Events

Via Evanston Now: Evanston real estate broker Alan May says he's put a new twist on an old family tradition this year. With help from an online site called YesWeCarve.com, he's turned the annual carving of the family jack-o-lantern into the creation of a Barack O'Lantern -- suitable for display on many a liberal-leaning Evanston front porch this year.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported late yesterday that New Mexico authorities have arrested William Bahena, chief suspect in Tuesday's murder of Elva Diaz, and will extradite him back to Illinois next week: Almost a year after he was arrested for violating an order of protection involving his girlfriend, a 31-year-old Near West Side man is accused of killing her, authorities said Friday. On Sept. 10, 2007, Diaz obtained an emergency order of protection against Bahena. On Christmas Day, he was arrested for...

After the Chicago Tribune's endorsement of a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in history, the New York Times following suit surprises no one, but it's still welcome: As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States. ... Mr. Obama has withstood some of the toughest campaign attacks ever mounted...

The Tribune reports this morning that Chicago pulled ahead of New York and Los Angeles for the most murders so far this year: Chicago, whose population is dwarfed by those cities, posted 426 killings through Tuesday, compared with 417 in New York and 302 in L.A. At the end of 1998, Chicago made international headlines as the U.S. "murder capital" after surpassing New York's homicide totals for the first time ever. Chicago shed that dubious distinction when murders plummeted over the last decade. It...

...the FDIC moves into your neighborhood (via Calculated Risk): The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plans soon to sign a major lease of office space in Orange County, probably in Irvine, where as many as 600 people would liquidate the assets of troubled banks and thrifts based in California and other Western states. The agency needs 200,000 square feet of space and has looked at locations across Southern California, FDIC spokesman David Barr said. "It's a temporary office—three to five years is what...

MillerCoors has decided to discontinue Zima: Chief Marketing Officer Andy England says the decision was due to weakness in the "malternative" segment and declining consumer interest. He says distributors can get remaining Zima inventories most likely through December. I guess that means it won't ever be sold in the Babylon 5 Zocalo...

The Chicago Tribune today endorsed the Democratic candidate for President, for the first time in its 160-year history: The Tribune in its earliest days took up the abolition of slavery and linked itself to a powerful force for that cause--the Republican Party. The Tribune's first great leader, Joseph Medill, was a founder of the GOP. The editorial page has been a proponent of conservative principles. It believes that government has to serve people honestly and efficiently. With that in mind, in 1872 we...

Another gap in the fossil record has gotten filled: In a new study of a fossil fish that lived 375 million years ago, scientists are finding striking evidence of the intermediate steps by which some marine vertebrates evolved into animals that walked on land. The scientists said in a report being published Thursday in the journal Nature that the research exposed delicate details of the creature's head and neck, confirming and elaborating on its evolutionary position as "an important stage in the origin...

OK, I'm a little behind here, being overcome by Hofstra Pride, being from the class of...uh...a while ago. (I've actually been poking other HU alumni on Facebook.) 20:10 CT: McCain sounds a little like Rain Man tonight. Seriously, is he repeating himself? Repeating? Himself? A lot? 20:17: McCain remembers the Depression-era program first-hand, no doubt. 20:19: Enough about the damn planetarium! 20:23: "If I've mistaken your polices for George Bush's policies...is because you're proposing eight more...

Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers sued God, had the case dismissed (God wasn't properly served, you see), and may appeal on the grounds that an omiscient God by definition has adequate notice of the suit. I think he may not be entirely serious, though: Chambers filed the lawsuit last year seeking a permanent injunction against God. He said God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents in Omaha, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of...