Local volunteers answer call for National Day of Service

Lillie Council and Leah Gipson sat at a small table at Navy Pier's USO office Saturday with stacks of blank postcards and stationery...

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100 Years of U.S. Presidential Inaugurations

On March 4, 1913, Woodrow Wilson took the oath of office. Nearly 100 years later, Barack Obama will take that same oath.The U.S. presidential inauguration looks a tad different than it did a century ago. In 1913, women still did not have the right to vote and Wilson rode to the Capitol in a horse-drawn carriage. And don’t expect to see President Obama wearing a silk top hat like Wilson either.[More...

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“Beasts of Southern Wild,” “Les Miz” among Costume Designer Award nominees

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Films as diverse as “Beast of the Southern Wild” and “Les Miserables” were among the nominees for the 15th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards announced Thursday by the organization.Stephani Lewis was nominated for “Beasts” in the contemporary film category, along with Louise Stjernsward for “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” Mark Bridges for “Silver Linings Playbook,”...

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Well: Holly the Cat's Incredible Journey

Nobody knows how it happened: an indoor housecat who got lost on a family excursion managing, after two months and about 200 miles, to return to her hometown.Even scientists are baffled by how Holly, a 4-year-old tortoiseshell who in early November became separated from Jacob and Bonnie Richter at an R.V. rally in Daytona Beach, Fla., appeared on New Year’s Eve — staggering, weak and emaciated — in...

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Media savvy public makes spinning the message harder

We have become a nation of theater critics, judging everything before us not solely in terms of what is said or done but the quality of the performance.This is the legacy of the public relations business, which lost one of its leaders last week with the death of Chicago's Dan Edelman at age 92.Over the course of Edelman's career in strategic communication...

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Notre Dame's Te'o: 'There is no way that I could be part of this'

Manti Te'o broke his silence late Friday and denied any involvement in the dead girlfriend hoax that has consumed the former...

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Paid apps are history

This week marked an important moment in the evolution of the iOS app market. As Pages just slipped out of the iPad top 10 highest grossing apps chart, there are now no paid apps among the ten applications that generate most revenue on the iPad. When the iPad application market was born a few years ago, it was dominated by relatively stiffly priced applications, mimicking the PC software or game...

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J.J. Abrams to produce Lance Armstrong biopic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — He’s already gotten the Oprah treatment. Now Lance Armstrong is headed for the silver screen.Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams‘ production company, Bad Robot, are planning a biopic about the disgraced cyclist, a studio spokeswoman said Friday.They’ve secured the rights to New York Times reporter Juliet Macur‘s upcoming book “Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong,” due out...

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Business Briefing | Medicine: F.D.A. Clears Botox to Help Bladder Control

Botox, the wrinkle treatment made by Allergan, has been approved to treat adults with overactive bladders who cannot tolerate or were not helped by other drugs, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday. Botox injected into the bladder muscle causes the bladder to relax, increasing its storage capacity. “Clinical studies have demonstrated Botox’s ability to significantly reduce the frequency...

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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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Quinn to name former prosecutor Fitzgerald to UI board

Gov. Pat Quinn will name former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, the Tribune...

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ASUS in talks with Microsoft to develop a Windows Phone 8 smartphone

The PC industry is in shambles and manufacturers have begun to explore new options to increase revenue. According to The Wall Street Journal, ASUS (2357) is in talks with Microsoft (MSFT) on a licensing deal to offer Windows Phone 8 device. This makes sense for ASUS since smartphone shipments increased by nearly 50% in 2012, compared to a mere 3.2% growth in computer shipments, and the company already...

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Robert Wagner not interviewed in new Wood inquiry

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robert Wagner has declined to be interviewed by detectives in a renewed inquiry into the drowning death of his wife Natalie Wood three decades ago, an investigator said Thursday.Wagner was interviewed by authorities soon after Wood’s drowning in 1981, but the actor is the only person who was on the yacht the night Wood died who has not spoken to detectives as part of the latest...

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Well: The Fallout of a Chance Medical Finding

An incidental finding — I was convinced of it. My patient had undergone a CT scan of the abdomen at another hospital because of stomach pains and “incidentally noted” was a 2-centimeter mass in her adrenal gland. She brought in the report for me to see, nervous that she might have cancer.I reassured her that it was exceedingly unlikely that she had cancer. Benign masses in the adrenal gland are nearly...

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Liguori named CEO of Tribune Co.

Television executive Peter Liguori was named the new chief executive of Tribune Co. Thursday, taking the reins of the reorganized...

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Notre Dame A.D.: Te'o victim of 'sad and very cruel deception'

Notre Dame Vice President/Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick makes statement on Manti Te'o Girlfriend Hoax Allegations Facing...

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Commentary: Background Checks? Yes, but Leave Video Games Alone

COMMENTARY | I have mixed feelings toward the White House‘s gun violence response. I agree that background checks should be required before people are allowed to buy a firearm and that an assault weapon ban should be reinstated into law. While limiting the number of bullets in a weapon’s magazine will decrease the number of deaths in a mass shooting, the public does not need high-capacity magazines....

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Drop Dead Diva canceled by Lifetime

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Drop Dead Diva” has been dropped.The series has been canceled by Lifetime after four seasons, the last of which ended in September.An individual familiar with the situation told TheWrap that the cost of producing the series had become prohibitive, and that Lifetime had approached Sony Pictures Television, which produced the series, about coming up with creative ways to...

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Some With Autism Diagnosis Can Recover, Study Finds

Doctors have long believed that disabling autistic disorders last a lifetime, but a new study has found that some children who exhibit signature symptoms of the disorder recover completely. The study, posted online on Wednesday by the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, is the largest to date of such extraordinary cases and is likely to alter the way that scientists and parents...

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FAA grounds Dreamliners in U.S.

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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Prosecutors suspended in case of man who later burned family

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office suspended two attorneys who denied felony charges against a man who threatened to...

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New photos of BlackBerry X10 with QWERTY keyboard leak

New images of Research In Motion’s (RIMM) first BlackBerry 10-powered smartphone equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard have leaked ahead of the handset’s unveiling later this month. BlackBerry blog BlackBerry Empire on Monday evening published a pair of photos showing the face of the upcoming N-series smartphone along with the home screen and the app launcher.[More from BGR: HTC One SV review]As...

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Disney, AT&T U-verse enter expansive distribution deal

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The Walt Disney Company and AT&T U-verse have signed a long-term distribution deal that will bring Disney’s sports, news and entertainment content to U-verse customers via a wide array of platforms, including television, computers, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and internet-enabled televisions, the companies said Tuesday.The multi-year agreement will also bring...

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