No one was injured when the SUV exploded around 3:20 a.m. in the 300 block of West Erie Street, said Chicago Police Officer John Henry. Bomb and Arson investigators are on the scene this morning, he said.

WGN-Ch. 9 reported the vehicle’s windows and door panel were blown out. It was parked outside “Buzz” nightclub.

CBS 2’s Mai Martinez reports that he’s expected to address the shootings of 34 Chicago students.
…
Naomi Walley said, “I’m glad that one of the candidates is addressing local violence because it’s become a huge problem, especially in Chicago and with all the deaths of teenagers and high school students. I’m just glad someone is addressing it.”

Last week three masked men entered Walker’s posh River North residence through the garage, held a gun to his head, duct-taped his ankles and wrists and robbed him of cash, jewelry and his black Mercedes.

Walker escaped without serious injury, and the Mercedes and some of his jewelry have been recovered. But the emotional scars will linger, in part because Walker has been victimized before. In July 2000, he and former Kentucky teammate Nazr Mohammed, a fellow South Sider, were among five people robbed at gunpoint of cash and a $55,000 watch outside a restaurant on West Roosevelt Road. The diamond and platinum Cartier watch was Walker’s.
…
More recently Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia and his cousin were robbed at gunpoint of $44,000 worth of jewelry and cash at a Cleveland hotel in 2002. That same year, Giants receiver Tim Carter was carjacked outside a New Jersey movie complex and robbed of his BMW and $10,000 worth of jewelry.

NBA guard Stephon Marbury, then with the New Jersey Nets, was robbed of a $150,000 diamond necklace as he waited in his Bentley for a light to change in Manhattan in 2000. Gary Payton, then with the Seattle Sonics, was relieved of $30,000 worth of cash and jewelry in his native Oakland.

Clear blue skies and strong winds greeted thousands of amateur boating enthusiasts along the city’s lakefront Saturday as they set sail in the 99th running of the Race to Mackinac, the world’s longest annual freshwater race.

More than 3,000 sailing enthusiasts on about 300 boats left Chicago’s Monroe Harbor Saturday morning as winds reached speeds of 20 to 40 knots on Lake Michigan, said race spokeswoman Celeste Johnson. The 333-mile regatta ends at the lighthouse on Round Island off Michigan’s Mackinac Island.

The number of people claiming symptoms of salmonella poisoning after eating at Taste of Chicago has climbed to 378, Health Department officials said.

The Chicago Tribune said Saturday that as of Friday, the number of people who fell ill after the July 4 food festival had tripled from the day before, when 126 people had called.

Department of Health officials said they believe the primary suspect was the “hummus shirazi” that was served at the Pars Cove Persian Cuisine booth.

The Magnificent Mile’s newest mall, the Nordstrom-anchored Shops of North Bridge, is on the sale block.

The mall, which opened in 2000 at 520 N. Michigan Ave., is being marketed along with a nearby parking garage and some office space in a deal that could fetch around $600 million, according to market sources.

Two men have been arrested in Chicago and charged in connection with a carjacking in the parking lot of the River Oaks Mall in south suburban Calumet City on Wednesday night.

Lorenzo T. Brown of 7817 S. Burnham Ave. is charged with criminal trespass to a vehicle, and Javan Boyd, 21, of 7439 S. Chappel Ave. is charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking, according to a release from Calumet City police.

Antoine Walker has kept his word and is vacating his expensive home in Chicago’s River North area.

He was duct taped and robbed at gunpoint at the residence Monday.

Agent Mark Bartelstein told the Chicago Tribune Thursday the former Mount Carmel High School basketball star has left his $4.1 million home and is in the process of moving out.

In an effort to ensure that
Chicagoans make their voices heard against community violence, the Chicago
Department of Children and Youth Services (CYS) joined city officials and
community and faith-based leaders today to launch Faces Against Violence, a
three-month campaign, part of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s “Safe Summer”
initiative.
…
Following the press conference, children and
adults were treated to a free day of roller skating to help kick off the
program and promote safe summer activities.
Faces Against Violence encourages Chicagoans to take a stand against
violence by having their photos taken and reciting a peace pledge.

A large swath of west suburban Chicago will dial an extra four digits to make local phone calls when state regulators add a second area code this fall.

The 630 area code was “exhausted” at the end of June and will be supplemented by 331 for new phone customers effective Oct. 7, George Light, a telecommunications analyst for the Illinois Commerce Commission, said Thursday.
…
The 331 overlay will bring to nine the number of area codes in the Chicago area, joining the existing 312, 773, 708, 630, 815, 847, 224 and 779. Residents in the 815 area code went to 11-digit dialing in mid-February, just before the 779 overlay was introduced there in March.

Illinois consumers are being told to take a closer look at their bathroom shelves, as some toxic tubes of toothpaste have slipped into local stores.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued a warning Thursday that some toothpaste labeled as Colgate and manufactured in South Africa and China may not contain fluoride but diethylene glycol (DEG) — a chemical used in antifreeze that can cause liver and kidney damage and death. While the Colgate-Palmolive Co. does have a plant in China, Madigan said, that product is not authorized for sale in the United States.

Inspectors found 483 tubes of suspect toothpaste, packaged as the Colgate brand, in five stores on the North Side and West Side of Chicago on Wednesday.

McCotter told the joint committee that one-third of all accidents resulting in deaths or serious injuries involve at least one motorist driving on a suspended or revoked license. The same applies to 25 percent of all street corner drug arrests.

GLENCOE, Ill. (AP) - The Chicago Botanic Garden says it has received an eight million dollar gift from the Daniel F- and Ada L-Rice Foundation to expand its plant conservation research.

The grant will go toward the establishment of the Daniel F- and Ada L-Rice Plant Conservation Science Center.

Her research led her to the Levee, Chicago’s red-light district, where many missing women were said to have ended up, and then to Ada and Minna Everleigh, madams of the infamous Everleigh Club.

DALLAS — Police recently discovered they have been over-reporting certain types of property crime to the FBI, a revelation that could change Dallas’ reputation as one of the nation’s most dangerous cities.

Authorities in Chicago have filed charges against three men accused of beating a homeless man with a heavy chain and a metal sign as they left a downtown bar. The homeless man is now stable condition after the attack around 11 p.m. Sunday night under an el stop at Wabash and Randolph.
…
A passerby reported the broad daylight assault on Johnson, but experts on homelessness say most attacks on street people never make the police blotter.

NBA star Antoine Walker was the victim of a robbery at his River North residence Monday evening, his Chicago-based agent Mark Bartelstein confirmed.

The masked robbers stole cash, jewelry and a vehicle about 6:30 p.m.

It was the second time Walker has been the victim of a robbery. He was robbed of a $50,000 watch at gunpoint while sitting in a car on the South Side during the summer of 2000.

Other cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, have expanded their use of public surveillance cameras and tout the effectiveness of the technology. Some of these cameras, which can cost up to $60,000 each, have night-vision capabilities and can be remotely controlled to pan, tilt, zoom and rotate.

Over the last few years, the Chicago Police Department has set up more than 500 cameras throughout the city. And the CPD claims that the web of surveillance has been an important crime-fighting tool, resulting in more than 1,200 arrests since February 2006.

“Our preliminary research shows that they are effective, especially left in places for over 180 days,” said Jonathan Lewin, the CPD’s commander of information services. “Once it’s in, it’s hard to move because the community loves it. If they don’t see the camera there one day, we get calls.”

CHICAGO — A van veered off a downtown street and slammed into a restaurant Monday, injuring four people, two critically, authorities said.

The driver suddenly veered onto the sidewalk around 9:30 a.m., hitting a pedestrian and striking the Cosi restaurant, Chicago Police spokesman John Henry said. A witness said the driver appeared to have been trying to avoid another vehicle.

Midwesterners are more likely to volunteer their time than are people elsewhere in the United States, according to a study released today.

The highest rates among the biggest 50 metro areas were in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where more than four in 10 adults volunteered.

Chicago, however, was not a standout in the Midwest, ranking 32nd.

Rolling Meadows currently has one camera installed outside the Rolling Meadows Public Library and another inside the Police Neighborhood Resource Center to enhance security.

Another camera is expected to be installed inside the library very shortly.

These cameras, worth $11,000, are very similar to the blue-light cameras in Chicago, according to Police Chief Steven Williams. Instead of the light being blue though, it is red.

Sprint plans WiMax test launches in December in Chicago, Washington and Baltimore, followed by commercial availability in those markets in April.

“If you really want to know how this all comes down in the next few years in terms of Wi-Fi and WiMax, Chicago is the city to watch,” said Greg Richardson, founder of Civitium LLC, an Atlanta area firm that consults with cities on municipal Wi-Fi projects.

Cook County authorities are holding two suburban residents and two Chicagoans this weekend in the death of a Chicago man who was shot 18 times in the parking lot of an apartment complex in suburban Lansing.

MIAMI — Statements given to the FBI by six of the seven men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago’s Sears Tower and other buildings indicate that some did not believe the talk of joining up with al-Qaeda and that others were motivated by money, rather than by Islamic radicalism.

Some were clearly bewildered by what had happened to them. One even asked the FBI agents interrogating him whether he could have some of the marijuana he had been carrying…

Why is it that most deaths are caused in gun-free zones, such as schools, banks, hospitals, etc.? Why is it the highest crime rates and murders are in Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York City and other major cities that have the strictest gun control policies?

The suspect was given about $7,000 and fled the building to a waiting Checker Cab, the release said.

“There was a disaster in New Orleans before the hurricane hit: problems of poverty, substandard schools, a health care system that was creaky, joblessness, crime,” Obama said. “Those are chronic issues that we should not have to wait for a hurricane or a natural disaster to start addressing.”

Now that crime has returned to the city in force, Obama said, government should focus on rebuilding the police force and the district attorney’s office while tackling the causes of the violence.

“Like every city in America, New Orleans will continue to experience violent crime if we are not investing in approaches like early childhood education, improving the public schools, providing job opportunities to young men, in particular, and dealing with the ex-offender problem,” Obama said. “We need more police and better policing, but police can only do so much if a community is in chaos.”

Not only did Hurricane Katrina generate goodwill, he said, but it also provoked a collective sense of shame in the images of poverty and helplessness splayed across the news when storm victims were stranded in rancid water with no food or supplies.

That shame was reminiscent of what Americans felt 40 years ago when law enforcement officers beat and gassed civil rights marchers across the South, he said at the Superdome on Thursday night.

Police arrested three people, rescued eight pit bulls and shot dead a ninth in a raid Thursday on a Far South Side home where fighting dogs were allegedly being bred and trained.

The 7:30 a.m. raid on a home in the South Side’s West Pullman community came after a monthlong investigation, police said.

Dog-fighting has followed gang activity into the south suburbs in recent years and owners in previous cases have been caught traveling more than 50 miles with their dogs to compete in high-stakes fights.

Police officer Tom Barker — part of the team that raided the house in the 12000 block of South Lafayette Avenue — said investigators did not know where the four adult dogs and four puppies seized had been fighting.

Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) have proposed a budget that includes a mix of new casinos and higher business taxes to generate $5 billion for health care and education.

Madigan (D-Chicago) prefers to increase spending by about $1 billion through a mix of natural revenue growth and higher business taxes.

The denizens of Wrigleyville, accustomed to bars and baseball, are choosy when it comes to rock shows, unwilling to let a band with overly raucous followers invade their friendly confines.

So when The Police’s reunion concert arrived Thursday night at Wrigley Field, there was excitement but not mania, a comfortable buzz but a distinct lack of edginess.

“This crowd is a little more calm than the baseball fans. It’s not as drunk and it’s not as rowdy. I feel like it’s more suburban too.”

A Memphis woman was found carrying a loaded revolver at the Sears Tower in Chicago.

Police said 56-year-old Stephanie Warren is charged with one count each of unlawful use of a weapon, failure to register a firearm in the state of Illinois and not having an Illinois firearm owner’s ID card.

She was taken into custody yesterday after she tried to visit the skyscraper’s public viewing area with a .38-caliber handgun in her purse and it set off a metal detector.

Tennessee allows its citizens to carry a handgun if they have a permit, which Warren has. Police said she was unaware that she wasn’t allowed to carry a handgun in the state of Illinois.

Police in Illinois were able to stop a maddening series of calls to 9-1-1 by offering the caller a meal from McDonald’s.

Authorities in suburban Chicago tracked down a 4-year-old girl who had called the emergency number nearly 300 times last month, by offering to deliver McDonald’s to her door.

Unbeknownst to her mom, she’d used a deactivated cell phone to call dispatchers 287 times in June - sometimes as often as 20 times a shift.

If disciplinary actions against Chicago’s cabdrivers continue on the same pace, citations will be up 21 percent and fines will rise 68 percent from 2006.

From Jan. 1 to June 26, more than 2,600 citations and $280,246 in fines have been issued to cabdrivers for everything from unclean or damaged vehicles to reckless driving and abusive behavior, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

As CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports, the theme of this year’s Independence Day parade in Gary is “A New Gary,” something the mayor of the city and the residents are looking forward to.

Last week, four new police reserve officers joined the force to help bolster public safety. By the end of June violent crime killed 32 people in Gary. Officials continue to combat critics labeling the city as “violent.”

“In Chicago, Illinois, they’ve had 35 homicides related only to school children,” said Gary Police Department Chief Tom Houston. “Nobody has a microphone in Mayor Daley’s face asking him to declare that a violent city. It’s an international destination. They don’t dare do that.”

Three men died and a teenage girl was wounded in separate shootings across Chicago as the 4th of July holiday drew to a close.

The four incidents occurred over three hours, police said.

On the Southwest Side at about 10 p.m. Wednesday, Israel Moralez, 25, was gunned down less than a block from his home in the 3600 block of West 62nd Street, police said.

On the Far West Side about an hour later, a man in a car was shot to death in the company of friends while waiting at a stoplight at Cicero Avenue and Augusta Boulevard, police said.

The third fatal shooting occurred about 1:15 a.m. Thursday on the Far West Side, in the 5200 block of West Crystal Street in the North Austin neighborhood, Greer said.

Officers found Lamont Jones, 26, lying on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds, Greer said. Jones, of the 2800 block of West 21st Street, was dead on the scene, the medical examiner’s office said.

On the South Side, police are also investigating the wounding of a 17-year-old girl, who allegedly was not the target.

The victim, whose identity was not released, was standing with friends in the 300 block of East 48th Street about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday when someone fired at the group, striking her in the left thigh, police said.

Brookfield Zoo: On First Ave. between Ogden Ave. and 31st St., Brookfield. www.BrookfieldZoo.org or (708) 485-2200.

Lincoln Park Zoo: 2001 N. Clark St. Free. (312) 742-2246 or www.lpzoo.com.

Bristol Renaissance Faire: The 20th Anniversary of the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Kenosha, Wisconsin opens July 7, Saturdays and Sundays, through Sept. and on Labor Day, Sept. 3. A season-long Feast of Fooles celebration notes the anniversary. $18.95 adults, $9.50 children 5 to 12. Advance ticket discounts available. (847) 395-7773 or www.renfair.com.

Garfield Park Conservatory: 300 N. Central Park Ave. (312) 746- 5100 or www.chicagoparkdistrict.com.

• Niki in the Garden: Over 30 large scale outdoor sculptures by internationally renowned artist Niki de Saint Phalle. May 4 through Oct. 31.

Loop Tour Train: Chicago Architecture from the “L”: The history of the 130-year-old downtown area and the “L” system are presented on a 40-minute FREE tour at 10 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. on Saturdays, May 5 through Sept. 29. Presented by the Chicago Office of Tourism, Chicago Architecture Foundation and the Chicago Transit Authority. (312) 744-2400 or www.cityofchicago.org/tourism.

Navy Pier: Visit Navy Pier on Lake Michigan, east of the downtown area, at 600 E. Grand Ave. (312) 595-7437 or www.navypier.com.

You don’t have to travel around the world to find challenging issues of water quantity and quality. They’re right in your own back yard, whether you live in Mundelein or Wilmette. The Great Lakes are being depleted at a faster rate than they are naturally replenished, said Max Muller of Environment Illinois.

“The Great Lakes are very big, but they are not replenished very quickly,” said Muller. More than 30 million people get their drinking water everyday from the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan provides water to Chicago and 40 suburban communities, and water in Chicago is then diverted away from the lake via the Chicago River (reversed in 1900 because of water-borne disease epidemics).

As summer temperatures rise, the city of Chicago is encouraging residents to call 3-1-one and sign up for the city’s extreme weather notification system.

People signed up for the system will receive phone calls when the National Weather Service declares a weather emergency.

Carpentersville, a largely Latino suburb of Chicago, made history last week when it passed a resolution to make English its official language. And on June 6, the Senate approved an amendment written by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., to make English official nationwide.

Almost 50 gay men in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego and New York City have been discovered as carriers of neurosyphilis, a potentially dangerous form of syphilis, according to EdgeBoston.com. This rare strain of syphilis can develop within a year of initial infection and can cause blindness or strokes. The CDC has said that gay and bisexual men have been the main reasons for a nationwide increase of syphilis.

GUATEMALA CITY — The selection of Sochi, Russia, here Wednesday as the 2014 Winter Olympics host could reverberate all the way to Chicago, the U.S. candidate for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Or not.

“I don’t think so,” U.S. International Olympic Committee member Anita DeFrantz said when asked if Wednesday’s result would affect the 2016 vote, scheduled to take place in October 2009, “or I think everything that happens every place affects everything else.”

Sochi’s victory seemingly makes it difficult for a European city to win the 2016 Games, with London hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The non-European cities in the expected field are: Baku, Azerbaijan; Chicago; Doha, Qatar; Rio de Janeiro; and Tokyo. Of those, Chicago, Rio and Tokyo appear to be the strongest competitors.

Chicago and Rio would present the possibility of the first Summer Olympics in the Americas since Atlanta hosted the 1996 Games.

“As a person coming from Nigeria it says that people are happy being free, living in freedom,” Mbagawu Paschal said.

Kadu Thakkar said she was very proud to be an American on the Fourth of July. She said she was proud to live in a free country.

“I love to be here,” Thakkar said.

Illinois State Secretary Jesse White said he was proud to be an American and he thinks Illinois is the greatest state in the union.

Every summer, rows of portable toilets transform a critical area of the Taste of Chicago into the waste of Chicago. While you steel yourself for the inevitable nature’s call at Taste this year, take comfort in knowing that times are changing in the portable sanitation industry. Not quickly enough for you this year, but portable facilities are improving.

CHICAGO — Three men were shot and wounded early Tuesday morning near the Cabrini-Green public housing area on the Near North Side, Chicago police said.

The incident took place about 4:55 a.m. in the 800 block of North Cleveland Avenue on Chicago Housing Authority property. The victims’ ages were given as 22, 25 and 39.

Bond was set at $150,000 Tuesday for a 41-year-old man taken into custody after Chicago Police discovered him in possession of five guns, including an AK-47 early Monday on the West Side.

About 12:15 a.m. Monday, the Grand Central Area Gang Team executed a search warrant at a residence at 2438 N. Linder Ave. and recovered an AK-47 rifle, four handguns and a “small amount” of drugs, according to Grand Central Area Sgt. Muscolino.

Police report there are riders trying to get off the standing trains by forcing the doors open.

Affected elevated routes are the Brown, Orange, Green and Pink lines, which are not moving south of Roosevelt or north of Clinton.

A Chicago man pleaded guilty to a federal charge Monday for posting episodes of Fox’s “24″ on the Internet more than a week before they premiered on television.

Jorge Romero, 25, entered his plea in federal court to one count of uploading copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a statement.

“This town needs an enema,” shouts Jack Nicholson’s Joker to a fictional Gotham on the brink. This outburst sums up the rainbow of disappointment known as the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the folks who have woefully mismanaged our city’s public transportation. To solely blame CTA for this crisis is unfair, because underfunding the system lies squarely with the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). Despite new-ish leadership, they continue to use a flawed formula to distribute funds to CTA, Metra and Pace.

…

To simplify, RTA doles out a fifty-eight percent/thirty-four percent/eight percent split to CTA, Metra and Pace, respectively, with no professional assessment of actual need.

A busy section of highway was closed for seven hours Sunday after a truck tipped over and spilled pig ears, pig feet and grease.

The greasy pig parts created slippery conditions and forced the closure of northbound lanes of the Edens Expressway in Chicago. The lanes were reopened Sunday afternoon.

CHICAGO (AP) - Although there’s no evidence to suggest an imminent threat to Chicago, authorities are beefing up security at O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport in the wake of terror attacks in the United Kingdom.

Some south suburban ZIP codes rank high for foreclosures, but officials say they are part of a larger regional and national trend.

CNNMoney.com recently ranked Chicago Heights, Harvey, Calumet City, and Dolton ZIP codes among its top 500 ZIP codes for foreclosure filings nationwide. The problem is more widespread, said Ed Paesel, executive director of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association.

“Traditionally, (these communities) have had fairly high foreclosure rates,” he said, but the increase in foreclosures is actually a lower percentage compared to other Chicago areas in the last two years. “It’s not only a south suburban problem anymore.”

Communities across the Chicago area have had “a large jump in foreclosures” in the last two years, said Beth Devers, housing director of Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

Schanna Gayden was killed last Monday in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs as she stood with her grandmother on the corner of a school playground.

“It was beautiful. The turnout was incredible. People I hadn’t seen since I was a girl.” said Rita Sallie, Schanna’s mother.

Also present at the funeral were officers from the Chicago Police Department and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, who took the opportunity to talk about the need for federal anti-gang legislation.

CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago’s Regional Transportation Authority has passed a resolution asking the Chicago Transit Authority and the Pace suburban bus system to consider offering discounts to military personnel on active duty.

Thirty-one men have been charged with murder in 22 gang-related killings that date back nearly two decades, authorities said Friday.

Many of those charged were former leaders of the Latin Kings gang, and some still possibly could be in the gang’s upper echelons, said Aurora police Chief William Powell. He said the Latin Kings account for a “huge percentage” of the gang crime in Aurora, a suburb of Chicago.

…

Aurora, located about 40 miles west of Chicago, is the state’s second-largest city with a population of about 170,000 people. It has struggled with gang-related violent crime since the early 1980s; the city has seen eight murders so far this year, Powell said.

CHICAGO: Three Chicago police officers pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that they beat up four businessmen while off duty in a city bar in December.

In May, the businessmen filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the officers attacked them, unprovoked, while they were playing pool. The men claimed they suffered broken bones, injured vertebra and bruises.

A woman has filed a lawsuit against a McDonald’s franchise, claiming that employees in two suburban Chicago restaurants refused to serve her because a birth defect forces her to use her feet as hands.

Dawn Larson was born with Holt-Oram Syndrome, which left her with diminutive hands just six inches from her shoulder, according to a report Monday in the Chicago Sun-Times.

…

In her lawsuit filed last week against the Rockford, Ill., McDonald’s chain, Larson claims staff refused to serve her after she paid by credit card with her left foot for $23.59 of food last November, the paper reported.

“What’s the matter with you? . . . You ain’t got no arms. … Let me see your arms,” an employee allegedly told Larson with a tone of disgust, withdrawing the bags of food from Larson’s outstretched foot, the paper said, citing the lawsuit.

On the sunny afternoon I visited the Logan Square playground where 13-year-old Schanna Gayden was murdered, a group of butterflies danced around a makeshift memorial to her. Every now and then, bubbles danced too.

At about 12:15 a.m., the Grand Central Area Gang Team executed a search warrant at a residence at 2438 N. Linder Ave. Inside, police recovered an AK-47 rifle, four handguns and a small amount of drugs, according to Grand Central Area Sgt. Muscolino.
The residence is located within 1,000 feet of Hanson Park Elementary School, at 5411 W. Fullerton Ave., Muscolino said.
“With the recent shootings around schools in the city, we’ve been keeping an eye out and investigating,” Muscolino said.

In the previous 3 1/2 hours, I’d tasted almost 200 dishes from most of the 64 booths at the Taste of Chicago. I’d tried more than a dozen pizzas, about 50 deep-fried items, 15 types of barbecue, about 10 things dipped in chocolate and nine sausages — and there was still plenty to go.

Battle after battle is being fought over the height of condo towers, the number of required parking spaces and the displacement of locally owned stores by formulaic chains. But the biggest fight is just getting started.

Schanna was killed Monday when a gang member’s stray bullet hit her in the head as she was buying watermelon in a park half a block from her Logan Square home, police have said. The accused murderer, Tony Serrano, 19, is being held in Cook County Jail without bail. Mwenda Murithi, who allegedly ordered Serrano to shoot into the crowded park, is being held on a $2 million bond.

Schanna was the third Chicago child in five days to be caught in gang cross fire and the 25th Chicago Public Schools student gunned down this year, numbers not lost on the hundreds of mourners inside the church.

WASHINGTON—Mahogany interiors, five-course meals and personal butler service will be available on several Amtrak routes starting this fall, as the national passenger railroad embarks on a new partnership with GrandLuxe Rail Journeys.

The new service, dubbed GrandLuxe Limited, will be available between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area; Chicago and Los Angeles; and Washington and Miami. Limited trips are also scheduled between Washington and Chicago; from Denver to San Francisco; from Denver to Chicago; and from Chicago to Albuquerque.