Capone's Home to Hit the Market

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»

Jacko, Canseco, Ed McMahon fight for roofs over their heads

(NEWSER) - Even the famous aren't immune to foreclosure, as these celebrities, listed in Forbes, prove:

• Xzibit: A pimped ride hasn’t been enough to pay the bills on his $536,000 Woodland Hills, Calif., home.
• Jose Canseco: The ex-ballplayer, who penned a book on big-league steroids, stands to lose his $2.5 million home in Encino, Calif.
• Veronica Hearst: The wife of late publishing bigwig Randolph Hearst bid farewell to her $40 million Manalapan, Fla., mansion.

Bleak outloook makes financing a tall order for 92-story skyscraper

(NEWSER) - Donald Trump's 92-story Chicago tower has been hit by a triple-whammy of the credit crunch, the housing slump, and sagging retail sales, making foreclosure a real danger, the Wall Street Journal reports. Trump, who developed the tower without partners, owes $1 billion on the project but has so far sold only $600 million in condo units and condo-hotel units. He's looking for an extension on a key loan due this Saturday. More»

Lawman declares that throwing renters out of foreclosed properties is unjust

(NEWSER) - A Chicago lawman is going to stop enforcing foreclosure evictions because they’re unfair to renters, the Chicago Tribune reports. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has a huge and growing eviction list but is refusing to carry out any more mortgage-foreclosure evictions until lenders first figure out who’s actually living at foreclosed properties. Foreclosure evictions in Cook County have more than doubled since 2006. More»

Chicago community-college student plans to sell condemned Mich. house

(NEWSER) - What can $1.75 buy these days? A home in Saginaw, Mich., apparently. A college student surfing for PlayStations on eBay was the eighth and highest bidder on the condemned house, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Joanne Smith doesn’t plan on making the 300-mile move from Chicago; after paying an additional $850 in taxes and cleanup costs, she says she plans to sell when the market perks up. More»