Oprah Winfrey made a surprise visit to M.A.C.’s Aids benefit dinner in honor of Mo’nique, sending C-list actresses Jackee’ Harry and Shondrella Avery into hysterics.

A spy at Saturday’s M.A.C. cosmetics bash for Mo’Nique at Phillippe Chow in L.A. said that when Ms. Winfrey made a surprise appearance, attendees like Shondrella Avery and Jackee Harry “flipped out” and even “had tears in their eyes.”

“The ladies really couldn’t believe she was at the same party,” the source says. But ever the diva, Mo stole back the limelight when she insisted the entire Parisian-themed luncheon area be turned into a dance floor when the guests finished eating. She then requested that Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” be turned on full blast.

“Mo’Nique started a conga line that went throughout the restaurant and eventually led out to the valet parking area,” the partygoer says. “The ladies, who were all decked in pearls and white gloves, were really getting down.”

Via: NY Daily News

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Technorati Tags: Alert, anything, area, bmw, car, caution, chicago, Cops, County, Darien, deaths, Department, Family, family members, Hamilton, Hamilton County, hamilton county sheriff, Highway, home, homicide, illinois, J. Harrell, location, MIDNIGHT, morning, Murders, northern Florida, nothing, Police, police department, REID, road, sheriff, story, Stretch, three dead, Triple Homicide

Several people were injured, some seriously, in a multicar crash at the intersection of Green Bay and Kenosha roads in Winthrop Harbor at 10 a.m. Saturday, fire officials said.

Fire Capt. Alicia McCoy said rescue crews from six area departments responded to the crash.

The injured were taken to Vista East Medical Center in Waukegan and Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.

McCoy could not comment on the cause of the crash or tell how many vehicles were involved.

Winthrop Harbor Police were not releasing information on the accident Sunday.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Technorati Tags: Accident, Advocate, area, Capt. Alicia McCoy, cause, Center, Condell, condell medical center, crash, East, east medical center, Fire, fire officials, Green Bay, information, intersection, Kenosha, libertyville, McCoy, Medical, multicar, multicar crash, original article, Police, press release services, Press Releases, Read, rescue, rescue crews, Saturday, Sunday, Vista, Waukegan, Winthrop Harbor, winthrop harbor police

Philip Carpenter happened to be awake when Wednesday’s earthquake shook his Sycamore home, and unlike many people who nervously rode out the tremors, he found the moment exhilarating.

Carpenter is a Northern Illinois University geology professor who studies earthquakes and other geological activity for a living. But until those few shaky seconds, he had never felt one on his home turf.

“To my knowledge, there have been no recorded earthquakes in that area,” he said.

The quake’s center, near the Kane County town of Pingree Grove, was far from any known fault line, and its origin remains a tantalizing mystery. But a research project set to begin in the area might provide answers on just what’s going on deep beneath the surface of northern Illinois.

The federally funded project, known as EarthScope, will plant 400 seismometers across the Midwest to measure seismic activity. The information collected by the instruments will help scientists create images of hidden fault lines and other subterranean “scar tissue” left over from millenniums of underground activity.

Those images, in turn, could help explain why the earth moved, albeit gently, in northern Illinois, an area that rarely experiences earthquakes.

“Maybe then we can see these ancient scars in the crust and finally put it all together,” said Tim Larson, a geophysicist with the Illinois State Geological Survey.

Wednesday’s earthquake was only the fourth in northern Illinois since 1985, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. All have been mild: The latest, which caused no recorded damage, measured a magnitude 3.8; the magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti last month was about 32,000 times more powerful.

Still, it was a hot topic at the General Store of Udina, a faux log cabin structure about two miles east of the epicenter.

“OMG!” proprietor Cindy Kamijima wrote on the store’s whiteboard. “Did anyone else feel the Earthquake?”

It was the first question she and colleague Charlene LaCasse asked of anyone who walked in the establishment. Kamijima was getting ready to open the store when she felt the jolt at 3:59 a.m. She thought it was a snowplow, then looked outside and saw nothing.

Regular customer Bill Miller had a more sinister first impression. He thought military planes were flying toward Chicago after a terrorist attack.

“I thought it was a sonic boom, to tell the truth, because they scramble jets through here out of Milwaukee and Rockford,” he said.

Managers at VIP Property Maintenance, a landscaping, snow removal and valet service about a mile east of the epicenter, started getting phone calls moments after the tremor, said Kellie Florence, administrative assistant at the company.

“They thought our snowplows were hitting their buildings,” Florence said. “Our regional manager was in a truck and had no idea. He just said, ‘OK, we’ll get right on it.’ ”

More than 17,000 people told the Geological Survey they felt the quake. Those who felt it most strongly lived in Fox River towns from Algonquin to Oswego, but Wisconsin and Indiana residents also experienced the tremors.

Scientists could offer no clear answers about the cause. The closest known fault line runs beneath the small town of Sandwich, about 40 miles south of the epicenter, but it has been dormant for at least 150 years, experts said.

The quake was small enough that geologists did not expect any aftershocks, which would have offered an opportunity for follow-up seismic measurements. And it took place far underground, anywhere fromthree to six miles beneath the surface, where most geological features are still unmapped.

But the EarthScope project, with its battery of seismometers, could provide insight on that hidden territory.

Anne Trehu, EarthScope’s current director, said the instruments are placed in a grid pattern, with one every 43 miles, to continuously record seismic waves. Those data are used to create models of what’s taking place underground, including the stresses that could be building up inside the plate upon which Chicago rests.

The research probably won’t yield life-or-death information for Illinois residents: Experts said that Illinois, sitting on the middle of the North American plate, is much less likely to experience a powerful earthquake than California on the plate’s western edge.

But Larson said it might shed light on one theory: that the state’s earthquakes could be the result of glaciers that receded north about 15,000 years ago. Relieved of the weight of the ice, the crust could still be slowly bouncing back into place, causing underground disturbances.

Carpenter, who hopes to use some of EarthScope’s data in his own research, said the information could have a more practical payoff too. He hopes to use it to monitor the condition of northern Illinois’ aquifers, the underground source of drinking water for many residents.

“It does have some applications to environmental problems,” he said.

The seismometers, which are gradually being deployed across the country, should arrive within the next two years.

–John Keilman and Ted Gregory

Technorati Tags: activity, Anne Trehu, area, Bill Miller, California, Charlene LaCasse, chicago, Cindy Kamijima, crust, earthquake, epicenter, fault, Florence, Fox River, General Store, geological activity, geology professor, Grove, Haiti, home, home turf, illinois, illinois state geological survey, Indiana, information, Kane County, Kellie Florence, known fault, Larson, line, Milwaukee, News, North American, Northern Illinois, northern illinois university, Philip Carpenter, Pingree, place, plate, project, quake, Research, Rockford, Sandwich, scar tissue, state, surface, survey, Tim Larson, Town, u s geological survey, U.S. Geological, underground activity, university geology, Wednesday, Wisconsin

Philip Carpenter happened to be awake when Wednesday’s earthquake shook his Sycamore home, and unlike many people who nervously rode out the tremors, he found the moment exhilarating.

Carpenter is a Northern Illinois University geology professor who studies earthquakes and other geological activity for a living. But until those few shaky seconds, he had never felt one on his home turf.

“To my knowledge, there have been no recorded earthquakes in that area,” he said.

The quake’s center, near the Kane County town of Pingree Grove, was far from any known fault line, and its origin remains a tantalizing mystery. But a research project set to begin in the area might provide answers on just what’s going on deep beneath the surface of northern Illinois.

The federally funded project, known as EarthScope, will plant 400 seismometers across the Midwest to measure seismic activity. The information collected by the instruments will help scientists create images of hidden fault lines and other subterranean “scar tissue” left over from millenniums of underground activity.

Those images, in turn, could help explain why the earth moved, albeit gently, in northern Illinois, an area that rarely experiences earthquakes.

“Maybe then we can see these ancient scars in the crust and finally put it all together,” said Tim Larson, a geophysicist with the Illinois State Geological Survey.

Wednesday’s earthquake was only the fourth in northern Illinois since 1985, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. All have been mild: The latest, which caused no recorded damage, measured a magnitude 3.8; the magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti last month was about 32,000 times more powerful.

Still, it was a hot topic at the General Store of Udina, a faux log cabin structure about two miles east of the epicenter.

“OMG!” proprietor Cindy Kamijima wrote on the store’s whiteboard. “Did anyone else feel the Earthquake?”

It was the first question she and colleague Charlene LaCasse asked of anyone who walked in the establishment. Kamijima was getting ready to open the store when she felt the jolt at 3:59 a.m. She thought it was a snowplow, then looked outside and saw nothing.

Regular customer Bill Miller had a more sinister first impression. He thought military planes were flying toward Chicago after a terrorist attack.

“I thought it was a sonic boom, to tell the truth, because they scramble jets through here out of Milwaukee and Rockford,” he said.

Managers at VIP Property Maintenance, a landscaping, snow removal and valet service about a mile east of the epicenter, started getting phone calls moments after the tremor, said Kellie Florence, administrative assistant at the company.

“They thought our snowplows were hitting their buildings,” Florence said. “Our regional manager was in a truck and had no idea. He just said, ‘OK, we’ll get right on it.’ ”

More than 17,000 people told the Geological Survey they felt the quake. Those who felt it most strongly lived in Fox River towns from Algonquin to Oswego, but Wisconsin and Indiana residents also experienced the tremors.

Scientists could offer no clear answers about the cause. The closest known fault line runs beneath the small town of Sandwich, about 40 miles south of the epicenter, but it has been dormant for at least 150 years, experts said.

The quake was small enough that geologists did not expect any aftershocks, which would have offered an opportunity for follow-up seismic measurements. And it took place far underground, anywhere fromthree to six miles beneath the surface, where most geological features are still unmapped.

But the EarthScope project, with its battery of seismometers, could provide insight on that hidden territory.

Anne Trehu, EarthScope’s current director, said the instruments are placed in a grid pattern, with one every 43 miles, to continuously record seismic waves. Those data are used to create models of what’s taking place underground, including the stresses that could be building up inside the plate upon which Chicago rests.

The research probably won’t yield life-or-death information for Illinois residents: Experts said that Illinois, sitting on the middle of the North American plate, is much less likely to experience a powerful earthquake than California on the plate’s western edge.

But Larson said it might shed light on one theory: that the state’s earthquakes could be the result of glaciers that receded north about 15,000 years ago. Relieved of the weight of the ice, the crust could still be slowly bouncing back into place, causing underground disturbances.

Carpenter, who hopes to use some of EarthScope’s data in his own research, said the information could have a more practical payoff too. He hopes to use it to monitor the condition of northern Illinois’ aquifers, the underground source of drinking water for many residents.

“It does have some applications to environmental problems,” he said.

The seismometers, which are gradually being deployed across the country, should arrive within the next two years.

–John Keilman and Ted Gregory

Technorati Tags: activity, area, chicago, earthquake, EarthScope, epicenter, fault, home, illinois state geological survey, information, line, News, northern illinois university, place, plate, project, quake, Research, state, surface, survey, Town, Wednesday

Philip Carpenter happened to be awake when Wednesday’s earthquake shook his Sycamore home, and unlike many people who nervously rode out the tremors, he found the moment exhilarating.

Carpenter is a Northern Illinois University geology professor who studies earthquakes and other geological activity for a living. But until those few shaky seconds, he had never felt one on his home turf.

“To my knowledge, there have been no recorded earthquakes in that area,” he said.

The quake’s center, near the Kane County town of Pingree Grove, was far from any known fault line, and its origin remains a tantalizing mystery. But a research project set to begin in the area might provide answers on just what’s going on deep beneath the surface of northern Illinois.

The federally funded project, known as EarthScope, will plant 400 seismometers across the Midwest to measure seismic activity. The information collected by the instruments will help scientists create images of hidden fault lines and other subterranean “scar tissue” left over from millenniums of underground activity.

Those images, in turn, could help explain why the earth moved, albeit gently, in northern Illinois, an area that rarely experiences earthquakes.

“Maybe then we can see these ancient scars in the crust and finally put it all together,” said Tim Larson, a geophysicist with the Illinois State Geological Survey.

Wednesday’s earthquake was only the fourth in northern Illinois since 1985, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. All have been mild: The latest, which caused no recorded damage, measured a magnitude 3.8; the magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti last month was about 32,000 times more powerful.

Still, it was a hot topic at the General Store of Udina, a faux log cabin structure about two miles east of the epicenter.

“OMG!” proprietor Cindy Kamijima wrote on the store’s whiteboard. “Did anyone else feel the Earthquake?”

It was the first question she and colleague Charlene LaCasse asked of anyone who walked in the establishment. Kamijima was getting ready to open the store when she felt the jolt at 3:59 a.m. She thought it was a snowplow, then looked outside and saw nothing.

Regular customer Bill Miller had a more sinister first impression. He thought military planes were flying toward Chicago after a terrorist attack.

“I thought it was a sonic boom, to tell the truth, because they scramble jets through here out of Milwaukee and Rockford,” he said.

Managers at VIP Property Maintenance, a landscaping, snow removal and valet service about a mile east of the epicenter, started getting phone calls moments after the tremor, said Kellie Florence, administrative assistant at the company.

“They thought our snowplows were hitting their buildings,” Florence said. “Our regional manager was in a truck and had no idea. He just said, ‘OK, we’ll get right on it.’ ”

More than 17,000 people told the Geological Survey they felt the quake. Those who felt it most strongly lived in Fox River towns from Algonquin to Oswego, but Wisconsin and Indiana residents also experienced the tremors.

Scientists could offer no clear answers about the cause. The closest known fault line runs beneath the small town of Sandwich, about 40 miles south of the epicenter, but it has been dormant for at least 150 years, experts said.

The quake was small enough that geologists did not expect any aftershocks, which would have offered an opportunity for follow-up seismic measurements. And it took place far underground, anywhere fromthree to six miles beneath the surface, where most geological features are still unmapped.

But the EarthScope project, with its battery of seismometers, could provide insight on that hidden territory.

Anne Trehu, EarthScope’s current director, said the instruments are placed in a grid pattern, with one every 43 miles, to continuously record seismic waves. Those data are used to create models of what’s taking place underground, including the stresses that could be building up inside the plate upon which Chicago rests.

The research probably won’t yield life-or-death information for Illinois residents: Experts said that Illinois, sitting on the middle of the North American plate, is much less likely to experience a powerful earthquake than California on the plate’s western edge.

But Larson said it might shed light on one theory: that the state’s earthquakes could be the result of glaciers that receded north about 15,000 years ago. Relieved of the weight of the ice, the crust could still be slowly bouncing back into place, causing underground disturbances.

Carpenter, who hopes to use some of EarthScope’s data in his own research, said the information could have a more practical payoff too. He hopes to use it to monitor the condition of northern Illinois’ aquifers, the underground source of drinking water for many residents.

“It does have some applications to environmental problems,” he said.

The seismometers, which are gradually being deployed across the country, should arrive within the next two years.

–John Keilman and Ted Gregory

Technorati Tags: activity, Anne Trehu, area, chicago, crust, earthquake, EarthScope, epicenter, fault, General Store, home, illinois state geological survey, information, line, News, northern illinois university, place, plate, project, quake, Research, state, surface, survey, Town, Wednesday

Philip Carpenter happened to be awake when Wednesday’s earthquake shook his Sycamore home, and unlike many people who nervously rode out the tremors, he found the moment exhilarating.

Carpenter is a Northern Illinois University geology professor who studies earthquakes and other geological activity for a living. But until those few shaky seconds, he had never felt one on his home turf.

“To my knowledge, there have been no recorded earthquakes in that area,” he said.

The quake’s center, near the Kane County town of Pingree Grove, was far from any known fault line, and its origin remains a tantalizing mystery. But a research project set to begin in the area might provide answers on just what’s going on deep beneath the surface of northern Illinois.

The federally funded project, known as EarthScope, will plant 400 seismometers across the Midwest to measure seismic activity. The information collected by the instruments will help scientists create images of hidden fault lines and other subterranean “scar tissue” left over from millenniums of underground activity.

Those images, in turn, could help explain why the earth moved, albeit gently, in northern Illinois, an area that rarely experiences earthquakes.

“Maybe then we can see these ancient scars in the crust and finally put it all together,” said Tim Larson, a geophysicist with the Illinois State Geological Survey.

Wednesday’s earthquake was only the fourth in northern Illinois since 1985, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. All have been mild: The latest, which caused no recorded damage, measured a magnitude 3.8; the magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti last month was about 32,000 times more powerful.

Still, it was a hot topic at the General Store of Udina, a faux log cabin structure about two miles east of the epicenter.

“OMG!” proprietor Cindy Kamijima wrote on the store’s whiteboard. “Did anyone else feel the Earthquake?”

It was the first question she and colleague Charlene LaCasse asked of anyone who walked in the establishment. Kamijima was getting ready to open the store when she felt the jolt at 3:59 a.m. She thought it was a snowplow, then looked outside and saw nothing.

Regular customer Bill Miller had a more sinister first impression. He thought military planes were flying toward Chicago after a terrorist attack.

“I thought it was a sonic boom, to tell the truth, because they scramble jets through here out of Milwaukee and Rockford,” he said.

Managers at VIP Property Maintenance, a landscaping, snow removal and valet service about a mile east of the epicenter, started getting phone calls moments after the tremor, said Kellie Florence, administrative assistant at the company.

“They thought our snowplows were hitting their buildings,” Florence said. “Our regional manager was in a truck and had no idea. He just said, ‘OK, we’ll get right on it.’ ”

More than 17,000 people told the Geological Survey they felt the quake. Those who felt it most strongly lived in Fox River towns from Algonquin to Oswego, but Wisconsin and Indiana residents also experienced the tremors.

Scientists could offer no clear answers about the cause. The closest known fault line runs beneath the small town of Sandwich, about 40 miles south of the epicenter, but it has been dormant for at least 150 years, experts said.

The quake was small enough that geologists did not expect any aftershocks, which would have offered an opportunity for follow-up seismic measurements. And it took place far underground, anywhere fromthree to six miles beneath the surface, where most geological features are still unmapped.

But the EarthScope project, with its battery of seismometers, could provide insight on that hidden territory.

Anne Trehu, EarthScope’s current director, said the instruments are placed in a grid pattern, with one every 43 miles, to continuously record seismic waves. Those data are used to create models of what’s taking place underground, including the stresses that could be building up inside the plate upon which Chicago rests.

The research probably won’t yield life-or-death information for Illinois residents: Experts said that Illinois, sitting on the middle of the North American plate, is much less likely to experience a powerful earthquake than California on the plate’s western edge.

But Larson said it might shed light on one theory: that the state’s earthquakes could be the result of glaciers that receded north about 15,000 years ago. Relieved of the weight of the ice, the crust could still be slowly bouncing back into place, causing underground disturbances.

Carpenter, who hopes to use some of EarthScope’s data in his own research, said the information could have a more practical payoff too. He hopes to use it to monitor the condition of northern Illinois’ aquifers, the underground source of drinking water for many residents.

“It does have some applications to environmental problems,” he said.

The seismometers, which are gradually being deployed across the country, should arrive within the next two years.

–John Keilman and Ted Gregory

Technorati Tags: activity, Anne Trehu, area, Bill Miller, Charlene LaCasse, chicago, crust, earthquake, EarthScope, epicenter, fault, General Store, home, information, line, News, place, plate, project, quake, Research, state, surface, survey, Town, Wednesday

Philip Carpenter happened to be awake when Wednesday’s earthquake shook his Sycamore home, and unlike many people who nervously rode out the tremors, he found the moment exhilarating.

Carpenter is a Northern Illinois University geology professor who studies earthquakes and other geological activity for a living. But until those few shaky seconds, he had never felt one on his home turf.

“To my knowledge, there have been no recorded earthquakes in that area,” he said.

The quake’s center, near the Kane County town of Pingree Grove, was far from any known fault line, and its origin remains a tantalizing mystery. But a research project set to begin in the area might provide answers on just what’s going on deep beneath the surface of northern Illinois.

The federally funded project, known as EarthScope, will plant 400 seismometers across the Midwest to measure seismic activity. The information collected by the instruments will help scientists create images of hidden fault lines and other subterranean “scar tissue” left over from millenniums of underground activity.

Those images, in turn, could help explain why the earth moved, albeit gently, in northern Illinois, an area that rarely experiences earthquakes.

“Maybe then we can see these ancient scars in the crust and finally put it all together,” said Tim Larson, a geophysicist with the Illinois State Geological Survey.

Wednesday’s earthquake was only the fourth in northern Illinois since 1985, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. All have been mild: The latest, which caused no recorded damage, measured a magnitude 3.8; the magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti last month was about 32,000 times more powerful.

Still, it was a hot topic at the General Store of Udina, a faux log cabin structure about two miles east of the epicenter.

“OMG!” proprietor Cindy Kamijima wrote on the store’s whiteboard. “Did anyone else feel the Earthquake?”

It was the first question she and colleague Charlene LaCasse asked of anyone who walked in the establishment. Kamijima was getting ready to open the store when she felt the jolt at 3:59 a.m. She thought it was a snowplow, then looked outside and saw nothing.

Regular customer Bill Miller had a more sinister first impression. He thought military planes were flying toward Chicago after a terrorist attack.

“I thought it was a sonic boom, to tell the truth, because they scramble jets through here out of Milwaukee and Rockford,” he said.

Managers at VIP Property Maintenance, a landscaping, snow removal and valet service about a mile east of the epicenter, started getting phone calls moments after the tremor, said Kellie Florence, administrative assistant at the company.

“They thought our snowplows were hitting their buildings,” Florence said. “Our regional manager was in a truck and had no idea. He just said, ‘OK, we’ll get right on it.’ ”

More than 17,000 people told the Geological Survey they felt the quake. Those who felt it most strongly lived in Fox River towns from Algonquin to Oswego, but Wisconsin and Indiana residents also experienced the tremors.

Scientists could offer no clear answers about the cause. The closest known fault line runs beneath the small town of Sandwich, about 40 miles south of the epicenter, but it has been dormant for at least 150 years, experts said.

The quake was small enough that geologists did not expect any aftershocks, which would have offered an opportunity for follow-up seismic measurements. And it took place far underground, anywhere fromthree to six miles beneath the surface, where most geological features are still unmapped.

But the EarthScope project, with its battery of seismometers, could provide insight on that hidden territory.

Anne Trehu, EarthScope’s current director, said the instruments are placed in a grid pattern, with one every 43 miles, to continuously record seismic waves. Those data are used to create models of what’s taking place underground, including the stresses that could be building up inside the plate upon which Chicago rests.

The research probably won’t yield life-or-death information for Illinois residents: Experts said that Illinois, sitting on the middle of the North American plate, is much less likely to experience a powerful earthquake than California on the plate’s western edge.

But Larson said it might shed light on one theory: that the state’s earthquakes could be the result of glaciers that receded north about 15,000 years ago. Relieved of the weight of the ice, the crust could still be slowly bouncing back into place, causing underground disturbances.

Carpenter, who hopes to use some of EarthScope’s data in his own research, said the information could have a more practical payoff too. He hopes to use it to monitor the condition of northern Illinois’ aquifers, the underground source of drinking water for many residents.

“It does have some applications to environmental problems,” he said.

The seismometers, which are gradually being deployed across the country, should arrive within the next two years.

–John Keilman and Ted Gregory

Technorati Tags: activity, Anne Trehu, area, Bill Miller, California, Charlene LaCasse, chicago, Cindy Kamijima, crust, earthquake, EarthScope, epicenter, fault, Florence, Fox River, General Store, geology professor, Grove, Haiti, home, home turf, illinois, illinois state geological survey, Indiana, information, Kane County, Kellie Florence, Larson, line, Milwaukee, News, North American, Northern Illinois, northern illinois university, Philip Carpenter, Pingree, place, plate, project, quake, Research, Rockford, Sandwich, scar tissue, state, surface, survey, Tim Larson, Town, u s geological survey, U.S. Geological, university geology, Wednesday, Wisconsin

Commuters wait this morning on ChicagoChicago reviews Avenue, west of Milwaukee Avenue.  (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago officials warned commuters that the brunt of a major winter storm will hit at the peak of evening rush hour, meaning plows will be caught in traffic jams along with everyone else.

“We’ll be in the traffic with everyone else,” said Streets and Sanitation Cmsr. Thomas Byrne at a midday briefing. “The less traffic, the faster we’ll be able to clean up the roads.” 

Byrne said he expected the heaviest amount of snow — 3 to 5 inches — to fall between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Winds will limit visibility, he warned. “It’s going to be difficult to get done but we’ll try our hardest,” he said.

He said the city will concentrate on vital areas, such a schools, then move to the main roads. Byrne urged motorists be to drive slow and watch out for the snowplows.

“This storm is the worst we’ve seen this year,” he said.

The CTA — whose fleet has been downsized by almost 290 buses because of service cuts — reported no major problems during the morning rush. CTA president Richard Rodriguez said he was expecting a crush of commuters on trains and buses this evening, but prediicted the agency will be able to handle it.

“Everything seems to be working the way we had planned for it to be working,” he said, urging commuters to checks the agency’s Web site for updates and to use its text alert system. 

The storm is not expected to move out of the Chicago area until early Wednesday morning, leaving behind as much as 7 to 11 inches, according to the National Weather Service’s latest prediction.

WGN-Ch. 9 staff meteorologist Tom Skilling believes 14 inches is possible by Wednesday morning. (Check WGN-Ch. 9’s Severe Weather Blog for updates throughout the day.)

The storm hit just before the morning rush, snarling traffic and forcing the cancellation of more than 500 flights. As of noon, there were 45-minute delays at O’Hare International Airport and 20-minute delays at Midway Airport. 

Traffic on area expressways generally moved at under 30 mph during the rush hour this morning. The Kennedy and the inbound Stevenson were the slowest, with travel times about 30 minutes more than normal.

Illinois state police said minor accidents and spin-outs were reported on area expressways but no major problems.

Weather may have played a factor in a collision between two trucks at about 8:30 a.m. on the Indiana Toll Road in Porter County that shut down two westbound lanes for about three hours. One of the trucks slid off the road into a guard rail. No injuries were reported.

The CTA  implemented a winter action plan to ensure that bus motors start this morning and that its fleet could get out of the garages and storage yards. Snow-sweeper trains operated overnight to clear tracks. CTA officials also had warned riders to allow up to 45 minutes extra travel time this morning.

The 121 express was packed with people in boots and heavy winter coats and hats at 8 a.m.

“This is a nightmare,” said Janet Sandridge. “This (bus) isn’t going to move it’s so full.”
Sandridge said she had not left her home early.

But Tracy Porterfield said the 26 bus, which she usually catches to work, was less crowded than usual. “I think a lot of people stayed at home because of the weather,” she said.

Meanwhile, about 80 schools, mostly private ones, across the area had closed their doors for the day. (Check the emergency school closings list here.)

The Chicago Fire Department was asking the public not to obstruct fire hydrants as they shovel the snow and to dig the hydrants out if they’re covered.

Because of the snow here and the storm passing through the eastern part of the country, airlines at O’Hare International Airport last night preemptively canceled 200 flights and canceled another 300 this morning.

At Midway Airport, Southwest Airlines canceled all flights from 10 a.m. today through 10 a.m. Wednesday. Other airlines at Midway reported about 15 cancellations.

The winter storm warning is in effect until 9 a.m. Wednesday for McHenry, Lake, Kane, Cook and DuPage counties including the cities of WoodstockWoodstock reviews, Waukegan, Aurora, Wheaton and Chicago.

A blizzard watch also has been issued for Joilet, Kankakee, Morocco, Morris, Pontiac, Watseka, Paxton and Fowler until 9 a.m. Wednesday.

–Staff report, Cynthia Dizikes, Carlos Sadovi

–Staff report, Cynthia Dizikes, Carlos Sadovi

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An area winter storm warning has been issued for late Monday through early Wednesday with up to 10 inches of snow expected to blanket the area by late Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

WGN-TV’s Tom Skilling thinks there’s a possibility the final totals could be closer to 14 inches, making this storm the worst of the winter for ChicagoChicago reviews. According to the WGN Severe Weather Blog, the storm could last 35-40 hours, affect three rush hours, and generally make life unpleasant until at least Wednesday.

The warning took effect at 9 p.m. Monday and will continue until 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Snow will continue across the region this morning and increase in intensity. The snow will continue through night. Blowing and drifting snow with near blizzard conditions in open areas can be expected tonight into early Wednesday, the weather service said..

Snowfall rates will generally be light to moderate. However, the very long period that the snow will be falling over will allow storm total snowfalls of 8 to 10 inches to accumulate by late Tuesday night, the weather service said.

Christopher Nendick, 3, pauses to catch a snowflake on his tongue while walking in the parking lot of a Jewel food store as the snow begins to fall in Yorkville on Monday (Tribune / Scott Strazzante)

In addition to the falling snow, northwest winds will increase to 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph late today and will continue through Wednesday morning, resulting in significant blowing and drifting snow.

The potential exists for ground blizzard and near white-out conditions to develop in rural areas late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Travel is likely to be significantly hampered during the snow storm overnight through Wednesday morning. Due to the long duration of light to moderate snowfall major roads and highways might become snow covered. Blowing and drifting snow Tuesday night into early Wednesday will result in near ground blizzard conditions in outlying areas making travel extremely dangerous.

Over 200 flights have been canceled today at O’Hare International Airport due to the winter storm passing through the eastern portion of the nation and in anticipation of the storm expected for the Chicago area, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. As of 8:30  p.m. Monday, flights were delayed 25 to 35 minutes to Minneapolis and the East Coast because of snow conditions.

Southwest Airlines canceled all flights at Midway Airport from 10 a.m. today to 10 a.m. Wednesday in anticipation of the winter storm expected for the Chicago area. More than 30 flights were delayed one hour or more Monday night due to the winter storm conditions on the East Coast.

Forecasters said a strong surface low is expected to develop over the Mississippi Valley Monday and make its way into Kentucky by Tuesday and then into Ohio by Wednesday. That low is the culprit behind the heavy snow warning for north central Illinois Tuesday.

The warning covers all of the areas in the north central part of the state, including Chicago and Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.

Meteorologists earlier issued a hazardous weather outlook covering Monday through Saturday and officials cautioned that the area can expect strong northerly winds to develop late Tuesday into Wednesday. Portions of the lower Fox River will remain flooded because of ice jams.

Illinois State Police will have a few extra officers on duty in the Chicago area over the next couple of days in anticipation of hazardous driving conditions. They expect there to be an accumulation of 11 to 15 inches of snow between Monday night and Wednesday afternoon. State Trooper James Gawel urged drivers to be cautious throughout the storm.

“Visibility is probably going to be down, so I would caution everybody to drive with what the weather conditions require,” said Gawel.

City of Chicago officials said today that they are approaching the storm the same way they have the other storms this winter, with salting, sanding, plowing, and social service programs for at-risk groups like seniors and the homeless. All of the cities’ snow-fighting trucks are expected to be on the streets. 

But Rich Rodriguez, the president of the CTA, acknowledged that this storm will likely make things a “little more difficult” for mass transit users because of the recent service cutbacks caused by budget problems.

“Buses are going to be at capacity throughout the entire day,” he said, cautioning riders to build an extra 30-45 minutes into their commute time. “Individuals may not necessarily be sitting any more on a bus, but the goal is to try to get them on the bus.”

– Staff report

Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.

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Drop locations and processing center information.

Shoes coming from drop sites ultimately arrive at the Share Your Soles processing center.

As our foundation is expanding, we will be updating our drop site locations. Please check back to see if one is going to be in your area, or if you would like information about becoming a drop site location please feel free to contact us at info@shareyoursoles.org

NOTE: Please drop-off shoes in boxes (do not box them separately – bulk package them). It helps us to quickly and more efficiently process your donations. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. Please also limit the number of shoes you bring to the following drop sites to FIVE Pairs (5).

A special thanks to our drop sites that are accepting an unlimited number of shoes to the Share Your Sholes Haiti relief effort. Monetary donations will be of great help to pay for the cost of proessing and shipping shoes to those with none in Haiti.

Drop off locations are listed below according to state..

IllinoisIllinois reviews, IndianaIndiana Jones reviews, IdahoIdaho reviews, OhioOhio reviews, New York, New JerseyNew Jersey reviews, Wisconsin, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania 6-5000 reviews, Connecticut

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Two masked men tied up a couple and their 5-year-old child and robbed their house Monday evening in Carpentersville.

Authorities said two men wearing ski masks entered the home on the 4000 block of Stratford Lane through an open garage door about 9:15 p.m., just after the family had arrived home. After tying up the victims, the men, one of whom had a handgun, removed several items from the house and drove away in a red, two-door sedan. No more detailed information was available regarding the items that were stolen.

Cmdr. Tim Bosshart said police are investigating and are unaware of any similar incidents in the area.

It’s not clear how family members escaped their bonds and contacted police.

– Andrea L. Brown

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Roads were slippery this morning as light snow was falling across the ChicagoChicago reviews area. A number of accidents were reported across the metropolitan area.

The city sent out 175 of its snow-fighting trucks at 2:30 a.m. in anticipation that below-freezing temperatures could cause some morning rush hour problems.

In northwest Indiana, all southbound lanes of Interstate Highway 65 at U.S. Highway 30 were blocked by an accident. There were multiple crashes on a five-mile stretch from south of U.S. 30 to the 248 mile marker near U.S. 231.

In Elgin, an accident closed U.S. 20 between Plank and Switzer roads.
 
Significant snow accumulations throughout the day aren’t expected. The National Weather Service is predicting a total of about 2 inches in the far north and northwest suburbs, with about an inch in the southwest suburbs and northwest Indiana. Today’s highs are forecast to be in the lower 30s.

There also will be a chance of flurries this evening.

–Staff report

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The fire-ravaged Costa’s restaurant in Greektown. (Alex Garcia/ChicagoChicago reviews Tribune) To see more photos click here.

Bartender Paul Kret was locking up Costa’s Greek Dining and Bar in Greektown before going home Sunday night when he smelled something burning.

Kret turned back to the kitchen and saw heavy smoke engulfing the room. Kret grabbed a small fire extinguisher, sprayed it and hoped for a moment he had put it out. But when he saw flames, he fled and called 911 about 11:35 p.m. By morning, the whole building was destroyed.

“I didn’t even get my coat,” Kret said this morning as he looked at the gutted building at 340 S. Halsted St.

Sharron Ott, the restaurant’s interior designer, stood outside Costa’s and snapped photos of what was left of her work — green metal boxes decorated with black leaves and smeared black paint where she had planted flowers in the summer.

Ott said she worked on the restaurant 12 years ago and came back every six months to retouch her design, a country-Greek style with walls of gold, white and touches of blue.

“How can something be gone so quickly?” Ott said.

A Chicago Fire Department spokesman said authorities were investigating a deep fryer as the possible cause of the fire, but no final determination had been made as of Monday afternoon.

The fire, which spread quickly through the restaurant’s wooden walls, chairs and tables, spread also to two neighboring stores, Greektown Music and Athens Grocery, which had been in the neighborhood for 31 years.

The grocery was owned by two brothers, Bill Siannas, 68, and Jim Siannas, 63, who waited outside the store Monday morning to evaluate the damage. Both men declined to talk, but a relative said the men are distraught.

“At an age that they are set to retire, this is not how they wanted to end,” said Athena Apostolakis, 32, daughter of Bill Siannas.

Yiannis Morikis, who owns Greektown Music, said the store has been in his family for 20 years. He worried about the loss of his inventory, music he imported from Greece and which attracted customers from all over the United States.

“I put so much work into it, and obviously I don’t know … what’s going to happen,” Morikis said.

The restaurant’s owner did not return calls seeking comment.

Leah Carroll, 43, used to dine at Costa’s at least once a week and was a fan of its saganaki, sauteed Greek cheese flamed with brandy.

Carroll was shopping in the area when she stopped to gaze at the destruction for a few seconds.

“It’s really sad,” she said, adding that the eatery drew her to the area. “I guess I won’t come anymore (for dinner). It will be missed.”

Kret, the bartender, said he has worked in the restaurant for 11 years and knows half of the clients by name. He stood next to other employees Monday morning, several of whom wondered aloud what would happen to them.

“Forty-five employees have no job this morning,” Kret said.

Carlos Sadovi and Deanese Williams-Harris contributed to this report.

– Alejandra Cancino

(Read what diners have had to say about Costa’s on chicago metromix.com)

Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.

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Three men were shot this morning on the South SideSouth Side reviews and were driven to an area hospital by a fourth person they were with, police said.

Police were called to St. Bernard Hospital this morning after three men came into the hospital with gunshot wounds, said ChicagoChicago reviews Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez.

The victims told police they were in the 5900 block of South Normal Avenue about 2:15 a.m., two of them sitting with a third person in a 2001 Cadillac sedan, and another standing on the street, when a Chevrolet Monte Carlo pulled up alongside them, Perez said.

Someone in the Monte Carlo started shooting at the man standing on the street and those in the car, Perez said. Two of those in the car, a 20-year-old man and a 32-year-old man, were hit, and the man standing outside the car, a 28-year-old, also was hit, Perez said.

After the attackers left, the fourth person with the three men drove them to St. Bernard, and police were called to the hospital, Perez said.

All three were initially considered in serious condition following the shooting, but their injuries did not appear life-threatening. The 28-year-old received gunshot wounds on his legs and left hand; the 20-year-old was shot in the right ankle; and 32-year-old man was shot in the buttocks, Perez said.

Wentworth Area detectives were investigating. No one was in custody.

– Deanese Williams-Harris

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The Aurora Beacon-News reports: A songwriter and a singer from the ChicagoChicago reviews area are accusing the band Black Eyed Peas of ripping them off. Manny Mohr and Ebony Latrice Batts, also known as Phoenix Phenom, filed suit in federal court this week, claiming Black Eyed Peas members stole a song they co-wrote in 2007 to create the smash hit “Boom Boom Pow.”

Get the full story: suburbanchicagonews.com

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The Aurora Beacon-News reports: A songwriter and a singer from the ChicagoChicago reviews area are accusing the band Black Eyed Peas of ripping them off. Manny Mohr and Ebony Latrice Batts, also known as Phoenix Phenom, filed suit in federal court this week, claiming Black Eyed Peas members stole a song they co-wrote in 2007 to create the smash hit “Boom Boom Pow.”

Get the full story: suburbanchicagonews.com

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The frigid weather the ChicagoChicago reviews area has experienced over the last few days is expected to continue with the mercury falling to single digits by tonight.

The area should see highs between 12 and 16 degrees with partly sunny skies during the day, and 10 mph northwesterly winds by this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

But by tonight, the Chicago area there will be partly cloudy skies with a chance of flurries, and low temperatures ranging from the single digits in the outlying areas to 10 to 15 degrees downtown. Winds should continue coming from the north at 10 m.p.h.

Saturday will see highs in the area in the lower 20s with a chance of flurries mainly in the morning. However by nighttime, 7-to-10-degree temperatures are expected in the outlying areas with 10-to-15-degree readings downtown. Winds will come from the west at 10 to 15 mph.

A slight, but not drastic, change in temperature is in store for Sunday with high temperatures in the mid 20s, and lows between 13 and 17 degrees by Sunday night.

–Staff report

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Will County sheriff’s police are asking residents in the Beecher and Crete area to help look for a far south suburban woman.

Cynthia Schmidt, 50, of the 100 block of East Kentucky Road in Beecher was last seen Sunday evening.

Schmidt is described as a white woman with a fair complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes. She is 5-foot-4 and weighs 112 pounds, police said.

Sheriff’s police spokesman Pat Barry said today the department was
alerting eastern Will County residents to Schmidt’s disappearance via a
reverse 911 call. Barry said ground searchers and a helicopter also
were combing the area, which is primarily farmland.

Schmidt, who lives one mile north of Kankakee County and approximately
three miles east of Hanover Township in Lake County, Ind., was reported
missing Monday morning after she did not arrive at work. Deputies found
her locked car, with her purse inside, parked at her home.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Nate Freeman at (815) 727-8574, ext. 4934.

–Dennis Sullivan

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A coalition of local, state and national law enforcement agencies said today that they had tracked down 192 non-compliant sex offenders in the ChicagoChicago reviews area.

The eight-week operation, dubbed Operation Forced Compliance, started after officials identified 720 sex offenders in the area who they believed were not complying with state reporting requirements.

Since November, 82 of the offenders were found to already be in custody. Another 40 were arrested, and the remainder were either found to be compliant, had been deported, had died or were out of state.

State Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan called the results of the operation “significant.”

“No single agency can respond to non-compliant sex offenders alone. We need a coordinated and cooperative approach to this difficult challenge,” Madigan said.

Madigan was joined by Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis, John O’Malley, the chief deputy of the U.S. Marshals Chicago office, and about a dozen representatives of their respective agencies at a news conference this morning at Chicago police headquarters.

This operation was different than other coordinated efforts because of the number of people dedicated to the team — about 25 — and period of time the investigation lasted, O’Malley said.

– Cynthia Dizikes

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An eight-car crash shut down part of Algonquin Road in the far northwest suburbs for about 90 minutes and caused minor injuries this morning in Barrington Hills.

The crash occurred just after 7 a.m., when the 24-year-old driver of a 1995 Toyota traveling west on Algonquin Road–Illinois Highway 62–drifted into the eastbound lanes, striking a 2004 Nissan and causing a chain reaction crash near the intersection of Autumn Trail, Barrington Hills Police Sgt. Mike Montemayor said.

Police were waiting to talk to the Toyota driver, an Algonquin man who was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, Montemayor said, adding citations are anticipated.

Two other drivers involved in the crash were also taken to area hospitals with minor injuries, Montemayor said.

– Ruth Fuller

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All eastbound lanes of the Indiana Toll Road in the Gary area were shut down this morning because of an overturned semitrailer truck.

The truck rolled over about 4:30 a.m. forcing the lanes to shut down, according to Indiana State Police, but no injuries were reported.

Those lanes remained shut down as of 5:40 a.m. as crews worked to remove the truck from the road.

–Staff report

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ChicagoChicago reviews is the only U.S. metro area that would fail to meet a tougher standard for smog-forming nitrogen oxides proposed Monday by the Obama administration.

The more stringent limit is intended to help protect people who suffer from asthma and other respiratory ailments. But Illinois officials contend they won’t be able to do much about it without cleaner cars and diesel trucks, two major sources that are regulated by the federal government, not the states.

Health and environmental groups, meanwhile, groused that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should have imposed an even tougher limit on nitrogen oxides, based on the latest science about health risks posed by breathing the noxious pollution. States would have more than a decade to comply with the limit.

Setting a different standard, closer to the lower end of a range recommended by the EPA’s scientific advisers, would have affected dozens of other cities plagued by dirty air, including Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Phoenix and Denver.

Nitrogen oxides from tailpipes, factories and coal-fired power plants are key ingredients in lung-damaging smog, which is a chronic problem in Chicago and other urban areas on hot, sunny days. The EPA’s new standard of 100 parts per billion, measured every hour, is intended to reduce short-term exposures that can trigger asthma attacks.

Chicago averaged 116 parts per billion between 2006 and 2008, according to the EPA. The next highest urban area was San Diego at 87 parts per billion, followed by Los Angeles at 84 parts per billion.

“We’re moving into the clean, sustainable economy of the 21st century, defined by expanded innovation, stronger pollution standards and healthier communities,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, announcing the latest in a series of regulatory changes that reflect growing understanding about the health threats posed by dirty air.

By most measures, Chicago typically has some of the nation’s dirtiest air. But the region generally is considered slightly cleaner than other major metropolitan areas.

Laurel Kroack, chief of the Illinois EPA’s air bureau, attributed the Chicago area’s high level of nitrogen oxides to the location of the city’s nitrogen oxide monitor: atop a LoopA Loop reviews office building near the traffic-clogged interchange between the Eisenhower and Kennedy expressways.

“It’s very congested there, with a steady stream of cars and trucks,” Kroack said. “It’s very difficult for us to do anything about that.”

Other federal rules requiring cleaner engines and fuels will help. Yet when the EPA imposed tougher standards on diesel engine manufacturers during the Bush administration, it rejected pleas from Illinois and other states to require tune-ups for older engines when brought in for routine maintenance.

Diesel engines can stay on the roads for years. Some can be adjusted to reduce emissions, but trucking groups complained that imposing a broad mandate would increase fuel costs.

Environmental groups had urged the EPA to set the short-term nitrogen oxides exposure limit at 50 parts per billion. Doing so would have required tougher air pollution controls in most of the nation’s urban areas.

“We are disappointed that given a range of options EPA proposed last year … the agency chose the least protective health standard,” said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health at the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago.

Urbaszewski and other activists are pushing for other solutions, including enforcement of a state law and a Chicago ordinance that limit idling by diesel buses, trucks and delivery vans. They also want the federal government to require tighter restrictions on coal-fired power plants, another major source of nitrogen oxides.

As part of the rule announced Monday by the U.S. EPA, the agency will expand its monitoring network to ensure at least one monitor is located next to a major highway in urban areas of more than 500,000 people. The monitors will be in place by 2013, and states will have until 2021 to comply with the new standard.

– Michael Hawthorne

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A 17-year-old boy was charged today after he pointed a gun at police during a chase on Saturday in the Chatham neighborhood, officials said.

Lenard Myles of the 8100 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue was charged with aggravated assault of a police officer and unlawful use of a weapon, police said.

Police News Affairs Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti said that about 4 p.m. Saturday, police were patroling near the area of the 7900 block of South Langley Avenue when they attempted to conduct a field interview.

When police approached Myles, he attempted to run away, sparking a foot chase with police, Ursitti said.

During the chase, on the 7800 block of South Champlain Avenue, Myles pointed a gun at police who responded by shooting at the boy, Ursitti said.

Neither Myles or the officers were injured. Police recovered a gun on the scene, Ursitti said.

– Carlos Sadovi

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A 17-year-old boy was charged today after he pointed a gun at police during a chase on Saturday in the Chatham neighborhood, officials said.

Lenard Myles of the 8100 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue was charged with aggravated assault of a police officer and unlawful use of a weapon, police said.

Police News Affairs Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti said that about 4 p.m. Saturday, police were patroling near the area of the 7900 block of South Langley Avenue when they attempted to conduct a field interview.

When police approached Myles, he attempted to run away, sparking a foot chase with police, Ursitti said.

During the chase, on the 7800 block of South Champlain Avenue, Myles pointed a gun at police who responded by shooting at the boy, Ursitti said.

Neither Myles or the officers were injured. Police recovered a gun on the scene, Ursitti said.

– Carlos Sadovi

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Two people in an extended family returning to the ChicagoChicago reviews area from a Georgia kite-flying convention died when a tractor-trailer hit their full size passenger van on an Indiana interstate, police said.

In addition to killing the two people, the crash injured 16 people in the van and the driver of the truck. It happened about 3:30 a.m. near the town of Edinburgh, about 30 miles southeast of Indianapolis, Shelby County, Indiana, police said. Weather appeared to be a factor in the crash, but investigators were still trying to determine what role it played in the crash.

The van was returning to the Chicago area from an event in the Atlanta area, carrying a family that included both children and adults, according to Shelby County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Travis A. Maloney. Some of those injured in the van received only scratches, while others were seriously injured, he said in an e-mail.

Both the van, a 2010 full size Chevrolet passenger van, and the truck, a blue 2007 Freightliner, were headed north on Interstate 65 when the van tried to pull onto the shoulder, witnesses told police. A witness told police the blue truck was weaving on the road just before the crash. The truck appears to have struck the van from the rear and forced it from the roadway, causing it to turn over, according to evidence police gathered at the scene.

A motorist called 911 about 3:30 a.m. and told the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department about the crash, Maloney said in a press release.

Two people in the van were declared dead on the scene, and the other 16 were taken to three area hospitals, Maloney said. The truck driver was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries.

Blood samples were taken from both drivers following the crash and sent to the Indiana State Department of Toxicology, according to Maloney.

No further information on the victims was being released early this afternoon, Maloney said in an e-mail.

– Staff report

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