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Grand Lux Cafe on Chicago's Magnificent Mile announces closure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

CHICAGO — Grand Lux Cafe has announced it is closing its doors after 21 years later this year.On Thursday, the company said the last full day of service at the Michigan Avenue restaurant will be Dec. 24. Commission weighs whether to discipline Illinois judge who reversed rape conviction The company is working with employees to help transition them to the company's other concepts nearby."We have enjoyed being a part of the downtown Chicago community and hope that our guests will continue to dine with us at our other restaurants in the area," the statement read. Grand Lux Cafe also has locations in Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

Jared Leto climbs Empire State Building to promote band's upcoming tour

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

NEW YORK (PIX11) – Actor and musician Jared Leto climbed the Empire State Building to promote his band’s upcoming world tour.Leto scaled a portion of the Empire State Building Thursday morning to celebrate Thirty Seconds to Mars’ upcoming world tour in 2024. In September, the band released its sixth studio album, “It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day.” President of Chicago local SAG-AFTRA on Hollywood strike ending "The building is a testament of all the things that can be done in the world if we put our minds to it," Leto said in a statement, "which is largely the inspiration behind our most recent album, 'It's the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day.'"Leto began climbing outside the skyscraper's main observation deck on the 86th floor and then scaled his way up to the base of the building's antenna, Vanity Fair reported. A video posted on Leto's Instagram showed him climbing the iconic New York City skyscraper."It was very hard. It was a lot harder than I tho...

Worth Township host Veteran's Day celebration ahead of holiday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

WORTH TOWNSHIP, Ill. -- With Veteran's Day on Saturday, Worth Township provided those who served am early fun filled evening of food, entertainment, and memories. Veteran’s Day Deals 2023: Where to get free food and discounts across Chicagoland WGN's Patrick Elwood has more.

Frank Borman, astronaut who led historic Apollo flight around the moon, dies at 95

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Astronaut Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8's historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times and paved the way for the lunar landing the next year, has died. He was 95.Borman died Tuesday in Billings, Montana, according to NASA.Borman also led troubled Eastern Airlines in the 1970s and early '80s after leaving the astronaut corps.But he was best known for his NASA duties. He and his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon — and to see Earth as a distant sphere in space.FILE - This late 1960s portrait shows U.S. Col. Frank Borman, commander of the Apollo 8 flight. Borman, who commanded Apollo 8's historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times and paved the way for the lunar landing seven months later, has died. He was 95. Borman died Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in Billings, Mont., according to a NASA statement Thursday, Nov. 9. (AP Photo/File)FILE - Apollo 8 astronauts, suited up and re...

Officials investigating suspicious package in east Austin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Police Department said it was investigating a suspicious package in east Austin.According to police, APD received a call at approximately 2:15 p.m. regarding a suspicious package in the 2300 block of Oracle Way.Austin Police officers responded and evacuated the building as a precaution, according to APD.As of 5 p.m., APD said the scene remained active and was under investigation.This is a developing story. Check back with KXAN for more details.

Travis County congenital syphilis cases are increasing, mirroring national trends

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Austin Public Health said that congenital syphilis cases in Travis County are expected to double in 2022 and 2023 since 2021, mirroring national trends. Congenital syphilis cases in Travis County increased by about 40% from 2018 to 2021. There were eight cases in 2018 and 11 in 2021, according to APH. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Tuesday revealing that the number of babies born in the U.S. with syphilis in 2022 – over 3,700 – was 10 times higher than the number in 2012. Further, the report said that nearly 90% of those cases could have been prevented.Congenital syphilis occurs when a pregnant woman passes syphilis on to her baby. The disease can lead to miscarriage, premature birth, miscarriage and death, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. “The congenital syphilis crisis in the United States has skyrocketed at a heartbreaking rate,” CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Hour said in a press release. “New a...

Texas committee advances controversial immigration enforcement bill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — A Texas House committee advanced a controversial border security bill Thursday that would enable state law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law, a power reserved for federal authorities.House Bill 4 would make it a state crime for non-citizens to cross into the United States illegally. It's a power currently reserved for federal law enforcement agents like border patrol, but the legislation would give any state peace officer the ability to arrest someone who enters Texas illegally or order them to return to the country of origin. The legislation's author — Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro — says the legislation is necessary because the federal government is not doing enough to secure the border. "This bill is not about if someone's here illegally," Spiller said. "It's if they crossed into our state from a foreign nation at some illegal place—a place other than a legal port of entry."HB 4 also outlines protections for Texas law enforcement officers from ...

Sex trafficking, drugs and assault: Texas foster kids and caseworkers face chaos in rental houses and hotels

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) -- Some of Texas’ most victimized and vulnerable foster children are reportedly running away nightly, falling victim to sexual predators, consuming marijuana and threatening caseworkers with gun violence or sexual aggression.Those — and a litany of other disturbing claims — come from foster care watchdogs who say the state is renting four single-family houses in Bell County for children in its care that are chaotic, dirty and dangerous environments that threaten the health and safety of not just the kids, but also the under-trained and under-supported caseworkers who try to supervise them.The bevy of tragic incidents are detailed in a report filed in late October as part of a 12-year lawsuit against the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. It was written by watchdogs appointed by a federal court to monitor Texas’ progress in fixing its troubled foster care system.The report is riddled with troubling incidents, especially in Bell County, whic...

Thomas Friedman: I have never been to this Israel before

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

People warned me before I came to Tel Aviv a few days ago that the Israel of Oct. 7 is an Israel that I’ve never been to before. They were right. It is a place in which Israelis have never lived before, a nation that Israeli generals have never had to protect before, an ally that America has never had to defend before — certainly not with the urgency and resolve that would lead a U.S. president to fly over and buck up the whole nation.After traveling around Israel and the West Bank, I now understand why so much has changed. It is crystal clear to me that Israel is in real danger — more danger than at any time since its war of independence in 1948. And it’s for three key reasons:First: An array of enemiesFirst, Israel is facing threats from a set of enemies who combine medieval theocratic worldviews with 21st century weaponry — and are no longer organized as small bands of militiamen, but as modern armies with brigades, battalions, cyber capabilities, long-range rockets, drones and t...

Rehman, Ruby: American Muslims and Jews must stand together amid tragedies in Middle East

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

Two years ago, the two of us, a Muslim-American woman, and a Jewish-American man, wrote a book together, arguing that American Muslims and Jews cannot afford to allow the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to divide our faith communities here at home. We believe in that principle today as much as we did then; but as we watch with horror the ever-escalating war in Gaza and Israel, we are also acutely aware that the conflict poses a growing peril to tear our faith communities here in America irreparably apart.Indeed, the lines are being drawn. Members of the Jewish community feel that Muslims leaders have not gone far enough to denounce Hamas for its brutal, life-destroying rampage against 1,400 Israeli civilians, the deadliest one-day spasm of anti-Jewish violence since the Holocaust. They also feel threatened by the dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents across the U.S. including at pro-Palestinian rallies on college campuses.At the same time, American Muslims feel dread at the new wave o...