Cop who arrested mom on disability
In Chicago, Forrest "Frosty" Wondolowski sits at a desk during his full-time job with the city, mainly doing paperwork, due to a disability. In south suburban Crestwood, though, he's a bit more active. He's Sgt. Wondolowski, a part-time police officer, who puts the cuffs on alleged culprits, including a mother who briefly left her toddler inside her car in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

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Meet Chicago's All-Stars of clout

In the game of Chicago clout, politicians always say they'll go to bat for you.

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'Good deeds': Cops say they hide the bad
To judge by their actions, here are three middle-age men who have done some good, making Chicago a better place. But to police and prosecutors, they are strictly dirt--the leaders of three of Chicago's most notorious street gangs--who made a show of doing good deeds as a way of laundering their reputations, just like they might launder illegal cash.

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2-year Dan Ryan project wraps up

By the time you drive to work this morning, all lanes on the Dan Ryan Expy. should be open -- ending two years of construction on the Chicago area's busiest expressway, state officials announced Thursday.

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Readers respond to 'Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story'
Jill Carroll's account of her ordeal is riveting. As someone who just returned from seven years of teaching in Egypt, I appreciate the accuracy of her details in verbally illustrating her captors.

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Media, Sudan watching trip closely
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama leaves today for a 17-day, six-country African visit, returning to his deceased father's Kenyan home, scrambling to retool the trip at the last minute because of the reluctance of Sudan to grant him a visa. • Read the full report

One family's rise, a century of power
When Bruno Roti Sr. died in 1957, 3,000 people lined the streets to pay their respects Fourteen cars overflowed with flowers. Nearly 100 men wearing black sashes across their chests --members of an organization Roti founded -- escorted the hearse through the neighborhood today known as Chinatown. It was a funeral fit for a cardinal. Or a mayor.

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