15 people. According to a letter obtained by The Associated Press, FEMA said it reviewed the state's appeal to help West but decided that the explosion "is not of the severity and magnitude that warrants a major disaster declaration." FEMA has, however, provided emergency funds to individual residents. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)HOUSTON (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is refusing to provide additional money to help rebuild the small Texas town where a deadly fertilizer plant explosion leveled numerous homes and a school, and killed 15 people.

Workers rescued outside Manhattan skyscraper

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 02:01 PM PDT

A window washer is safely pulled through a window of the Hearst Tower in midtown Manhattan section of New YorkThey were trapped 500 feet in the air after scaffolding collapsed.

Jury selection enters Day 3 in Zimmerman trial

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 04:26 PM PDT

George Zimmerman listens to a prospective juror in Seminole circuit court during his trial, in Sanford, Fla., Wednesday, June 12, 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) — Attorneys trying to seat a jury in George Zimmerman's trial for shooting an unarmed teen stopped questioning a white man in his 20s Wednesday after he gave answers that indicated he wouldn't be impartial.

CEO describes Jackson as forceful businessman

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:41 PM PDT

FILE - In this March 5, 2009 file photo, Michael Jackson speaks at a news conference in London. AEG Live LLC CEO Randy Phillips told a jury Wednesday June 12, 2013 that they have heard an inaccurate portrait of Jackson during an ongoing civil trial, and said the entertainer was a sophisticated businessman and not a LOS ANGELES (AP) — The head of AEG Live LLC told jurors Wednesday that he knew Michael Jackson as a sophisticated, forceful businessman and not the drugged-up performer who's been described throughout an ongoing civil trial filed over the singer's untimely death.

Coroner details Santa Monica rampage deaths

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 02:46 PM PDT

Akiva Sherman, right, 62, repairs the wall next to a makeshift memorial Sunday, June 9, 2013, where a victim's vehicle crashed during the shootings at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, Calif. The shootings on Friday left six people dead, including the gunman. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)LOS ANGELES (AP) — As authorities pressed their investigation into why Santa Monica gunman John Zawahri killed five people in a rampage last week, new details began to emerge about the violence.

Ryan: Immigration bill is not an offer of amnesty

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:59 PM PDT

File photo of Paul Ryan speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in MarylandEarlier this year, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul warned lawmakers not to trip over loaded phrases like "pathway to citizenship" and "amnesty" to describe the effort to overhaul immigration. Doing so, Paul said, would polarize the debate over reform—and he was right. Not surprisingly, opponents of the immigration bill regularly refer to it as an [...]

Syrian extremist rebels raid Shiite village

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 03:29 PM PDT

In this amateur video provided by a group which calls itself Ugarit News, Syrian rebels cross a road during a raid on the village of Hatla, Syria, Wednesday, June 12, 2013. On Wednesday, activists said Syrian rebels battled Shiites in Hatla, in the country's east, killing more than 60 people, including civilians. The content has been authenticated based on its translation and content has been checked by regional experts against known locations and events, and is consistent with independent Associated Press reporting. (AP Photo/Amateur video via Ugarit News)BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels, including Sunni extremists, stormed a village and battled pro-regime militiamen, killing more than 60 Shiite fighters and civilians in an attack steeped in the sectarian hatreds that increasingly characterize the civil war, activists said Wednesday.

Prosecutors: Autistic boy killed because of deteriorating 'emotional condition'

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 05:14 PM PDT

The mother of a 14-year-old autistic River Grove boy and the child's full-time caregiver explained in a suicide letter that they killed the boy because his emotional condition had deteriorated after a prolonged illness, prosecutors said today.

Challenges to phone records face legal obstacles

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 01:01 PM PDT

FILE - This June 6, 2013 file photo shows a sign outside the National Security Administration (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md. Massive government surveillance of Americans' phone and internet activity is drawing protests from civil liberties groups, but major legal obstacles stand in the way of any full-blown court hearing on the practice. Among them: government claims that national security secrets will be revealed if the cases are allowed to proceed. The Supreme Court, where several justices have written about complex issues of privacy in the digital age, could be the ultimate stop for such lawsuits. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)WASHINGTON (AP) — The government's massive collection of Americans' phone records is drawing protests and lawsuits from civil liberties groups, but major legal obstacles stand in the way. Among them are government claims that national security secrets will be revealed if the cases are allowed to proceed, and Supreme Court rulings that telephone records, as opposed to conversations, are not private to begin with.

Whistleblowers hope this time is different

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 10:32 AM PDT

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defence contractor, is interviewed by The Guardian in his hotel room in Hong KongEdward Snowden isn't the first to reveal NSA secrets; he's the third.