DNA testing has exonerated a man of a rape conviction that had kept him in an Illinois prison for more than 12 years.
The New York-based Innocence Project says Dean Cage is the 29th person in Illinois exonerated by post-conviction DNA evidence.
The 41-year-old man was …
Exelon raises earnings target
Exelon, the biggest U.S. utility owner by market value, raised its2004 earnings target and set a higher forecast range for next year oncost cutting and increased wholesale power prices. Per-share profitexcluding certain items will be $2.75 to $2.90 this year and $2.85 to$3.05 next year, the Chicago-based company, parent of CommonwealthEdison, said. The 2004 forecast is up from a July 28 estimate of$2.68 to $2.83.
Abbott loses to Hershey
Hershey Foods Corp., the No. 1 U.S. chocolate maker, said it willbegin sales of the SmartZone nutrition bars after Abbott Laboratorieslost a court ruling that would block sales while a trademark …
The issue of data access and freedom landed front and center during NACE in Orlando, Fla. Concern raised by users of estimating systems centered on the actions of two of the Big Three information providers who have indicated they may restrict the transfer of a shop's estimate data to 'approved' third party providers. Mitchell was the lone supporter of unfettered access and communication commendable position.
The prospect of access restrictions raised warning flags for many supporters of open,Web-based communication systems built upon standards developed by the Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA).
In justifying their actions, ADP Claims Solutions …
Police said a thief used a Vaseline-like lubricant to swipe an expensive ring off an elderly woman's hand in broad daylight. Authorities said two men bumped 80-year-old Helen Artim's car, then asked her to open her trunk to check for damage.
Police said the suspect ran his hand over hers, covering it with "some type of lubricant," then …
Thousands of people living either side of the River Avon were leftconfused after vandals activated the Severnside emergency sirensystem.
The scheme was introduced five years ago as an early warning toresidents in the event of major incidents at the vast Avonmouthchemical plants.
The first sirens in the GBP214,000 scheme were installed atAvonmouth, Pilning, Royal Portbury, Portishead, Pilning and Aust.
It was the latest siren to link up to the network, near theLamplighters pub at Station Road, Shirehampton, that was activatedjust before 7pm on Monday.
Police were sent to the area to search for a gang of teenagersseen near the site just before. …
Stewart Cink says he's not worried about the Ryder Cup pointsrace. Maybe that's because he's in eighth place--if not a lock, atleast with some breathing room.
With the U.S. team to be determined after the PGA Championship,most of those on the bubble aren't hiding their feelings.
"It's hard not to think about it," Brad Faxon said after moving upto 12th last week with a tie for sixth in the International. "I don'tknow how anybody could be in eighth to 12th and not be thinking aboutwhere you stand on the Ryder Cup. Every round means so much."
Faxon knows as well as anyone. In the 1995 PGA at Riviera in LosAngeles, he shot a final-round 63 to grab the last spot on …
LINZ, Austria (AP) — Results Wednesday from the Generali Ladies, a $220,000 (€145,000) WTA Tour event on indoor hard-courts at TipsArena (seedings in parentheses):
| First Round |
|---|
Petra Kvitova (5), Czech Republic, def. Anastasia Rodionova, Australia, 6-2, 1-0, retired.
Ana Ivanovic (7), Serbia, def. Sorana Cirstea, …
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Third-seeded Tomas Berdych recovered from a slow start to beat Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 6-3 Monday in the first round of the Dubai Championships, and fifth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic was forced to retire with a leg injury against Ukrainian qualifier Sergei Bubka.
Berdych took advantage of Chardy's 40 unforced errors, recovering from a 2-1 deficit in the first set to take the next five games. In the second set, Berdych won six of the final seven games and 16 of the last 20 points.
"It was really solid," said Berdych, who has been recovering from the flu. "I was not really aiming for some special and extreme shots. Just try to be as consistent and patient …
WOICE of ACHEMA (World
Catalog of International Chemical Equipment)
- CD-ROM
- Pub K-22
- $325 for North American singleusers; $260 for a single-user update; $185 for a subscription (two year minimum) - Members outside North America must order directly from DECHEMA
- Available in May 1997
The first "worldwide multimedia catalog for equipment in chemical engineering, environmental protection, and biotechnology," WOICE puts together-on one CD-ROM-basic information on more than 3,500 companies from around the world, including a brief description, and keywords for database searches. Updated annually, the program also provides technical reports …
The shadow of the Sept. 11 terror attacks is eclipsing press freedom and other constitutional safeguards in the United States, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley said.
"What has become clear in the aftermath of 9/11 is how much expediency trumps safeguards," Curley said Thursday during the annual dinner of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation.
"Congress steps back from its constitutional role of executive oversight. Civilian oversight of the military wanes. A Justice Department interprets laws in ways that extend police powers. More drastically, prisons are established in places where government or military operatives …
All the wardens need do is walk along Union Street and they willcatch scores of people tossing away cigarette ends, dropping sweetwrappers or throwing fast food containers away.
It makes you wonder what their houses must be like if this is howpeople behave in public.
But at least the council has now pledged to get tough and startdishing out fines. Good on it.
And good on the Evening Express, too, for its Make Our CitySparkle campaign.
We do need reminding sometimes that it is up to all of us to …
For the uninitiated, Indie Writers' Deathmatch is our version of a literary contest. It's your garden variety short story contest, but we like to throw in some twists: the cattiness of online message boards; the puffed up pride of UFC combatants; and the vagaries of pseudo-democracy! Basically, Deathmatch is the Rie Flair of short story competitions.
Our fourth annual Deathmatch had the sort of twists you just don't get from other short story contests.
This year, not only did we receive the highest number of entries in Deathmatch history, but the greatest number of votes too, not to mention our biggest prize grab ever, including publication in this very issue, a bunch of …
LOS ANGELES - Heather Mills McCartney says rumors that she has a romantic relationship with her personal trainer are false, and that she'll never remarry after her four-year union with Paul McCartney fell apart.
Mills McCartney, 38, and ex-Beatle McCartney, 64, announced their separation in May and began divorce proceedings in July. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice.
"I haven't got a lover," Mills McCartney told "Extra" in an interview to be aired Monday and Tuesday. "At the moment, I'm focusing on my daughter."
Tabloid newspapers and celebrity-gossip Web sites have speculated that Mills McCartney had become romantic with trainer Ben Amigoni.
Mills McCartney says she has received much public support since the separation, with some people hugging her in the street. She said: "I didn't know that many people cared. You get to know who your friends are and I haven't lost any friends."
Mills McCartney didn't comment on her divorce. But she said public perceptions that she was a "gold digger" were misguided. She said 85 percent of her income went to her charity and that she fell in love for the right reason. "I fell in love unconditionally," she said.
Mills McCartney touted her vegan diet, which she said was behind her recent weight loss. When asked what projects she had been working on recently, she said: "What I've been developing is a vegan fast food chain and vegan food markets."
MIAMI - Actor-comedian Sinbad had the last laugh after his Wikipedia entry announced he was dead, the performer said Thursday. Rumors began circulating Saturday regarding the posting, said Sinbad, who first got a telephone call from his daughter. The gossip quieted, but a few days later the 50-year-old entertainer said the phone calls, text messages and e-mails started pouring in by the hundreds.
"Saturday I rose from the dead and then died again," the Los Angeles-based entertainer told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
The St. Petersburg-based company, which describes itself as "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit," leaves it to a vast user community to catch factual errors and other problems. Apparently, someone edited it to say Sinbad died of a heart attack. By the time the error was caught, e-mail links of the erroneous page had been forwarded to hundreds of people.
A note on Sinbad's Wikipedia page Thursday night said the site has been temporarily protected from editing to deal with vandalism.
Wikipedia was created in 2001 as a Web research tool. It has more than 1.6 million articles, contributed by members of the public.
A telephone call and an e-mail left for Wikipedia were not immediately returned Thursday night.
When asked if he was upset about the mix-up, Sinbad, whose real name is David Adkins, just laughed.
"It's gonna be more commonplace as the Internet opens up more and more. It's not that strange," the Los Angeles-based entertainer told the Associated Press in a phone interview.
Sinbad, who is currently on the road doing stand up, said he hasn't received an apology from the Internet site. He has appeared in the films, "Houseguest," and "Jingle All the Way."
To see him on the street, you might not guess that Brett Dennen is an acclaimed musician. He's a giant blue-eyed, ginger-haired guy in whose arms a standard guitar looks as small as an ukulele. He doesn't look like a rock star, and he doesn't really sound like one. A pleasant, albeit reedy tenor that slips from a whisper to a belted-out falsetto and crazy-legs moves on stage isn't typical rock-god material (or is it, Elvis Presley?).
But the 30-something Dennen, whose rockin' new album Loverboy (Dualtone Music Group) came out in April, has the qualities of a long and illustrious musical career: He knows his way around a guitar and he's an incredible storyteller who sings every note honestly. No matter whether he's promising "Sydney" he'll come running or explaining why there "Ain't No Reason" love won't come set him free, he's sincere and tells his tales as if they're closely guarded secrets ? ones he's sharing with a whole crowd of fans.
-Amy Atkins
With The Submarines. 8 p.m., $20-$45. Knitting Factory, 416 S. Ninth St., bo.knittingfactory.com.
Emotional testimony and rehashed complaints about police brutality and insensitivity filled Chicago City Council chambers for nearly four hours Tuesday, during a hearing of the police and fire committee on the subject of racial profiling.
Of the seven aldermen who attended Tuesday's City Council police and fire committee hearing on racial profiling, only three were Black, and one of those was the committee chair.
The African American community was not especially well-rep-resented either at the hearing which was convened by Alderman Isaac Carothers (29th).
Black Aldermen Emma Mitts (37th) and Carrie Austin (34th) were joined by Aldermen James Balcer (11th), Virginia Rugai (19th), Helen Shiller (46th) and Ariel Rebroyas (30th).
The committee listened to testimony from 21 city residents, all Black, as well as remarks from Chicago police superintendent Philip Cline.
Cline, accompanied by First Deputy Superintendent Dana Starks and other members of his command staff, said in prepared remarks that two events happened this summer to send the issue of racial profiling back into the news.
"In June, we released race data collected during traffic stops as part of the Illinois Traffic Stop Statistical Study," Cline said. "And last month, pastor and state Senator James Meeks filed a complaint with the Office of Professional Standards alleging that a sergeant mistreated him during a traffic stop."
Cline then made a power point presentation to show some of the training videos from around the country officers view in order to learn the best ways to deal with the public, and in ways that protect the safety of everyone involved in those vehicular stops.
He said the department received 421 officer complaints so far this year.
"They have been investigated and of that number, only six officers have been named in a second complaint," Cline said.
Then the testimony alleging physical and verbal police abuse began.
Marvin Robinson, a 13-year Cook County employee, told the committee he was with a group of friends at 79th Street and Langley Avenue on July 30 when police stopped them and arrested him for "wearing a T-shirt."
He is out on bond for trespassing charges and showed the Chicago Defender the offending shirt which read, "Fact: Whites get 1 year probation for 1 oz. of coke + Fact: Blacks get 6-30 years on ? oz. of coke."
The back side read, "Doesn't add up."
Clifton Marvel, a former investigator with the Cook County Sheriff's Department, fought back tears as he recounted how he was approached by police officers five years ago while he was in uniform and legally parked.
"No one explained why I was asked for my identification," he said.
Marvel's car was searched, his service weapon confiscated and the last thing he said he remembered about the incident was seeing "a white shirt (of a police supervisor) while I was choked unconscious."
He was fired from his job a month later and is still fighting charges of aggravated assault.
Rev. Albert Tyson III, pastor of St. Stephen's African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the only clergy member at the hearing, told the Defender he would like to see four things come out of the hearing.
"An independent citizen review board, a new standard of conduct for police officers, more promotions of African Americans," he said. "And zero tolerance for racial profiling."
State Senators Kwame Raoul (D-13th) and Kimberly Lightford (D-4th) also testified at the hearing.
Raoul talked about his personal experience when he was an assistant Cook County state's attorney and was stopped by police who believed he matched the description of a car thief.
Lightford said one of her young male relatives had been stopped by police in May, and was still awaiting a call back from OPS.
Pat Hill, head of the African American Police League, told the Defender the hearing was one of the least attended by the Black community she's seen.
"I think this is part because historically, there have never been any results produced, any recommendations, any results because the public sees this for what it is," said Hill. "It's a sham. It's just giving people something to do today."
She said the aldermen were "insulting the public by not being here. And I think every last one of them should be targeted."
But Carothers told the Defender while he had hoped for a greater response from the community, he will move forward in analyzing Tuesday's testimony and working with Cline, whom he believes is sincere in his effort to make officers accountable for their interactions with residents.
Article copyright REAL TIMES Inc.
Photograph (Clifton Marvel, Isaac Carothers)
The following recall has been announced:
_ Seattle's Favorite Gourmet Cookies & Dessert Co. is recalling orange cranberry and banana nut muffin tops because they contain undeclared milk, which could cause a severe or life-threatening reaction in people who have allergies to milk. No illnesses have been reported, according to the Tukwila, Wash., company. The orange cranberry and banana nut muffin tops were distributed nationwide to coffee shops, espresso stands and retail outlets. For more information, consumers can call 866-203-5588.
Millions of Americans gamble each year. Now the industry wants tounite them behind a single anthem: "Danke Schoen."
Entertainer Wayne Newton, known as Mr. Las Vegas and known for histrademark song, "Danke Schoen," is chairing the first nationwideeffort to promote gambling at the grass-roots level. The group,Americans for Casino Entertainment, hopes to harness the power ofgambling enthusiasts to counter vocal anti-gambling groups.
"Forty million people a year go to Atlantic City, 39 million go toLas Vegas and millions more go to casinos in Illinois, Iowa,Missouri" and other states, said Frank J. Fahrenkopf, president andCEO of the American Gambling Association, which is organizing thecitizens group. "If and when there's an unfair law, we want tomotivate them to be of assistance."
The group hopes to attract members through a new Web site,www.aceaction.com, and through letters to people on casino mailinglists.
Test mailings began going to thousands of potential members duringthe last three weeks, Fahrenkopf said. In one letter, the 58-year-old Newton writes "powerful forces are at work in Washington and instate capitals."
"A new coalition is forming-a coalition of politicians and vocalanti-gambling groups that want to take away your right to enjoycasino gaming. They want to tell you how to behave, how to live andwhat kinds of entertainment you may choose. It's wrong and it'shappening right now."
The first issue the group wants people to write Congress about isa proposed ban on college sports gambling in Las Vegas. The groupcontends the move only would create more illegal sports gamblingoperations. Eventually, Fahrenkopf hopes to use other entertainers tohelp recruit members.
Newton's involvement with the pro-casino group doesn't faze one ofthe nation's leading anti-gambling activists so far.
"If that's the best you can do, none of us are intimidated by it,"said the Rev. Tom Grey, a United Methodist minister from the Rockfordarea. "It's a move that shows me we are having an impact at thispoint."
Jordan says it has signed a $130 million agreement with a South Korean consortium to build the kingdom's first nuclear research reactor.
The consortium, led by state-run Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute and Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co., will build a 5-megawatt reactor, a radioactive isotope manufacturing facility and a nuclear training center.
The official Petra news agency said Tuesday the reactor will be fully commissioned within five years and a nuclear power plant will be built by 2017. Construction is to start later this year near the northern city of Irbid.
Resource-barren Jordan is developing a peaceful nuclear program with U.S. support. It says alternative energy sources are needed to generate electricity and desalinate water.
On Friday afternoon, neighborhood children frolicked on the new$70,000 playground at Haines School in New Lenox that was completedjust that day.
By that night, the playground was aflame, its largest piece ofequipment melted into an indistinguishable mess of color.
"This was not just a case of vandalism, this is a case of arson,"Haines Principal Jackie Miller said.
The playground replaced equipment that was the oldest in thedistrict, Miller said. Students at the first- through third-gradeschool were so excited about the new equipment, they ran a lemonadestand at the end of last school year to buy jump ropes, balls andgames.
"We were so excited to start the new year with a new playground,"Miller said. "It was something that the whole community was lookingforward to."
The largest piece of equipment -- which included ladders andslides -- was destroyed. Other equipment, such as swings and smallerslides, were far enough away from the fire that they aresalvageable, Miller said.
The fire started about 11 p.m. Friday, just hours after crewsfinished installing mulch and other finishing touches in time forthe first day of school today.
Miller said the fire department indicated to her that anaccelerant had been used.
Police Chief Dan Martin said that the cause of the fire is stillunder investigation but that it was "suspicious in nature." Martinsaid a neighbor indicated several youths were at the park earlier inthe night.
The playground took eight months to build. It's unknown how longit will take to replace the damaged equipment.
Teachers were working on an alternate plan for recess, Millersaid. "We've got a creative team, and we're going to figuresomething out," she said.
