Jan
19

Ricketts asks for easing of landmark restrictions on Wrigley

Chicago Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts said Saturday the team is willing to pay for much of its renovation plan if the city will...
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Dotcom says new site legal, no revenge for Megaupload saga

AUCKLAND (Reuters) - Kim Dotcom, founder of outlawed file-sharing website Megaupload, said his new "cyberlocker" was not revenge on U.S. authorities who planned a raid on his home, closed Megaupload and charged him with online piracy for which he faces jail if found guilty. Dotcom said his new offering, Mega.co.nz, which will launch on Sunday even as he and three colleagues await extradition...
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Fiery Orioles manager Earl Weaver dead at 82

BALTIMORE (AP) — Loved in Baltimore long after he ended his Hall of Fame career, Earl Weaver remained an Oriole to the end.The notoriously peppery Hall of Fame manager died at age 82 on a Caribbean cruise associated with the Orioles, his marketing agent said Saturday.The Duke of Earl, as he was affectionately known in Baltimore, took the Orioles to the World Series four times over 17 seasons but won...
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Lance Armstrong biopic in the works from Paramount, J.J. Abrams

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Paramount Pictures and “Star Trek” producer J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot company have purchased the film rights to a forthcoming book about cyclist Lance Armstrong’s fall from grace, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.Armstrong, whose name and celebrity status helped build a multimillion dollar cancer foundation, admitted on Thursday that he used performance-enhancing...
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Lilly drug chosen for Alzheimer's prevention study

Researchers have chosen an experimental drug by Eli Lilly & Co. for a large federally funded study testing whether it's possible to prevent Alzheimer's disease in older people at high risk of developing it.The drug, called solanezumab (sol-ah-NAYZ-uh-mab), is designed to bind to and help clear the sticky deposits that clog patients' brains.Earlier studies found it did not help people with moderate...
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AP Source: Lady Gaga to perform at inaugural ball

WASHINGTON (AP) — Watch out Beyonce (bee-AHN'-say) and Katy Perry. There's another diva set to perform during the inauguration festivities — Lady Gaga.A person familiar with the inauguration tells The Associated Press that the pop star will perform at Tuesday's ball for White House staffers. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn't authorized to publicly reveal the information.The...
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Chicago seeks investors for potential Midway Airport deal

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration on Friday began testing the investment market's appetite for a potential deal to privatize...
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Jan
18

Autopsy today for lottery winner poisoned by cyanide

The body of poisoned lottery winner, Urooj Khan, is exhumed at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. (John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune) ...
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Poll: Samsung, Apple seen pulling ahead in smartphone race

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Samsung and Apple pulled ahead in the global smartphone race last quarter, according to forecasts by analysts in a Reuters poll, while Nokia and others are expected to have fallen further behind. Overall shipments of handsets are expected to have risen in the fourth quarter, with most of that growth dominated by Samsung. Analysts forecast the South Korean company...
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Anti-doping officials say Armstrong must say more

Admitting he cheated was a start. Now, it's all about whether Lance Armstrong is ready to give details — lots of them — to clean up his sport.Armstrong's much-awaited confession to Oprah Winfrey made for riveting television, but if the disgraced cyclist wants to take things further, it will involve several long days in meetings with anti-doping officials who have very specific questions: Who ran the...
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“Breaking Bad” star Betsy Brandt is Michael J. Fox’s new TV wife

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – “Breaking Bad” star Betsy Brandt has been cast as Michael J. Fox’s TV wife.NBC is eyeing the series, which has already been ordered for a full season, for fall. Brandt will play the wife of Fox’s character, a New York news anchor coping – like Fox – with Parkinson’s disease. He’ll also have the usual sitcom troubles, like juggling family and his career.Brandt’s “Breaking Bad”...
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Flu season 'bad one for the elderly,' CDC says

Flu hospitalizations among the elderly rose sharply last week, prompting federal officials to take unusual steps to make more flu medicines available and to urge wider use of them as soon as symptoms appear.The U.S. is about halfway through the flu season, which is shaping up to be worse than average and a bad one for the elderly, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control...
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'Django Unchained' action figures discontinued

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Weinstein Co. has asked a toy maker to discontinue a line of "Django Unchained" action figures after receiving complaints that they were offensive.The studio said Friday that such collectibles have been created for all of director Quentin Tarantino's films, including "Inglourious Basterds," and that they were meant for people 17 and older, the audience for the film."Django Unchained"...
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Liguori named CEO of Tribune Co.

Peter Liguori named CEO of Tribune Co. Television executive Peter Liguori was named the new chief executive of Tribune Co. Thursday,...
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Jan
17

Trestman: 'Passion' and 'urgency' to win with Bears

Marc Trestman emphasized passion, urgency and commitment and said he "can't wait to get my hands on" quarterback Jay Cutler...
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Amazon holiday results to show sales tax impact

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Acting as a tax collector may have hurt Amazon.com, Inc's holiday sales analysts and industry executives said, but they expect to know more when the internet retailer reports its fourth-quarter results on January 29. Best Buy Co., an archrival of Amazon in consumer electronics, saw holiday online sales increase in three states where Amazon started collecting...
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Hawaii hometown backs Te'o after girlfriend hoax

LAIE, Hawaii (AP) — People in the small Hawaii hometown of Manti Te'o are offering support for the Notre Dame linebacker, after the story of his girlfriend and her death from leukemia were revealed as a hoax.No one answered the door Wednesday evening and no one appeared to be inside the modest, single-story wood home of Te'o's parents, Brian and Ottilia Te'o, in the small coastal town of Laie on Oahu's...
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Singer Elton John a father for second time

LONDON (Reuters) – British pop star Elton John announced on Wednesday he had become a father for the second time after the birth via a surrogate mother of Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John.The “Rocket Man” and “Candle in the Wind” singer and his partner David Furnish confirmed the news in a short statement on John‘s official website, which also provided a link to an article in Hello! magazine.“Both...
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Study: NYC better than LA at cutting kids' obesity

NEW YORK (AP) — A new study shows New York City is doing better than Los Angeles in the battle against childhood obesity, at least for low-income children.From 2003 to 2011, obesity rates for poor children dropped in New York to around 16 percent. But they rose in Los Angeles and ended at about 20 percent.The researchers focused on children ages 3 and 4 enrolled in a government program that provides...
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'Dear Abby' advice columnist dies at age 94

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Pauline Friedman Phillips, who under the name of Abigail Van Buren, wrote the long-running "Dear Abby" advice column that was followed by millions of newspaper readers throughout the world, has died. She was 94.Publicist Gene Willis of Universal Uclick said Phillips died Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.Phillips' column competed for decades with the advice...
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US, EU and Japan ground Dreamliners

Federal officials say they are temporarily grounding Boeing's 787 Dreamliners until the risk of possible battery fires is addressed. (Jan. 16) ...
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Jan
16

Obama unveils biggest gun-control push in decades

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama proposed a new assault weapons ban and mandatory background checks for all gun buyers on Wednesday as he tried to channel national outrage over the Newtown school massacre into the biggest U.S. gun-control push in decades.Rolling out a wide-ranging plan for executive and legislative action to curb gun violence, Obama set up a fierce clash with the powerful U.S....
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