Author: Serkadis

CHICAGO (WBBM)  — A spokesman for the town of Cicero says the town plans to take away health benefits from the 88-year-old mother of former Town President President Betty Loren-Maltese.

Betty Loren-Maltese just arrived at her new home yesterday, following six-and-a-half years in prison. Her new home is a halfway house in Chicago.

While Loren-Maltese and her daughter may still get health insurance benefits from the town of Cicero, her elderly mother Kitty Loren probably will get hers taken away, says Cicero Town Spokesman Ray Hanania.

“Kitty is such a nice woman. She, I think, is kind of a victim in all this. She’s been forthright to talk with some officials in the town, and I think she understands and will not be surprised that we will probably have to suspend that insurance.”

Hanania says Kitty Loren was not an elected official and it appears the health benefits were set up for her improperly by Betty Loren-Maltese.

Hanania says it appears Cicero cannot do anything about the benefits that Loren-Maltese herself is still receiving.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago seems finally to be ready to honor its most famous gangster.

For years, everyone knew where Al Capone’s infamous hangouts were, but the city wouldn’t dare put up an official sign acknowledging him.

But now, that’s changed. The Chicago Department of Transportation has put up a sign at the site of the old Lexington Hotel, which stood until 1995 at 2135 S. Michigan Ave.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports the sign at the site acknowledges the Lexington and Metropole hotels, which were built next to each other on the site in the early 1890s, and says they were “outfitted for Capone’s needs with secret stairwells, doors and passages, underground tunnels and every amenity required by their primary resident.”

Capone came to Chicago from Brooklyn in 1919, and soon began working for Johnny Torrio, who at the time ran the Chicago mob – called the Outfit – and operated its bootlegging, gambling and prostitution operations.

But soon after Torrio was shot and injured and left Chicago, Capone took over, and began raking in millions a year in both illegal and legitimate industries, according to the Chicago History Museum.

Prosecutors finally got Capone on tax evasion charges in 1931, and he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He died in 1947.

But the Lexington Hotel gained its greatest notoriety nearly four decades after that, when Capone’s vault underneath the building was blasted open as part of a television special hosted by Geraldo Rivera.

The vault was blasted open on April 21, 1986, in what CBS 2’s John Drummond called the biggest excavation since archaeologists dug up King Tut’s tomb. But the effort ended up being fairly futile, given that all workers found behind the brick-and-concrete wall was a few bottles of Prohibition-era liquor, and a lot of dirt and rubble.

The Lexington Hotel had been granted landmark status in 1985. Nonetheless, it was demolished in the fall of 1995, after repeated attempts to renovate it failed.

The Lexington Park Condo building now stands on the site.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Article Tags: Opinion

It has been a bad—make that dreadful—few weeks for what used to be called the “settled science” of global warming, and especially for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that is supposed to be its gold standard.

First it turns out that the Himalayan glaciers are not going to melt anytime soon, notwithstanding dire U.N. predictions. Next came news that an IPCC claim that global warming could destroy 40% of the Amazon was based on a report by an environmental pressure group. Other IPCC sources of scholarly note have included a mountaineering magazine and a student paper.

Since the climategate email story broke in November, the standard defense is that while the scandal may have revealed some all-too-human behavior by a handful of leading climatologists, it made no difference to the underlying science. We think the science is still disputable. But there’s no doubt that climategate has spurred at least some reporters to scrutinize the IPCC’s headline-grabbing claims in a way they had rarely done previously.

Source: online.wsj.com

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Elgin’s quest to install red light cameras has hit yet another stop sign.

Kane County transportation officials have denied a city request to install red light cameras for southbound traffic at three Randall Road intersections: Big Timber Road, Bowes Road and Route 72.

“We continue to strike out,” said Elgin Deputy Police Chief Robert Beeter. “I find it hard to believe we can’t get them approved for Randall Road.”

Mayor Ed Schock also said he was “perplexed” by the county’s decision, issued late last year.

“I was surprised,” he said. “Randall Road is a very dangerous road. … There is not much we can say about it really. It is what it is.”

According to data provided to the county’s division of transportation, those three areas just aren’t dangerous enough.

Kurt Nika, KDOT’s chief of permitting, said only two motorists going southbound at Randall and Bowes ran the red light during an eight-hour, weekday test period and the intersection had zero crashes in the last four years directly caused by someone headed southbound running the light.

Randall and Big Timber had six southbound red-light violations in eight hours and one southbound crash in four years, Nika said.

In 2008, the state installed left-turn-only arrows at Randall and Route 72 and crashes dropped at what was once deemed the county’s most dangerous intersection.

Nika said the intersection had two southbound red-light violations in an eight-hour period and county officials didn’t have recent enough crash data to make an assessment since the new traffic signal was installed.

To contrast, the southbound lanes of Randall and Route 38 in St. Charles – where a red-light camera has been approved by the county – saw 130 violations in a 12-hour span and three crashes in the last four years caused by southbound motorists running red lights.

Nika noted there are no nationally recognized traffic standards when it comes to red light cameras.

“Local agencies like KDOT use engineering judgment to determine what’s appropriate,” he said. “We’re definitely willing to reconsider the (Elgin) matter in the future. What we need is updated data.”

While red-light cameras have popped up in numerous towns across the Fox Valley, five county intersections have received the thumbs up so far.

St. Charles has permission to install cameras at Kirk Road and Route 64, along with Randall and Route 38.

In Geneva, cameras have the go-ahead for Fabyan Parkway and Kirk Road, along with two intersections along Randall at Williamsburg Avenue and Fargo Road.

The latter two are scheduled to become operational on Feb. 21, marking the first pair on county roads, Nika said.

The denial leaves Elgin with zero intersections nearly two years after inking a deal with the Arizona-based Redflex to install, monitor and maintain the cameras.

“We’ve identified them, but we’ve run into problems with the environment,” Beeter said.

In early 2008, city officials came up with a list of 13 possible intersections for Redflex to evaluate.

But in February 2009, city leaders said three intersections for cameras would not work for various reasons.

The city has intersection improvements planned for Dundee Avenue and Summit Street and didn’t want to install cameras only to remove them later.

Also, train-arm signals would have interfered with the red-light cameras at eastbound and westbound Big Timber Road and McLean Boulevard and westbound Kimball Street at State Street, or Route 31.

Schock said he still supports cameras where they can improve safety. He also noted that pedestrians are in the most danger of being struck by a motorist who fails to make a complete stop before turning right on a red light.

“If they prevent accidents and improve safety, I think they’re worth it,” he said.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Article Tags: You could not make it up

A new £1 million videogame project is looking to encapsulate the complex and disquieting realities of climate change – by handing you control of the earth.

The game, currently entitled Climate Challenge 2010, has been in development at Oxford studio Red Redemption for around 24 months. The turn-based micro-management title allows people to play god for two hundred virtual years – giving you free reign to treat the earth as you wish before watching the consequences unfold.

Click source to read about the Climate Challenge 2010 Game!

Source: develop-online.net

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Filed under: Spy Photos, Coupe, Performance, South America

Looks like the dyke’s about to burst on the new Pagani C9, Horacio Pagani’s cat-out-of-the-bag replacement for the legendary Zonda. Long story short, the Zonda is over ten years-old. The new C9 will be lighter, faster and sport better dynamics. Powering the new hypercar is a special, developed just for Pagani version of AMG’s lovable 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12. In C9 trim this motor should belt out 700 horsepower. Yowza. Plus, it halfway looks like Michael Keaton’s Batmobile.

A South African reader of ours caught the C9 mule in South Africa, snapped some pictures for your consumption and had the following to say:

I was driving from the OR Thambo International Airport (used to be called Johannesburg Intl) back home. This car carrier was standing next to the road, unattended. I don’t know if you know, but a lot of high speed testing gets done in South Africa. One of our provinces (the Northern Cape) has parts that is part of the Kalahari desert with deserted straight blacktop for hundreds of kilometres on end. You get permission from the government (hence the yellow stickers) to drive as much as you’d like on the roads. The Porsche Panamera did round about 1600km in the Northern Cape last year. These pics were taken 14 February 2010.

Sounds fantastic to us, and should help shape the new breed of hyper exotics along with the McLaren MP4-12C. Thanks to MJ van Niekerk for the pics!

Reader Spy: Next Pagani C9 supercar caught truckin’ in South Africa originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article Tags: PETITION

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop describing members of the public who question the veracity of Anthropogenic Global Warming as climate change deniers.

Submitted by John Catley – Deadline to sign up by: 15 August 2010

Click source to log your vote

Source: petitions.number10.gov.uk/Deniers

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Sony is throwing its full weight behind 3D gaming, but not everyone has warmed to the idea. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata for one is doubtful that it’ll take off, and so is Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4

Article Tags: Muriel Newman

Click source to read more

Source: nzcpr.com

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As you may or may not have heard, the USTR has been accepting public comments for its Special 301 report, which comes out every year in an attempt to name and shame countries that the USTR does not believe does enough to protect US copyrights abroad. Typically, this process is driven very much by the entertainment industry, to the extent that even people in the US copyright office have been known to roll their eyes about the legitimacy of the report. A lot of people have been incorrectly claiming that these comments are about ACTA, but they’re not. The Special 301 report basically just tries to determine which countries the US should put more pressure on to “get with the program,” diplomatically speaking, when it comes to copyright issues. In the past, it’s been used to bully countries like Canada and Israel — both of which have strong copyright that is very much in compliance with international obligations. This year, with the USTR opening up the comments process to anyone who had some thoughts, I figured I would submit my own thoughts on this particular issue. If you would like to submit your own comments, you can follow the instructions given by Public Knowledge. At that link you can also see PK’s own “suggested” text, though I would highly recommend writing your own thoughts out, rather than stuffing the box with the same letter. For another letter, you can see what John Bennett submitted as well.

---

Senior Director for Intellectual Property and
Innovation and Chair of the Special 301 Committee
Office of the United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20508
Filed electronically via Regulations.gov

Dear Ms. Groves:

I write to you today as a long-term content creator, who makes my living off of my ability to continue to create content and receive remuneration for that activity. And yet, I am concerned about the state of US copyright law, and the fact that it does not serve my interests or the interests of the vast majority of content creators today. Despite being a professional content creator, I have purposely chosen not to make use of copyright law, because the way it is structured today actually hinders my own ability to profit from my content creation.

The central tenet of copyright law has been, “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” and the mechanism for this is both copyright and patents, or more specifically “securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Unfortunately, over the years, all too often we’ve lost sight of the beginning of that sentence, in the assumption that any increase in those “exclusive rights” must surely “promote the progress.” And, yet, as we have expanded and stretched copyright law time and time again — and almost never contracted it — no one ever seems to ask for any actual evidence that stronger and lengthier copyright law leads to promoting more progress.

This is not a new concern. Thomas Macaulay famously argued in 1841 that we ought to be careful to only extend and expand copyright upon evidence that such an extension or expansion would, in fact, lead to greater incentives to create. Yet, to this day, our public policy has been to take it on faith that stricter copyright laws lead to greater incentives to create — despite the lack of evidence to support this position. In fact, the evidence has suggested that as technology has decreased the ability of copyright holders to enforce copyright, the incentives to create have only increased. And this is not just the ability to create as an amateur, but the ability to create and earn money as a professional.

A recent paper by economists Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf demonstrated this in rather great detail, highlighting that even as new technologies have undermined classical copyright law, there remains little evidence that this change has undermined the incentives to create. In fact, the research collected in that paper and other papers suggested that more people are creating new works of music today than ever before in history. The same is true of movies, an industry that has seen the number of annual releases double in the last five years alone.

There is no doubt that a segment of these industries, who have relied on exclusivity and limits in the distribution channels, such as the major movie studios and the major record labels, have been slow to respond to these changes and have faced difficulties. But their views are not an accurate representation of the overall industry. The Oberholzer-Gee/Strumpf paper clearly demonstrated that the amount of money being spent on music by consumers has grown massively in the past decade — it’s just that a smaller portion of that spend goes directly to the record labels. An even more recent study out of the UK, done by two industry economists working for PRS, the UK’s performance rights collection society, also found that the overall music industry was making increasingly more money, despite the challenges of a changing market.

These studies point to important facts about how industries can adapt, even in the face of technologically-weakened copyright, without the need for greater enforcement. But they also raise an important point: when our policy on copyright is made without actual evidence, it is important to allow different countries to experiment with their own copyright policies, from which the rest of the world can learn. Trying to enforce US-style copyright law throughout the world does a disservice to the very purpose of copyright law: to promote the progress.

By allowing different countries to experiment and adopt their own style of copyright law, we create a real-world experiment from which we can learn what does, and what does not, help to “promote the progress.” Using US trade policy to pressure other countries to adopt a US-style copyright law brings all of the problems with US law to other countries, and presents no chance for us to examine how our own law might be improved to serve the purpose of the law, as set out in the Constitution.

The Special 301 process should be an opportunity to see what other countries have done and what we can learn from them, rather than an opportunity to try to export faith-based US-style copyright law to other countries, solely for the benefit of a few companies who have not adapted, while many others in their industries have made the jump to supporting and embracing new technologies and new business models. The US should be encouraging local experimentation with copyright law, rather than strict adherence to our own brand of copyright law — especially given the lack of concrete evidence that our own laws do, in fact, “promote the progress.”

Sincerely,

Michael Masnick

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Regina Benjamin, the United States’ 18th Surgeon General, is markedly overweight. She’s a highly trained physician who famously set up a medical clinic for Alabama’s poor hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, and she’s unquestionably knowledgeable and experienced, but she’s also overweight. Does this negatively impact her role as the public face of health? Does her weight detract from the message?

Or take countless nutrition experts that fit the mold of the dietitian featured in this video? She’s educated, has dozens of books on nutrition and healthy cooking under her belt and, at least on paper, looks like an authority of sorts. But her physique (saying nothing of her healthy eating tips) doesn’t exactly instill confidence in her recommendations (as readers noted in the forum).

On the other hand what about someone like Jillian Michaels? Strong shoulders. Check. Trim waistline and ripped abs. Check and check. She must be doing things right? Right?

I’m sure you see what I’m getting at. Does the physical appearance of a fitness or nutrition authority affect the worthiness of the message? Do we discount weight loss advice from an obese expert who can’t take her own advice – or that takes her own advice a bit too well (in the case of Dr. Benjamin)? Do we listen, enraptured, to the opinions of a random gym rat just because he’s got massive guns? What about the lanky older dude with a Crossfit total of 1,000 pounds?

The natural reaction is to balk at the overweight nutrition teacher or the flabby fitness guru, and accept as gospel the recommendations of musclebound meatheads. And why wouldn’t it? If they practice what they preach and practice equals results they should look the part. But are we missing out on some great stuff by ignoring physically unimpressive people? On the same token, are we making false prophets out of people who are just genetically blessed statistical outliers?

Absolutely.

“Oh, I dunno. I pretty much eat whatever I want.” How often have we heard that from chiseled, elite athletes? Lamar Odom eats pounds of candy each day, sports sub-10% body fat, and is fast, tall, and powerful – does that mean you can do it and make the NBA, too? Michael Phelps eats upwards of 10,000 calories a day, most of it from refined carbohydrates and industrial, processed fats (he’s not sprouting his grains or whipping up his own mayo, folks), yet he retains a lean swimmer’s body and several world records. Neither Odom nor Phelps are telling us what to eat or how to exercise, but plenty of people point to them as evidence that nutrition doesn’t matter. Plenty of bodybuilders lift weights seven days a week for several hours each day without showing signs of overtraining. Try lifting heavy for hours each day without accelerating your anabolic hormonal response to superhuman proportions. Should Joe the middle manager with a pot belly be taking lifting advice from Ronnie Coleman? Of course not. These guys are statistical outliers; they’re the exception to the rule. Their success is often in spite of their training or diet (what if Odom and Phelps ate nothing but real food?). And in some cases, their success is amplified by chemical assistance or steroid use. And yet these are the people whose advice is trusted and sold to unsuspecting consumers looking to get in shape.

Big muscles make fitness magazine covers and sell supplements and lend credence, but that’s it. Statistical outliers don’t make the argument – for or against a particular training or eating program. We see them try, though, all the time. I can’t really blame them. I do the same. A bodybuilder’s physique makes for great marketing, and I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that my fitness levels and appearance make the Primal Blueprint more believable and easier to digest. I’ll also say that because I’m trying to reach the most people possible, it’s crucial that I maintain strong personal fitness; the knee-jerk reaction to a trainer’s appearance is a universal truth that we all must acknowledge, especially those of us who are trying to make a difference in people’s lives.

What you, as digesters of dietary and fitness advice, should focus on is what the science says, what works for the most people, and, most importantly, what works for you. If a massively ripped dude is giving out advice, citing actual evidence, and people of all stripes who take that advice are getting stronger, fitter, and faster, then there’s probably something to it. A scrawny old guy with the same support and the same results? You gotta listen to him, too. Fitness and nutrition coaches who can point to hordes of successful trainees and supportive science deserve a listen, even if their personal appearance leaves something to be desired.

I’ve witnessed people discount or dismiss folks like Greg Glassman’s (of CrossFit) or Mark Rippetoe’s (of Starting Strength) training advice simply because they don’t “look the part.” They don’t have a six-pack, they may have a bit of a belly, or they may even be totally out of the game (injuries largely prevent Glassman, a former gymnast, from working out). They may not even practice what they preach (watch Rip squat and deadlift, for you doubters) as much as they once did. They may even be outlifted and outperformed by some random lunkhead at your local globo-gym flexing in the mirror or commenting on YouTube videos – but who should you take advice from? Glassman has presided over an entire fitness movement that produces scores upon scores of strong, fast, powerful, well-balanced athletes. Rip is recognized as perhaps the premier barbell coach in the game. You want to learn how to squat and deadlift, you read his stuff. Yet, your average untrained person would be more than a bit skeptical if either one tried to school them on fitness matters, simply because of their appearance. A coach is a coach. You don’t see people rag on overweight football or swim coaches for not physically measuring up to their players. Basketball coaches are often as diminutive as they come, and they’re still successful. Knowledge is knowledge, whether it’s knowledge of sport, fitness, or nutrition.

If what a health expert is proposing and living has any merit whatsoever, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for them to at least approach the results they’re touting. But we have to keep in mind the complexities of physical fitness, statistical outliers, and other external factors. As for me, I attribute in large part my health, fitness, and physique to the Primal Blueprint. When I backed way off training I was concerned my body composition would suffer, but with the PB I’ve been able to maintain virtually the same body fat percentage while putting muscle on. That said, it would disingenuous to overlook the years of antithetical lifestyle behaviors I practiced previously. I did just about everything wrong – Chronic Cardio, endless grain and refined carb consumption, almost no weight training – and I looked pretty fit and healthy. I wasn’t, of course, but there are probably underlying genetic factors in my favor preventing obesity – no matter how many grains or sugars I eat. At the same time, you can look to the MDA forums and our many success stories to get a sense that the PB isn’t just for the genetically blessed or the elite; it works pretty well for just about everyone who gives it a fair shot. It better work, seeing as how it’s based on human evolutionary biology!

All the variables that determine one’s appearance and fitness levels – genetics, training history, supplementation, training frequency, training intensity, methodology – make deciding who to trust incredibly confusing. At the end of it all, though, you’ve got to follow the science and the results objectively and rationally, because that human instinctual tendency to dole out or withhold trust based on appearance is always going to be a factor. We’re always going to react to appearance, but we should never base our ultimate appraisal on appearance alone.

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Related posts:

1. CrossFit Radio Appearance
2. Nature Tops Nurture? Scientists Wrong Again…

Disney has announced that a new Toy Story game will be hitting pretty much all major gaming platforms this June. Details past the jump.

Filed under: Concept Cars, Hybrid, Geneva Motor Show, Lexus

A compact hybrid Lexus hatchback, that’s interesting, right? Well, sure it is, but according to Inside Line, Lexus doesn’t think its CT 200h will be charming enough to close the deal with North American buyers. We all hastily clicked on the teaser shot featuring the car’s taillamp and badging, and we’ll take in the entirety of the CT 200h when the wraps come off at the Geneva Motor Show.

The pictures that come from that debut will be as close as many of us may ever come to the CT 200h. Too bad, as the car carries a second-generation Lexus adaptation of Toyota’s vaunted hybrid drivetrain, and it opens up a new segment to the luxury automaker. If IL’s sources are correct, we’ll have to be satisfied with admiring this latest Lexus from afar.

[Source: Inside Line]

Report: Lexus CT 200h will be a Euro-only affair originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft launched it’s windows phone 7 series website at www.windowsphone7series.com which opened yesterday.

Today, www.windowsphoneseries7.com was opened which is just slightly different from Microsoft’s website’s url.

The more interesting part about this story is that users who mistype Microsoft’s website looking for Windows Phone Series 7 will be redirected to a site promoting the rival iPhone over the next generation windows OS.

This could get interesting!

In addition, the domain name has now being added to ebay where the Microsoft lookalike domain name will be auctioned.

This post was submitted by windowsphone7series.

Sony today announced that its new dash personal Internet viewer will feature a dedicated application for Netflix, allowing Netflix members to instantly watch thousands of movies and TV episodes directly on the unit. Additionally, Demand Media, Inc. has confirmed that its service offerings, eHow, Golflink and LIVESTRONG.COM will be added to the expanding content lineup.

Sony’s dash personal Internet viewer wirelessly delivers the real-time Internet to any room of the home or office by providing always on, sequential display of over 1,500 apps from Sony’s Bravia Internet Video platform and the chumby industries, inc. personalized content channel.

Further, the new dash device has the ability to stream online music videos, television, or film content on-demand. It features a vivid 7-inch color touch screen and multiple viewing angles: upright, ideal for a table or nightstand; and tilted, perfect for a countertop, keeping its users connected, informed, and entertained without the need for a PC.

“We’re continuing to develop innovative products that bring online music, news, video and more into our customers’ homes in real time,” said Brennan Mullin, senior vice president of Sony Electronics’ personal imaging and audio business. “By adding content from Netflix and Demand Media to our dash product, Sony is giving consumers a new, convenient way to enjoy some of the highest quality entertainment and most useful information available on the Internet today.”

Movies and TV episodes streamed instantly from Netflix can be easily accessed through a Queue-based user interface, in which choices from a Netflix member’s Queue will be automatically displayed when the Netflix icon on the device is touched.

From Demand Media, eHow is a leading how-to resource with a thriving online community dedicated to providing people with the ability to research, share and discuss solutions for life’s everyday projects. eHow brings thousands of instructional, professional and high-definition videos to the dash platform.

Designed to help golfers of all ages and skill levels improve their game, Golflink provides hundreds of its valuable instructional golf videos from world class coaches such as Hank Haney and Jim McLean as well as hole-by-hole golf course flyovers.

LIVESTRONG.COM is a partnership between Demand Media and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), and is home to 2.1 million registered members who share a passion to lead a healthy, active lifestyle. The channel offers hundreds of videos from topics such as healthy food choices and treating injuries to instructional videos on sports and fitness.

Sony’s dash personal Internet viewer will be available this April for about $199 at SonyStyle, Sony Style retail stores and a variety of authorized dealers nationwide.

No doubt you've seen the charts comparing our bear market to the slide in the Nikkei. And if you believe that such a historical comparison holds relevance, then it means we're totally doomed.

But not all similar patterns are so negative. A reader alerts us to the comparison between our current situation and the market in the 70s.

If it holds, it means we're going sideways for awhile, and then will explode back towards old highs.

Or maybe what it really means is that the eye can find historical analogues anywhere you look.

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• CHART OF THE DAY: Get Ready For $3/Gallon Gasoline This Summer
• CHART OF THE DAY: Dr. Copper Is Telling You To BUY
• If We're Japan, Then The Selloff Starts NOW

An Ingleside man accused of stabbing another man to death in an argument over marijuana was ordered held on $3 million bond Tuesday.

James Lewis, 42, faces a sentence of between 20 and 60 years in prison if convicted of killing John Herres, 19, on Feb. 14.

Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Ken Lorenz said Herres, of Riverwoods, was among several people gathered that afternoon at Lewis’ home in the 26000 block of Route 134.

Lewis and some other people left the house to buy a quarter-ounce of marijuana for Herres and some of his friends, Lorenz said.

When Lewis handed over the marijuana, Lorenz said, a person in Herres’ group accused Lewis of taking some of the marijuana for himself.

Herres is believed to have intervened in the argument, Lorenz said, and Lewis drew a 5-inch pocket knife and stabbed Herres once in the abdomen.

Herres was airlifted to Advocate Condell Hospital in Libertyville, where he died following surgery.

Lewis, who remained at the scene while others called police, was taken into custody by Lake County sheriff’s deputies.

On Tuesday, Lewis told Associate Judge Christopher Stride he is a construction worker who has been unemployed since before Christmas.

Stride appointed the county public defender’s office to represent Lewis and ordered him to appear in court again March 10.

Herres was a swimming instructor and lifeguard at Central Lake YMCA in Vernon Hills and also was a student at Libertyville High School.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

This morning Simon Properties announced an offer to buy the distressed commercial real estate company General Growth Properties, which Bill Ackman was an outspoken investor in.

You might remember that he issued a report from his firm Pershing Square Capital Management arguing that General Growth Properties shares were undervalued despite the fact that the company was bankrupt.

Essentially, the argument was that the firm actually had assets worth more than its liabilities, but was simply distressed due to the credit crunch. It suffered from an inability to refinance itself, rather than a core operational problem (one slide shown below). Thus, solve the liquidity problem and GGP was a gold mine.

Yet a well-publicized back and forth even broke out in December when Hovde Capital, betting against GGP and perhaps getting antsy in response to the shares' recent rally, issued a report called 'Fools Gold' arguing against Mr. Ackman's beliefs. (One slide shown below)

Note that Eric Hovde of Hovde Capital thought that the U.S. was in a depression and predicted a commercial real estate disaster back in March 2009.

Hopefully he hasn't been short GGP since then... since today he'd be eating an enormous portion of humble pie served by a laughing Mr. Ackman. Pershing Capital clearly solved GGP's liquidity issue and unlocked massive value in the process --  generating for his fund what seems to have been at least a 780% return. It's painful to even think about what some shorts may have lost.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Bill Ackman Is Wrong On General Growth -- Malls And The US Consumer Are So Screwed
• Bill Ackman's Apartment Went For Really, Really Cheap In Last Week's Auction
• Bill Ackman: Here's Why I'm Super-Bullish On Shopping Malls And The US Consumer