Scofflaw getting big bucks

Chicago steel plant in trouble with EPA while taking millions in cash from city, state

04/27/2011

A Chicago steel manufacturer is getting millions of dollars in government incentives to foot its long-awaited move, despite that fact that it has continued to shirk safety requirements at its Lincoln Park facility.
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River North murder-suicide

04/27/2011

Police believe that a 63-year-old River North man fatally shot his estranged wife before taking his own life on the evening of April 23. At around 6:45 p.m., officers responding to a call of shots fired at an apartment home in the 500 block of West Superior Street arrived to find Josephine Martinez bleeding from a gunshot wound on the floor outside the unit.
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Merit makes it easy for Chicago kids to be involved in music

The power of music

04/27/2011

Web Extra! Audio slideshow
Just off Monroe in the West Loop, children stream in and out of a nondescript concrete building, black cases in hand. It’s a dreary late afternoon in April, but inside this concrete complex at 38 S. Peoria St., 10 children are raptly focused on Robert Sherman and his guitar. The students were some of hundreds taking part in after-school music lessons at the Merit School of Music, learning how to play everything from guitar and drums to violin and clarinet.
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Selling 'wares and laughs

Heart of the 'hood

04/27/2011

Imagine a tall, big-haired, redheaded drag queen — wearing loads of makeup and with a great pair of legs — walking down the streets of Lake View. OK, so maybe that’s not so unusual in a neighborhood nicknamed Boystown. But if you happen to spot a queen that looks like the picture in this column, be sure to say hey to Dixie Longate.
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Rescues of the week

04/27/2011

Sneakers is a peppy, 4-year-old Jack Russell Terrier mix. This loveable girl was found wandering the streets in September and wound up at Animal Care & Control. When no one claimed her, Sneakers made her way to the PAWS Chicago Adoption & Humane Center, where she has been given a second chance at life
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Growing grapes to revive South Side neighborhoods

The Home Front

04/27/2011

When Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel takes office in a few weeks, one of the great challenges facing him along with an underwater budget and some of the worst schools in America will be what to do with the vast real estate wilderness called Chicago’s South Side.
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Walmart eyes River North

Businesses react to rumored store on Chicago Ave.

04/20/2011

Big-box retailer Walmart might have its sights set on a not-so-big property in an artsy corner of River North. Last week, Crain’s reported a real estate source as saying that Walmart Stores Inc. has plans to develop a store at 225 W. Chicago. The 14,500-square-foot site, which is located under a CTA train station and formerly housed a Pearl Art and Craft store, has been vacant since early 2010.
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Chicago plastic surgeon says 'less of a taboo' for men to go under knife

Men saving face

04/20/2011

The face of modern man is changing — thanks to an increase in male cosmetic surgery. More than 50 percent of Americans approve of plastic surgery, according to the New York City-based American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, turning once-discouraged procedures into common means for men to stay competitive in the workplace.
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Burglary spree in West Lincoln Park

04/20/2011

Police recorded a number of seemingly linked home break-ins in the West Lincoln Park area last week. On the morning of April 18, police responding to a burglar alarm call at a building in the 1600 block of North Dayton Street found that the second floor rear door of the unit had been kicked in.
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Old Town decries community leader's firing

04/20/2011

There’s something brewing in Old Town, and it ain’t Shirley Baugher’s coffee over at the Old Town Triangle Association, 1763 N. North Park Ave. Baugher’s no longer there, as her longtime administrator position was recently eliminated by a new board. That move has caused a rift among neighbors, even leading to the formation of a new grassroots group, Neighbors for a Better Old Town (NBOT).
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