Chicago Mourns Studs Terkel

Man appeared to leap during Bears, Eagles game: witnesses

(NEWSER) - A man plunged 20 feet to his death from Chicago's Soldier Field football stadium during a Bears game against the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday. Witnesses said the man, who has been identified as 23-year-old Stuart Haverty of Woodstock, Ill., appeared to run to a ledge in an upper-level seating area and leap. He landed on a small rooftop outside of the stadium and was declared dead at a local hospital, AP reports. More»

Film critic will use computer for interview on Tuesday's show

(NEWSER) - Roger Ebert can no longer speak , but he's been booked on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The legendary film critic, who lost his lower jaw during cancer treatment, communicates with computer assistance. He's been in the news thanks to an Esquire profile and his good-natured reaction , and the queen of all media—who once dated her fellow Chicagoan, TV Guide reminds us—is on the case. The interview, taped Friday, will air on Tuesday's show. More»

Massive online journal is 'saving' ailing film critic as he faces death

(NEWSER) - Roger Ebert once “lived his life through microphones,” writes Chris Jones. But since his voice and the ability to eat or drink were taken from him in a 2006 surgery for thyroid cancer, he has returned to his best gift—the written word. “His new life is lived through Times New Roman and chicken scratch,” and more earthly concerns have gone by the wayside. The 67-year-old Ebert worries only about “how many words he can get out in the time he has left.” More»

Police beef up patrols after savage gang melee

(NEWSER) - Chicago police are stepping up patrols today at a high school where a 16-year-old honor student's gruesome beating death in a gang melee was captured on video. Students scream in horror as Derrion Albert crumples to the ground and covers his head in vain as he's repeatedly pummeled with wooden planks in the video shot by a female student. Police are questioning suspects in the tape, which was turned over by the student to police and the local Fox news station. More»

(NEWSER) - British author JG Ballard died this morning "with great sadness" after many years of poor health, his agent said today. The 78-year-old novelist and short story writer was most famous for his semi-autobiographical book Empire of the Sun, later made into a film by Steven Spielberg, and his controversial novel Crash, adapted for the screen by David Cronenberg. More»