Extra, Extra

About 40 local Red Cross volunteers are in California helping evacuees.

Look, Chicagoist loves dolls as much as anyone--and there may or may not be a few American Girl dolls in our staff's past--but you've got to be effing kidding about the reaction to a 9-year-old losing her Marisol doll when it fell off a Delta jet. Parents, the words you're looking for are: "Marisol learned an important lesson about atmospheric pressure, and now she's in doll heaven." Case closed.

Thousands of Chicago-area students took a no-gun pledge today. Here's hoping that works better than virginity pledges.

Chicago police officer John Haleas failed to follow procedure on at least 50 DUI arrests. He remains on active duty. In other police news, a man was awarded $2 million in a wrongful arrest lawsuit today.

Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.

One more gorgeous sunset pic by Michael DaKidd