A 6-week-old male baby beluga swims above his mother, Puiji, at the Shedd Aquarium today. (José M. Osorio/ ChicagoChicago reviews Tribune)

A 6-week-old male beluga whale will be introduced to the public at the Shedd Aquarium on Sunday.

The calf was born Dec. 14 head first, rather than tail first, which
caused complications including an unnatural curve in his rear flippers.
That curve is now gone and he is swimming fine, said Ken Ramirez, the
Shedd’s chief trainer.
 
The baby beluga feeds every 30 minutes and is gaining an average of 10 pounds a week. He now weighs 185 pounds.

To feed him, 23-year-old Puiji is eating an average of 75 pounds of fish a day — about twice as much as she usually eats.

“He’s independent, he’s social, curious, playful,” Ramirez said of the
calf who doesn’t yet have a name. He is one of two beluga whales born
in December, though the second one did not survive.

–Staff report 
 

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For the first time since Christmas, the temperature in ChicagoChicago reviews climbed above freezing this afternoon — prompting fears of that annual scourge: potholes.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature at O’Hare International Airport at 1:51 p.m. was 34.0 degrees. It last hit freezing on Dec. 31 and was last recorded above freezing on Christmas Day, when it reached a balmy 43.

The relative warming is caused by higher-temperature air moving in from the South, said Nathan Marcelli, a meteorologist for the agency.

Given the potential for an impending thaw, city officials are
bracing for more potholes. This winter season has seen the need for
fewer repairs, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.

By Sunday, CDOT had filled about 33,000 potholes, about 12,000 fewer than the same period the year before, the agency said.

City residents can call 311 to report and request repairs on potholes.

– Staff report

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Known for her curiosity and chattiness, Elizabeth Hanson saw life as an adventure to be embraced, judging from the quote she chose to run next to her high school yearbook photo in Rockford.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end,” read the quote, by author Ursula K. LeGuin.

On Thursday, Hanson’s family, friends and teachers expressed shock and sadness after learning that the 30-year-old was one of several CIA agents killed Dec. 30 in a suicide bombing while gathering intelligence on al-Qaida at a remote base in the mountains of Afghanistan.

The four CIA agents, along with three American security guards and a Jordanian intelligence officer, died after the bomber had been invited to a meeting, supposedly to pass along important information. Officials said he turned out to be a double agent.

“We’re very proud of her,” said Hanson’s brother, Duane Hanson III, confirming her death to the Associated Press.

In Rockford, where Elizabeth Hanson grew up, her friends and teachers at Keith Country Day School remembered her Thursday as friendly and outgoing. They also expressed surprise at her career.

Her nickname was “Bitsy” and she was voted most talkative girl by her senior class, said her  Latin teacher Sherrilyn Martin. Hanson took advanced placement classes, loved  tennis and worked on the yearbook. She also was in the Junior Engineering Technical Society, Martin said.

“Even though her journey was short, I certainly hope it was very fulfilling for her,” Martin said. “Those who remember her do so with great affection and admiration, both for what she did overseas and what she did while she was here.”

After graduating in 1997, Hanson majored in economics and minored in Russian language and literature at Colby College in  Maine. She graduated  in 2002.

Michael Donihue, an economics professor at Colby, said he was struck by Hanson’s intellectual curiosity and desire to understand the world around her.

 ”She was thoughtful and asked the types of questions that indicate she was thinking beyond the textbook,” he said, though he too was surprised by her CIA work.

Just after Sept. 11, 2001, she wrote a thesis titled “Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”  The paper explored economic principles through the lens of the three religions.

The Associated Press contributed.

–Angie Leventis Lourgos

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A former financial adviser accused of defrauding professional athletes of more than $25 million will be in court in Skokie this afternoon, where he faces felony charges of theft by deception involving a Wilmette woman he dated.

Donald Dayton Lukens, 58 — who has been held in Cook County Jail since his Dec. 11 arrest in ChicagoChicago reviews — is accused of stealing at least $225,000 from Marietta Egen, 52, a widow he met on a dating service.
Egen, who inherited money after her husband’s death, wired money to Lukens after he told her he could “triple her money” in 2006 and 2007. She signed papers that promised she would receive monthly interest payments and a return of her entire investment within a set time period, according to Wilmette police.

Lukens had been barred by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from investing or handling money for others after a civil complaint was filed against him in 2001 in southern California. The SEC in September 2002 ordered Lukens to repay $4.7 million to his former clients and barred him from acting as a financial investment adviser.

At that time, he was accused of defrauding at least 100 investors, including former professional NFL athletes Simeon Rice, Eric Dickerson and Steve Atwater.

Other victims included “his pastor, fellow parishioners at his church, his children’s former teacher, retirees and the disabled,” the SEC complaint states. “These victims placed complete reliance on Lukens and entrusted him with funds they needed for retirement or for daily necessities, funds they could not afford to lose.”

Shortly after the complaint was filed, Lukens filed for bankruptcy in California, saying he had $47 million in debts.

It is unclear whether he paid any of the $4.7 million to his former clients, according to SEC spokesman John Heine.

“That information is not public,” Heine said, declining comment. “We are not in a position to disclose that information.”

Lukens has used false names and post office box numbers to elude authorities over the years, according to a police report. While he has been investigated by the FBI in prior years, this is the first time he faces criminal charges, officials said.

– Lisa Black

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Investigators look over the scene after a Learjet cargo plane crashed in a forest preserve south of the ChicagoChicago reviews Executive Airport today. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune) MORE PHOTOS

The small cargo  jet that crashed in a northwest suburban forest preserve Tuesday, killing its pilot and co-pilot, had to turn back on an earlier fight to Chicago Dec. 31.

According to an Internet flight-tracking service, the same plane that crashed reversed course on that day to return to a suburban Detroit airport about 27 minutes into its scheduled 1½-hour flight to Wheeling’s Chicago Executive Airport. It landed 49 minutes after it left.

The reason for the diversion was not known. But a map of the plane’s flight path Dec. 31 shows it turned around at 2:31 p.m. just as it was crossing over the eastern part of Lake Michigan and returned to Oakland County International Airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, had no immediate comment but said it would look into the reason for any diversion that may have occurred. Spokesman Keith Holloway said it was unlikely there had been a black box on the plane, noting that smaller aircraft usually don’t have them.

An update briefing will be held by the NTSB at noon today at the crash site.

Meanwhile, recovery efforts for the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot were resuming this morning.

Officials say two bodies are in the wreckage in the Des Plaines
River in a Glenview forest preserve, but divers were unable to reach them yesterday because of the
river’s strong current.

The crash scene is about 200 yards east of Des Plaines River Road and a quarter-mile north of Lake Avenue in Glenview.

The identities of the pilots have not yet been released.

Officials
said the Learjet 35A, owned by Royal Air Charter of Waterford, Mich.,
left suburban Detroit about 90 minutes before the crash and was
scheduled to pick up cargo in Wheeling and ferry it to Atlanta. It had
been cleared to land at Chicago Executive Airport when it went down
about 1:30 p.m., officials said.

Debris was scattered in the woods of a Cook County forest preserve about a mile from the airport, and the fuselage was partially submerged in the Des Plaines River. The water was slick with fuel.

Authorities offered no initial theories about what caused the crash. The NTSB indicated its probe would focus on the plane.

“We will look at the systems, the structure, the engine,” said senior safety investigator Pam Sullivan.

Robert Mark, a veteran commercial pilot who flew into Chicago Executive Airport shortly after the accident,  believes the crash showed all the signs of a stall, the loss of lift that keeps a plane airborne.

“When they go in nose down, that’s a classic stall spin. There’s almost no other option,” Mark said.

The stall could have occurred as the plane circled to make  its final approach to the runway, experts said.

A circling approach was required Tuesday because winds were out of the west-northwest. The circling pattern is a more complicated maneuver than just coming in straight.

But spokesman J. David VanderVeen of the Oakland County International Airport, where the plane was based, said company officials told him the men were experienced with the Learjet.

Chicago Executive saw its last fatal crash in January 2006, when a twin-engine Cessna plunged into a construction company’s storage yard as the plane approached the airport. The NTSB later concluded that pilot error was behind the crash that killed four Chicago-area executives.

According to NTSB records, Royal Air’s last fatal crash happened on an overnight, three-leg flight in March 2004. A twin-engine plane had already ferried cargo from Rockford to Maryland when it crashed before dawn on its way to Maine. Investigators said the pilot lost control, but they couldn’t figure out why.

Court and FAA records show that the 31-year-old company, with a fleet of 35 planes, has run afoul of safety rules. In 1999, the company agreed to pay a $250,000 fine for maintenance and record-keeping violations. Federal prosecutors complained the company didn’t conduct scheduled inspections of fleet engines, propellers and wing flaps.

Patrick Doherty, who lives about 400 yards from the crash site, said 20 minutes before the plane came down, he had been walking his two dogs on that very spot. He said he was resting at home when he heard a noise that he thought came from his furnace.

Only later, when he heard the racket from a helicopter hovering above the site, did he realize something far more serious had happened  –  and that he had been lucky to come home when he had.

“I was thinking, ‘How weird is this? You go for a walk and get hit by a Learjet,’ ” he said. “It’s kind of bizarre.”

Tribune reporters Lisa Black, Joe Mahr, William Lee and Jon Hilkevitch contributed to this report, as did freelance reporter Robert Channick.

–Pat Curry, John Keilman  and Richard Wronski

Click HERE for a WGN-TV unedited video of a news conference on the crash.

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Family and friends gathered today to bury a Rogers Park mother who died in a Christmas-week hit-and-run as her husband helplessly looked on.

Widower Felix Worthon embraces his son, Jeremiah, 6, during the funeral for his wife, Maria Worthon at Rogers Park Presbyterian Church. (Tribune /  William DeShazer)

Maria Worthon, a nursing assistant, was remembered at a church across the street from where she was fatally struck by a car on Dec. 21 while walking with her son, Jerermiah, who also was hit.

The 6-year-old boy made it out of the hospital in time to attend his mother’s funeral. An uncle picked him up to get a last glimpse of his mother before the casket was closed.

“I got better, because I (saw) her,” the boy said at the service.

The driver in the hit-and-run was fleeing police at 70 to 80 mph and did not stop or slow down after striking Jeremiah and Worthon, who died at the scene in the 7000 block of North Greenview Avenue.

Ralph Eubanks, whom authorities said had traces of cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana in his blood, was ordered held without bail last week on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

“This stinks,” Rev. Deborah Patton said during Worthon’s eulogy. “Maria’s death in particular was thoughtless, unnecessary and irresponsible.”

–Kristen Mack

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A 14-year-old boy who ChicagoChicago reviews police said was missing since Oct. 20 has been found safe and living with his sister in Elgin.

A police news release sent Friday night contained no other details, and said it was “unknown at this time where subject has been during his time missing.”

On Dec. 15 Chicago police released a new photograph of Luis Lopez to assist in their search for the 14-year-old boy reported missing in October.

Lopez never returned home from school on Oct. 20. Police had said he was reported missing from the area of 48th Street and Hermitage Avenue in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South SideSouth Side reviews.

Police said at the time that Lopez may have been living in the UptownUptown reviews or Lakeview neighborhoods on the North Side. He also went missing in June and was found living in the 4500 block of North Sheridan Road.

–Staff report

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Alleging that a 2-year-old boy contracted salmonella after touching a snake at Serpent Safari in Gurnee, a McHenry County family has filed a lawsuit against the reptile zoo that seeks more than $50,000 for medical expenses.

According to the suit filed this month in Lake County Circuit Court, Trevor Wirtz visited Serpent Safari on Dec. 14, 2007, became ill and was hospitalized with salmonella three days later. He then passed the infection on to a caregiver, Judith Penoyer, court documents say.

Trevor’s mother, Sara Wirtz, who filed the lawsuit, declined to comment Wednesday without her attorney’s permission. She and her mother, Penoyer, are represented by lawyer Michael Maher, who could not be reached.

The lawsuit accuses Serpent Safari of negligence for failing to post notices regarding hand washing after handling reptiles and for not providing hand sanitizer for patrons. The business also failed to provide warnings regarding the risk of contracting salmonella from reptiles for children under age 5, as well as the risk to people with weakened immune systems, the lawsuit states.

The employees “allowed and encouraged a two-year-old child to touch or pet a snake,” according to the court document.

Serpent Safari is an indoor reptile park in Gurnee Mills mall, where snakes and other reptiles are displayed, handled and sold. An employee on Wednesday said the owner was not available to comment.

According to the Wirtz lawsuit, Trevor was admitted to the Northern Illinois Medical Center (now called Centegra Health System) in McHenry on Dec. 17, 2007, where he was diagnosed with a salmonella infection. Penoyer became sick during the same period and was hospitalized on Jan. 7, 2008, with the same infection, court documents state.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs and other reptiles can carry salmonellosis, a type of bacteria that causes infection of the gastrointestinal tract.

Most people suffer diarrhea, fever and stomach pain within one to three days after they are infected. These symptoms usually go away after a week, but sometimes the illness becomes more severe and infects other organs.

An estimated 70,000 people nationwide are infected annually with the illness from contact with reptiles, according to the CDC.

Earlier this month, the CDC issued an alert that pet water frogs caused a national salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 83 people in 2009. Reports came from at least 31 states, including Illinois, from April through December.

At least 80 percent of the victims were under age 10, the agency reported.

“Most people are sick for a few days and are all better in a week,” said Stanford Shulman, head of the Division of Infectious Disease at Children’s Memorial Hospital. “But in the elderly or in someone whose immune system is not 100 percent or a young baby, it can be serious.”

Shulman, who discovered a new salmonella strain that he named after NBA star Michael Jordan in 1993, said he occasionally sees cases of reptile-transmitted infections.

But John Archer, president of the ChicagoChicago reviews Herpetological Society, said salmonella is so common that tracing its origins is like connecting food poisoning to a restaurant.

“Salmonella is not limited to reptiles; it is shed by many animals,” Archer  said.

Angie Leventis Lourgos contributed to this report.

–Lisa Black

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Euranus Barron on Monday covered the body of her 2-year-old daughter in a Tinker Bell blanket and hugged her, the mother’s tears dampening the  girl’s cheeks.

The blanket was a Christmas gift that little Orionis Barron-Taylor didn’t live to open. She will be buried in a gold and ivory dress and tiny tiara, what would have been her holiday outfit.

“I’m not going to see my daughter anymore,” she said earlier, crying. “I’m not going to hear her laugh.”

Two employees from Signature Flight Support and volunteer pilots for “Wings of Hope,” Mike Davis, Thomas Dougherty, as well as Brother Devell Johnson, CEO of Johnson Funeral Services, Inc. remove the casket of 2 year-old Orionis Barron from a plane that arrived at Midway Airport after flying from St. Louis. (Antonio Perez/ChicagoChicago reviews Tribune)

About a month ago, Barron, 22, of Humboldt Park, sent Orionis to a St. Louis suburb to live temporarily with relatives while the mom worked two retail jobs and planned to start school in January. Barron said she had believed the time apart would give them both a better life in the long run.

Orionis died Dec. 19 after authorities say she was abused by her great-aunt’s boyfriend.

Police said the toddler suffered a skull fracture, burns on her left hand, bruises on her back and buttocks, and internal injuries.

Her body was returned to Chicago on a flight donated by Wings of Hope, a St. Louis-based nonprofit that provides transportation for health care and other humanitarian causes.

The casket arrived at Midway Airport about noon Monday, and Barron viewed Orionis’ body a few hours later.

Marquicio Johnson, 33, of Hazelwood, Mo., is being held in the St. Louis County Jail in lieu of $250,000 cash-only bail. Johnson was charged with first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child, said Hazelwood Police Lt. Jim Hudanick. He said authorities might ask for the charges to be upgraded pending the medical examiner’s full report.

Hudanick said the toddler’s great aunt was at work when the alleged abuse occurred.

Johnson was caring for Orionis at the time, police said.

“Nobody else was there but him,” Hudanick said.

Johnson had called authorities to report the toddler unconscious on Dec. 16. She was kept on life-support at a St. Louis hospital while doctors prepared to donate her heart.

Barron said she was shocked by the charges because Johnson seemed so nice to Orionis, and the mom had seen him play with her the last time the three were together.

“You don’t know what people is until they show it,” Barron said.

While looking at photos of Orionis as a happy baby and toddler – and then photos of her injuries taken at the hospital – Barron wondered how someone could hurt such a sweet child.

“If you were around her she’d tell you, ‘I love you,’ ” Barron said. “She loved everything.”

– Angie Leventis Lourgos

Euranus Barron (center) is comforted as she views the body of her daughter Orionis Barron-Taylor at a funeral home on Chicago’s West SideWest Side reviews today. (Tribune / Terrence Antonio James)

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An off-duty Lockport police officer whose blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit when he allegedly caused a fatal accident has been released from jail after posting $750,000 bond, authorities said.

On the night of the accident, Stapinski was off-duty and was driving his private vehicle after having drinks in a West LoopA Loop reviews bar, officials said. Blood tests showed Stapinski’s blood-alcohol level was 0.223, or about three times the legal limit, officials said.

At his bond hearing last week, prosecutors said Stapinski declined a Breathalyzer test at the scene of the crash, but he had “bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and a strong smell of alcohol.” His blood was drawn and analyzed when he was hospitalized shortly after the accident.

Wong, 29, was driving from his second job at a southwest suburban restaurant when the accident occurred on the Stevenson near Cicero Avenue.

As a condition of his bond, Stapinski is forbidden from driving a vehicle and has to surrender his passport and all firearms in his possession. He is also required to hand over his firearm identification card.

If convicted, Stapinski could face 3 to 14 years in prison, officials said.

– Lolly Bowean

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A Wheeling woman died Sunday night, three weeks after she ran her car into a utility pole in Deerfield, almost shearing the pole off at its base.

Laura Rushakoff, 63, of the 0-99 block of Prairie Park Drive in Wheeling, was badly injured in the one-car crash near 45 Deerfield Road about 10:40 a.m. Dec. 7, authorities said.

No one else was in the car, and there were no other injuries, said Deerfield Police Cmdr. Rich Weil. No citations were issued. Police still do not know why she crashed, he said. Road conditions at the time were good.

Rushakoff was taken to HighlandHighland Fling reviews Park Hospital but was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m. Sunday at Rainbow Hospice in Park Ridge, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

An autopsy will be performed later today.

– Deanese Williams-Harris

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A 42-year-old man found with gunshot wounds earlier this month in the Bronzeville neighborhood died Saturday night from his injuries.

Stanley Bloodson, of the 4600 block of South Drexel Boulevard, was pronounced dead at 10:42 p.m. Saturday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Police responded to calls of an unresponsive man on Dec. 15 in the 4300 block of South Evans Avenue and found Bloodson lying on the sidewalk, police said.

Bloodson had been shot, but police had no reports of gunfire in the area coinciding with the time he was found.

Bloodson, who was described as being in critical condition the day he was found, was taken to Northwestern, where he later died. 

– Staff report

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ROME — An Italian court has approved a U.S. extradition request for a fugitive doctor from Merrillville, Ind. accused of fraud and malpractice.

Deputy chief prosecutor Gianfranco Burino says Mark Weinberger — found Dec. 15 in a tent near Mont Blanc on Italy’s northern border with France — didn’t fight extradition at a hearing Tuesday. It is now up to the JusticeDark Justice reviews Ministry to decide how to proceed.

Justice Minister Angelino Alfano has 40 days to decide whether to return Weinberger to the United States.

Weinberger was indicted by a federal grand jury in Hammond, Ind. in 2006 on 22 counts of fraud for allegedly scheming to overbill insurance companies for procedures that were either not needed or never performed.

– Associated Press

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Three inflatable holiday decorations, including a Santa Claus and sleigh, were slashed over the weekend in Arlington Heights, police said today.

The decorations were on the front yards of two houses in the 1400 and 1500 blocks of South Fernandez Avenue. They were damaged sometime between Friday and Saturday evenings.

Among the damaged decorations were an inflated Santa and sleigh. Total damage was estimated at $300.
 
Holiday decorations have sustained damage at several other locations this season, police spokesman Doug Hajek said. Other inflatable decorations have been slashed. Strings of lights have been cut and mesh reindeer damaged. On Dec. 5, a lighted train was dragged into the street in the 1500 block of Eton Drive.

– Andrea Brown

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The owner of a ChicagoChicago reviews store that authorities say stocked 17,000 pieces of counterfeit purses, sunglasses and other merchandise faces felony trademark violation charges after a Cook County Sheriff’s Police raid.

Keith Liu, 39, who owns a store in the 3500 block of West Lawrence Avenue, turned himself in to police on Monday following a raid on the store Dec. 10 in which the merchandise was seized, sheriff’s police said in a release today. The fake merchandise would be worth an estimated $5.1 million if it were authentic, according to police.

The store did not have a sign giving its name, a police spokeswoman said today.

Before the raid, shoppers could choose from bags, sunglasses and other items with fake labels including such designers as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Prada and Gucci, selling for between $20 and $60 each, according to police. When police raided the store, they carted away hundreds of cartons of the goods, enough to fill two box trucks.

A cashier at the store, Xaixia Shen, 30, of the 500 block of West 28th Street, was arrested the day of the raid and faces a misdemeanor charge of trademark counterfeiting. She is free on $1,000 bail.

Liu, of the 2400 block of South Wentworth Avenue, turned himself in to police on Monday and is expected to appear in Cook County Central Bond Court on Wednedsay.

– Staff report

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A former employee of a Niles gas station has been charged for robbing the station last month of about $600 while holding a BB gun to a cashier’s head, police said today.
Lyes Mellal of the 5300 block of North East River Roadwas
charged with armed robbery with a firearm for robbing the Shell gas
station, 7235 N. Caldwell Ave., on Nov. 29.

Mellal wearing a bandanna to mask his face entered the station about
12:25 a.m., walked behind the counter and held a hand gun to the
cashier’s head.

He then fled with the cash, police said. Mellal was
later identified as an ex-employee of the gas station and arrested Dec.
15. The gun was recovered, police said.

Bond for Mellal was set at $100,000 during a hearing Dec. 16 at the Skokie courthouse.
 
– Carolyn Rusin

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ChicagoChicago reviews Police asked for the public’s help in finding a man suspected of committing three North Side robberies within a little more than an hour and a half last week.

In each case, the victims in the robberies were walking late in the evening Dec. 13 or early Dec. 14 when they were approached by a man who displayed a handgun and demanded the victim’s property, according to an alert issued by the Belmont Detective Area today. In at least one of the attacks, he may have been driving a van.

The first two attacks took place on Dec. 13, one in the 2000 block of North Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park about 10:30 p.m. and the other in the 800 block of West Dickens Avenue in the Sheffield Neighbors neighborhood about 11 p.m. The robbery took place a little more than hour later, about 12:10 a.m. Dec. 14 in the 800 block of West Montrose Avenue in UptownUptown reviews, according to police.

From witness descriptions, police said the attacker is a black man between 25 and 30 years old and standing between 5-foot-8 and 6-foot. At the time of the attacks, he was wearing a blue jacket with fur around the hood. In at least one attack, he was driving a dark-colored custom van.

Anyone with information on the attacks should call police or the attacker should call Belmont Area Detectives at 312-744-8263.

Police News Affairs could not immediately provide any further information about the attacks.

– Staff report

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ChicagoChicago reviews Police today warned parents on the Far Far reviewsSouthwest Side about a man who tried to lure a 12-year-old girl into a van recently.

The girl was walking in the 10000 block of South Leavitt Avenue about 8:45 a.m. on Dec. 16 when a man in a parked white pan vanel man began calling to her, according to an alert issued by the Calumet Detective Area.

“It’s cold outside, you should get in,” the man told the girl, repeating the same sentence four times, according to police.

The girl refused, then ran into a nearby school; the man then drove off, according to the alert.

Police said the victim described the man as white or Hispanic, in his late 20’s or early 30’s, with green eyes, a full face with large cheeks and a tear drop tattoo under his right eye.

At the time of the attempted luring, he was wearing a dark blue construction hard hat and a white shirt.

The van used in the incident was a white panel van with no rear windows, with an Illinois license plate that begins with the numbers “856.”

Police asked parents to “alert your neighbors in the area about this crime,” and “Tell your children not to speak with strangers and to report any stranger attempting to speak with them to a parent, teacher or known adult.” Parents also were advised to call 911 if they see any suspicious activity or persons in their neighborhood.

Anyone with information about the Dec. 16 incident should call Calumet Area detectives at 312-747-8271.

– Staff report

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Alaina Reed Hall best known from playing the character Rose from 227 passed away Friday (Dec 18, 2009) at age 63 after a longtime battle with breast cancer. The TV sitcom “227″, which also starred Marla Gibbs, enjoyed a five year run during the late 80’s (1985-90).

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MTV’s ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ judge Shane Sparks has been arrested and charged with nine counts of child molestation.

The 35-year-old choreographer — who also works on the hit TV show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ — was taken into custody Dec.18 on a felony warrant.

According to TMZ, the alleged lewd acts were with a girl at least ten years younger than Sparks. The incidents were said to have began occurring in 1994.

The acts include oral copulation and other acts “with the intent of arousing, appealing to and gratifying the lust, passions and sexual desires of the defendant.”

Sparks is being held on $590,000 bail.

A spokesperson for Sparks could not be reached for comment by deadline today.

‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ wrapped up its fourth season earlier this year and Sparks just choreographed the new stage production of ‘Dreamgirls,’ which recently embarked on a national tour.

It was previously reported that, earlier this year, Alex Da Silva from ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ had trouble with the law and was charged with rape.

Source

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Sean “Diddy” Combs is 40 and trying to keep up with two girls and it’s hard. Those twins, D’Lila Star and Jessie James, are giving him a run for his money. They turn 3 on Dec. 21 and have him wrapped around their fingers.
“They’re talking a lot more and they’re very demanding,” says the Grammy-winning hip-hop star and entrepreneur. As for what they demand from their dad: “Just time,” he says. ” ‘Sit down. Don’t go anywhere, stay here, do this.’ They give me a lot of orders.”

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Police are searching for a missing 15-year-old girl last spotted in ChicagoChicago reviews’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. She has run away before.

Emily “Nia” Perez was last seen about 6:50 a.m. Tuesday in the area of  47th Street and Marshfield Avenue, police said. She went to school but never returned home, police said.

She was last seen wearing a white sweater with a hood, a gold and black Southpole jacket and white gym shoes, police said.

Emily was reported missing three times in 2008, police said. Her mother requested for an alert to be sent to the media, police said.

Anyone with information of Emily’s whereabouts should contact police at (312) 747-8274.

–Staff report

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LOS ANGELES, CA-Nominees for the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards for outstanding performances in 2009 in five film and eight primetime television categories and for the SAG honors for film and television stunt ensembles were announced this morning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center’s Silver Screen Theater in West Hollywood.

Screen Actors Guild President Ken Howard introduced Michelle Monaghan (”Trucker”) and Chris O’Donnell (”NCIS: Los Angeles“) who announced the nominees for this year’s Actors. SAG Awards Committee Chair JoBeth Williams and Vice Chair Daryl Anderson announced the stunt ensemble nominees.

The 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be simulcast live nationally on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT, and 6 p.m. MT from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center. (Check local listings if viewing via satellite or in HD). Recipients of the stunt ensemble honors will be announced from the SAG Awards red carpet during the TNT.TV and TBS.COM live pre-show webcasts.

Of the top industry accolades presented to performers, only the Screen Actors Guild Awards are selected solely by actors’ peers. Two randomly selected panelsone for television and one for filmeach comprised of 2,100 Guild members from across the United States, chose this year’s Actor and stunt ensemble honors nominees. Integrity Voting Systems, the Awards’ official teller, mailed the nominations secret ballots on Nov. 25. Voting was completed by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 14, 2009.

Awards ballots will be mailed on Tuesday Dec. 29, 2009. The entire active membership of the Guild across the country, numbering approximately 100,000 actors, will vote on all categories. Ballots must be received by Integrity Voting Systems by noon Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. Results will be tallied and sealed until the envelopes are opened by the presenters at the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremonies on Jan. 23.

Source

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An Elgin man was charged in connection with two attacks on two women on the Fox River Trail near Elgin, Kane County Forest Preserve Police announced today.

Francisco Cruz, 19, of Elgin, was charged Dec. 11 with aggravated battery, unlawful restraint and aggravated unlawful restraint for incidents that took place Sept. 27 and Dec. 1 on the bicycle trail near Covey Street and Elgin Avenue in Kane County near Elgin.

Cruz was in the Kane County Jail today being held in lieu of $50,000 bail. 

On Dec. 1, a 19-year old woman who was hit over the head with a blunt object by a man who resembled Cruz and managed to escape to seek help at a nearby house, said Laurie Metanchuk, Forest Preserve spokeswoman. On Sept. 27, a man grabbed a 30-year-old female jogger from behind and tried to pull her into a tan vehicle.

– Andrea Brown

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The Palatine High School Concert Choir has been chosen to sing Christmas songs at the White House.

About 90 students and chaperones are to depart Saturday on two buses. They are scheduled to perform two sets on Dec. 21 as part of the White House’s annual Christmas Open House.
The choir also will perform other places in Washington, including the World War II memorial.

Among the songs the choir will perform are “Jingle Bells,” “This is That Time of the Year” and “Stars I Shall Find.”

– Associated Press

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Cook County Sheriff’s police were searching for a man missing from an Oak Lawn hospital who has a history of gun violations and disappeared after checking out of a local hospital last week.

Thoma Nikolic also is reportedly bipolar and not taking his medication, according to an alert issued by the sheriff’s police on Saturday.

Nikolic, 37, was admitted to Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center on Dec. 5 for observation, then checked himself out on Wednesday, according to the alert. Nikolic called his parents, cursing and threatening them, but he has not been seen since their release.

The missing man has a history of weapons arrests, according to the alert.

Nikolic is described as a white man with brown hair and brown eyes, 5-foot-11 tall and weighing 167 pounds.

Anyone who knows Nikolic’s whereabouts is asked to contact the sheriff’sinvestigations units at 708-865-4896.

– Staff report

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