Indian dance binds mother, daughter

When Hema Rajagopalan was about 5 years old, growing up in 1950s India, she loved dancing so much that when her parents took her to...

Scientists hope they have found way to turn off neurodegenerative diseases

As the elderly populations rise in many parts of the world, including the U.S., so does the incidence of neurodegenerative disease.

Lice outbreaks common, harmless, experts say

School reaction to lice outbreaks has relaxed in recent years –– in sharp contrast to previous generations when students were...

Firefighter and father of two who died was a veteran marathoner

Firefighter William Caviness was a lifelong athlete and veteran marathoner from North Carolina who signed up for the Chicago race aiming...

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  Record-setting finish for Chicago Marathon

Runner dies near finish of Chicago Marathon

It was the fifth time Kevin Czarnecki tackled the grueling challenge of running 26.2 miles in the Chicago marathon. Facing warm temperatures...

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  Chicago Marathon finishers share their journey

Healthy advice — practiced and otherwise

Health care professionals are human too. They might counsel patients to live a disciplined lifestyle, but sometimes they skip workouts,...

Homewood attorney suspended for stealing from deceased client

A Homewood criminal defense attorney who forged his recently deceased client's name on legal papers and lied to a judge so he could pocket...

'New poor' going hungry in Cook County

It wasn't until she looked around her kitchen and realized that she had no milk, bread or cash — and just a few canned vegetables &#...

Parolee charged in gas station killing

A man out of prison three months was charged with shooting and stabbing to death a security guard while trying to rob a gas station on the...

Land buyer's purchase of tax-delinquent Lake County parcels raises neighbors' hackles

Charles Hildinger can't understand why anyone would pay to own the patch of mud, trees and reedy wetlands beyond his backyard fence in semi-...

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  Deer Park homeowner upset by new neighbor

Traffic court lawyer who used slurs agrees to suspension

A Chicago attorney who repeatedly used homophobic and offensive language to describe other lawyers while competing for traffic court clients...

Emanuel says Obama faces election challenge over economy

Mayor Rahm Emanuel hit the national airwaves Sunday to defend his former boss and said President Barack Obama faces a re-election...

Man accused of shooting his two sisters, killing one

On Sunday afternoon, Carmella Martinez mourned for one of her daughters, prayed for the recovery of another and asked for a long prison...

Failure to buckle up leads to more than 200 stitches

Andrew Wegrzyn remembers asking for the T-shirt.

Columbus Day closings

Monday is Columbus Day, a federal holiday. The following public services will be affected:

Julia Child e-book lacks flavor

They're putting Julia Child in an e-book, and in my book that just ain't right.

Drag queen by night, single dad by day

By the time Marcus Parker left his hometown of Chicago in 2005 for California, he was well known around the city's drag-queen show circuit...

Belts tighten at suburban food pantries

Demand for food across the Chicago suburbs is on the rise, placing more of a burden on local and regional food providers trying to do more...

TSA gives children a break at airport security

It turns out that children do not actually merit all the fuss the Transportation Security Administration has made over them since the shoe...

Arthur Raymond Erbach, 1931-2011

Arthur Raymond Erbach held patents involving products used by the U.S. space program, designed advanced medical equipment, engineered more...

'New poor' going hungry in Cook County

It wasn't until she looked around her kitchen and realized that she had no milk, bread or cash — and just a few canned vegetables &#...

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  Confronting 'food insecurity' in Chicago

Elgin boy, 5, killed in apparent gang shooting, police say

The car Eric Galarza Jr. was riding in with his parents and another relative was backing out of the driveway of their Elgin home when...

Body of missing swimmer identified

Authorities confirmed Saturday that a body pulled out of Lake Michigan near Ohio Street was James Garcia, 51, who disappeared last weekend.

Coming attraction? A big Chicago film studio with taxpayer help

A hulking former steel factory on the West Side is home to one of Chicago's latest economic development projects, where young actresses...

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  Location of studio

Cramped Chicago: Half of city's 2.7 million people live in park-poor areas

Chicago's high-toned Latin motto, "Urbs in Horto" (City in a Garden), makes it sound as though the expansive open spaces of the city's...

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  Nowhere to run

Donald Brieland, 1924-2011

Donald Brieland built a pathbreaking career in social work around his belief that every child deserved protection and care, his family and...

Murder suspect accused of biting jailer's finger

A Woodridge man who is accused of beating his father to death with a weed trimmer in August was charged this week with biting a jail...

Shaken-baby trial details girl's trips to ER

After weeks-old infant Sophia Avila was admitted to a hospital with fractured ribs in early 2008, state child welfare authorities...

A sampling of quotes on the Occupy protests

"I, for one, am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country."

Protests spread to more than a dozen cities

The Occupy protest movement expects to mark its 23rd day on Sunday, having begun in New York City as Occupy Wall Street and spread to more...

Tollway ramp to I-90 reopening one month early

The flyover ramp carrying traffic from the southbound Tri-State Tollway (I-294) to the eastbound Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) was...

As Jewish school battles Evanston over zoning, 'dream site' sits unused

An Orthodox Jewish school has been fighting the city of Evanston in court for two years over land it bought in the hope of expanding. The...

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  Site of proposed Jewish boys school

Occupy Chicago searches for an answer

Cathy Foster was carrying a Nine West handbag and a protest sign.

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  Jobs rally on LaSalle

Escape to Wisconsin may get costlier someday

For millions of Illinois drivers, Wisconsin has long been the place to escape over the open road, but some transportation experts say...

String of West Side attacks grows to 8

Thursday afternoon, Chicago police issued an alert warning of an assailant who had robbed at gunpoint and sexually attacked seven women in...

Berwyn animal hoarding: More neglect charges against mom whose son, 14, died

A Berwyn mother accused of endangering her children and hoarding animals after her family was found living in squalor and one of her sons...

Some bright ideas for stops on the guided expedition of the Chicago Way

There's this thrill running up my leg — and I haven't had it too often — but it sure has been tingling like mad ever since I...

County Board member has been taking illegal exemption on 2nd home

When Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia inherited his parents' Southwest Side home in 2003, he didn't realize the homestead...

Wheaton's longtime VFW post faces unsure future

When Linda Flaherty began bar tending at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Wheaton 14 years ago, the weekly bingo nights drew as many...

Tinley Park Mental Health Center to get another hearing

Opponents of Gov. Pat Quinn's plan to close the Tinley Park Mental Health Center are readying their arguments now that the commission...

Campus tour now comes with an iPad

— When a group of prospective students arrived at Bradley University's recreation center at 10:30 a.m. one recent morning, the...

The look, the touch, the … bulk

Close your eyes for a moment and remember your first.

CPS, teachers union ready to discuss a longer school day

After weeks of bitter fighting over the district's efforts to introduce a longer school day, Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers...

Boy, 14, critically wounded in South Shore shooting

Deonta Brown had just left his eighth-grade class and was hanging out with friends on a South Shore street corner Friday afternoon when a...

High school opens doors to cellphone use

Cellphones in hand, Hinsdale Central students click away at text messages in the high school cafeteria. In the hallways between classes,...

Proposal to test Lake Zurich High athletes for drugs divides parents

Depending upon which side you're on, a snippet of hair could either save a teenager's life or represent an outrageous invasion of privacy in...

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  2010 high school seniors drug use poll

Small town lit up by explosive early morning train derailment

One moment Joe Passi was asleep in his bed. The next, he was fully awake, rocked into consciousness by an explosion the likes of which he...

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  Location of derailment

Questions remain after dig at Hammond site

After digging up evidence from a construction site for much of the day on Friday, authorities still don't know the gender of the human bones...

Bethenny Frankel, Skinnygirl cocktails accused of false advertising

Bethenny Frankel's admission that her purportedly all-natural Skinnygirl Margaritas contained a synthetic preservative has left a sour taste...

Kabul base crowns its own Chicago marathon winner

The Chicago marathon already has one winner.