Featured Articles from the Chicago Tribune

ESPN pulled Hank Williams Jr.'s intro song from its broadcast of Monday night's NFL game after the country singer famous for the line "Are you ready for some football?" used an analogy to Adolf Hitler in discussing President Barack Obama. In an interview Monday morning on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," Williams said of Obama's outing on the links with House Speaker John Boehner: "It'd be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu. " Asked to clarify, Williams said: "They're the enemy," adding that by "they" he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Unemployed and underemployed homeowners in the Chicago area could soon receive up to $25,000 in mortgage help under a $345 million federally funded program that will be announced Thursday by the state of Illinois. The "hardest hit" fund, which carries a long list of eligibility criteria, may provide the only relief of its kind for as many as 15,000 struggling homeowners who may have been rejected by other assistance programs, officials said. It is aimed at Illinois residents whose incomes have fallen by at least 25 percent, providing a 10-year, forgivable loan to bring them current on delinquent mortgages and then keep them current for up to 18 months.

The wisecrack circulating at less than light speed around Fermilab's Batavia campus is that by 2 p.m. Friday, this destination for particle physicists won't be as sexy as it once was. What has made many scientists' hearts thump is the Tevatron accelerator - an underground loop that accelerates protons for the head-on collisions that have provided breakthrough science. But the "600-pound gorilla" of high-energy physics will power down after a run of more than two decades. The historic event will last about 30 minutes.

"The Book of Mormon," the sweetly satirical and gently profane hit Broadway musical from the creators of "South Park" and the co-composer and the co-lyricist of "Avenue Q," will dedicate a new mission in Chicago in December 2012. Snagging a point-of-origin-Chicago production of the massive Broadway hit - tickets in New York are pretty much sold out well into 2012, and tickets routinely re-sell for $500 or more - represents a coup for Broadway in Chicago and, by extension, the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, which has placed an early focus on using the arts as a tool for economic growth in the Loop.

A national nonprofit that worked with more than 150 Illinois churches to sell discounted food to those in need has shut down and put its headquarters up for sale. Angel Food Ministries, based in Monroe, Ga., blamed rising food and fuel costs and a steady decline in sales when it abruptly shut its doors last week. The Tribune in June reported the nonprofit was mired in controversy, including excessive executive salaries, insider loans and an ongoing FBI probe. But a spokesman for the organization said it was a culmination of events rooted in a dismal economy that forced the nonprofit to close.

When Ronald Reagan ran for re-election in 1984, his slogan was "Morning in America. " For Barack Obama, it's more like midnight in a coal mine. The sputtering economy is about to stall out, unemployment is high, his jobs program may not pass, foreclosures are rampant and the poor guy can't even sneak a cigarette. His approval rating is at its lowest level ever. His party just lost two House elections — one in a district it had held for 88 consecutive years. He's staked his future on the jobs bill, which most Americans don't think would work.

Focus Taiwan reports: Derrick Rose has a new nickname. And it's not MVP. Chosen by Taiwanese fans through an online poll, the nickname "Biao Feng Mei Gui," which means "speedy stormy Rose," was presented to the Bulls star at a news conference. Rose is traveling on his final leg of an Asia tour that has taken him to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing in China. Talking about his personal ties with President Barack Obama, Rose said "for the president to notice you and call you his friend is unbelievable, especially at my age. " Get the full story: focustaiwan.tw .

Given that the lockout has many league observers expecting cancellation of regular-season games, take the Chicago Bulls' announcement of their preseason schedule with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, the games were announced. And the Bulls are scheduled to open against the Michael Jordan-owned Charlotte Bobcats on Oct. 10 at the United Center. Other home games are Oct. 14 against the Timberwolves, Oct. 21 against the Pacers and Oct. 27 against Scott Skiles and the Bucks. The Bulls' road schedule calls for them to travel to an undetermined location to play the Pacers on Oct. 13, Sioux Falls, S.D., to play the Timberwolves on Oct. 19 and Oct. 25 to conclude their schedule in Charlotte against the Bobcats.

Doctors say they are thinking twice about prescribing an Abbott Laboratories drug used to raise levels of good cholesterol to patients taking a statin pill that is successfully lowering their bad cholesterol. The change of heart by physicians about the need for Abbott's Niaspan follows the release last week of a National Institutes of Health study that showed the drug failed to prevent heart attacks and slightly raised the risk of a stroke when combined with the popular generic cholesterol pill simvastatin, also known by the brand name Zocor.

Tweet to your heart's discontent. Post nastygrams on Facebook. Leave scathing comments elsewhere online until your fingertips throb. Throw in a few frowny-face emoticons, if it makes you feel better, to stress your displeasure over Bank of America's decision to next year begin charging $5 a month — as much as $60 per year — for some customers who use debit cards to make purchases. But people have been upset about bankers for centuries. They're used to it. The only kind of "getting even" most bankers care about is on a balance sheet.

He isn't on Facebook, though his fake profile and a fan club for him are. He doesn't Tweet, at least under his name. He never did the talk show circuit, cashed in any of the lucrative financial offers thrown his way or accepted the official overtures to return as a VIP to his beloved Wrigley Field. Instead, Steve Bartman disappeared. Forget about 15 minutes of fame or, perhaps, infamy. Bartman is approaching eight years of silence. Bartman's brother-in-law read a statement from Steve on Oct. 15, 2003, one day after Bartman unwillingly entered Cubs folklore by trying to catch a foul ball that left-fielder Moises Alou hoped to snare with the Cubs five outs away from their first pennant in 58 years.

Airline passengers are enjoying the safest period in commercial aviation. But as the new television show "Pan Am" reminds us, there is little else to enjoy about flying these days and no reason to believe happier times will return. Security pat-downs, baggage fees, overbooked flights and fears of deep vein thrombosis caused by airlines cramming too many seats on to planes could not even have been imagined back in the golden age of air travel in the 1960s. That era is depicted on the ABC-TV series about the jet-setting lifestyles of stewardesses, as they were called then, the pilots flying Boeing 707s between New York, London and Paris and the elegant clientele (less than 10 percent of the U.S. population)

TSN analyst and former Edmonton Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish will be named the head coach of the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League, TSN reported Thursday , citing sources close to the situation. MacTavish's last coached in the NHL with the Oilers for eight seasons from 2000-2009, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2006. The Wolves are the new AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, after the Manitoba Moose moved to St. John's, Newfoundland.