Flash flood warnings were issued today for Chicago and nearby areas by the National Weather Service as a series of severe thunderstorms moved across the Upper Midwest.

The storms come packing heavy rainfall that the service could be as much as 5 inches in some locations. These storm drenched eastern Iowa and northwestern Missouri early in the day.

Two people who said they fell ill after eating hummus at the Taste of Chicago food festival are suing the restaurant that served the food.

Monique Roach, 49, and 43-year-old Willie Smith filed a lawsuit Monday against Pars Cove Persian Cuisine.
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The Chicago Department of Health said more than 500 people have reported becoming sick after eating food from the Pars Cove booth.

For the first time a Chicago crime camera is credited with nailing murder suspects. At the same time Chicago police also unveiled new crime prevention monitors.
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A school security camera helped Chicago police detectives catch two murder suspects. Police say 19-year-old Jorge Morones and 20-year-old Orlando Rojas were caught, in large part, due to the images caught by the camera in the Little Village neighborhood where 14-year-old Roberto Duran was gunned down in June.

Mayor Richard Daley suggested ever so diplomatically Monday that Rio de Janeiro has its share of crime and violence and also may not be the easiest place to navigate because of its geography.

The Chicago Health Department confirmed on Friday that the shirazi was the source of the Salmonella outbreak that resulted in hundreds of people reporting food poisoning, although they have not yet determined how the salad became contaminated.

Salmonella is a potentially deadly type of food poisoning, symptoms of which include fever, abdominal pain, nausea, gas and bloody diarrhea. Symptoms appear within 36 hours of exposure, and usually last four to seven days. In very severe cases, Salmonella can lead to kidney failure and other complications.

A month has come and gone since Pace unveiled its contingency plan, hoping that it wouldn’t have to take the proposed fare hikes and service cuts to public hearings.

But the hearings begin today (Monday), and are scheduled to continue through July 26.
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Pace is trying to plug a $50 million hole in its 2007 budget. About $23 million stems from Pace suburban bus operations, while the other $27 million stems from its paratransit operations, which cover the entire six-county RTA region.

Effective in early October, no weekend service — fixed route or suburban paratransit — would remain in the Pace contingency plan. Ross said Pace currently operates 83 routes on weekends, providing service to more than two-million riders a year.

Pace also would eliminate 63 Metra feeder and shuttle routes, erase 27 bus routes it considers under-performing, or on which federal funding is running out, would eliminate most downtown express service and would end special events service, such as buses to Cubs, Sox and Bears games.

Fares would jump a month earlier, on Sept. 1, from $1.50 on Pace mainline routes and $1.25 on feeder and shuttle buses to $2. Pace would continue to honor the CTA monthly pass, but would stop honoring other CTA fare cards. Dial-a- ride fares would increase by 25 percent, to at least $2, and van pool fares would increase by 10 percent.

One guess what’s being served at the River North neighborhood’s new Martini Park.

The answer: Women. Those thirtysomething, and past the days of submitting to the guy controlling the velvet rope.

CEO Chris Barish thought the nation’s older partyers were underserved. Not everyone, he figured, wanted to hang out in five-inch stiletto heels, bustiers and booty shorts. That was the crowd he cultivated as developer of clubs Light New York and Marquee in New York, and Light Bellagio, Carmel and Mist in Las Vegas.

He sold his interests in those concepts in 2003 and opened the first Martini Park outside Dallas.

Three teens have been arrested in connection with the killing of Isidro Duran, an ice cream vendor who was shot Sunday.
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The teens approached Duran as he was selling ice cream and flashed a handgun. When Duran tried to flee, they shot him multiple times in the back and leg area, Deputy Chief Greg Lindmark said. Two of the men were found near the scene and the other was arrested later, he said.

A man was fatally shot in an alley Sunday afternoon on Chicago’s South Side, police said.

The man was found shot in the head about 2:10 p.m. in the 8000 block of South Yates Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood, Officer John Mirabelli said.

The Fisher Avenue Apartments on the city’s westside will be closed for good Sunday afternoon.

The buildings are owned by Duke Properties of suburban Chicago.

Neighbors say they’ve seen crime plague the apartments for years and that the out-of-town landlord hasn’t done its part to keep the neighborhood safe.

Annette Barrios has children that live at the Fisher Avenue Apartments. She describes how they got the news: “They waited until the last minute and said everybody going to have a big surprise tomorrow. That’s what everyone was told. The surprise was - you all got to get out of here in 15 days.”

A West Side woman who opened fire on three officers before they fatally shot her had a history of violence, police said Monday.