Chicago hotel occupancy climbs back

Visitors filled downtown hotel rooms in 2012 at a rate not seen since before the recession.Hotel occupancy rose to 75.2 percent,...

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Coroner: Death of man beaten by North Chicago cops is homicide

Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd has reversed his office’s ruling from “undetermined” to “homicide” in the case of a man who...

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Apple slips, BlackBerry slides and Windows Phone stalls in December

Kantar Worldpanel’s December smartphone market share numbers are out. And they are as fascinating as ever. Kantar pegs the BlackBerry market share in America as 1.1% last month, down from 1.4% in November. Surprisingly, Windows Phone’s market share also ticked down to 2.6% in December from 2.7% in November. That might be a statistical artifact, but it is surprising not to see a substantial boost in...

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Walters expects to leave hospital soon

NEW YORK (AP) — Barbara Walters says she expects to be home from the hospital soon after taking a spill at a Saturday night party at the British ambassador’s home in Washington.The veteran ABC newswoman thanked people who expressed concern in a statement read Monday on “The View.”She says she’s running a low-grade fever and doctors don’t want to release her until her temperature is normal. She says...

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Well Pets: Holly the Cat's Incredible Journey

Nobody knows how it happened: an indoor house cat 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 —...

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Area home sales up 19% in December

More than 7,000 consumers in the Chicago-area bought themselves a home last month, the best finish for the year since December...

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Obama lays out 2nd-term agenda

In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama says enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. But he said the U.S. will defend itself through 'strengths of arms and rule of law.' (Jan. 21) ...

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Rumored Xbox 720 specs: 8-core processor, 8GB of RAM, 800MHz GPU

Console gamers frustrated that their Xbox isn’t holding up well compared to high-end gaming PCs can relax a bit, because it looks like the next-generation Xbox is going to be a monster. It seems that website VGleaks has gotten ahold of leaked specifications for the Xbox 720, which it says will include an 8-core 1.6GHz processor, 8GB of RAM, an 800MHz graphics processor, a 50GB 6x Blu-ray Disc...

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt mines the humor in porn for “Don Jon”

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) – After a remarkable run with leading roles in films such as “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Inception,” actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt stepped behind the camera to direct “Don Jon’s Addiction,” a raunchy comedy that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.“Don Jon’s Addiction,” which Gordon-Levitt also wrote and stars in, leads a slate of films about sex on this year’s Sundance...

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Well: Really? In Children, Flu Vaccine Can Prevent Ear Infection

Really?Anahad O’Connor tackles health myths.THE FACTSFor many children, flu season means an increased risk of ear infections as well.Although many people do not realize it, the middle ear has a direct link to the upper respiratory tract: the auditory, or Eustachian, tube. Infections in the nose or sinus cavities thus can spread to the ear.Ear infections are a common scourge of childhood. Most children...

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