Extra, Extra

An Evanston girl recently completed a 34-day religious fast. Eva Mehta, 17, says she drank only water for the last month. [Trib]

These photos, and the accompanying story about the gorilla killings in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are incredible. [Brent Stirton]

"Pitchfork University of Musical Criticism." [Tumbledore]

This weekend's Wall Street disaster, with Lehman Brothers filling for bankruptcy and Bank of America's pending purchase of Merrill Lynch, is "going to have a very devastating impact on the [Midwest] region." [Crain's]

More than 65 percent of CPS students passed their third-through-eighth–grade ISATs, which is a record high. [S-T]

"Fifty-two bags of heroin in bags stamped both with letters spelling out OBAMA and an image in the likeness of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama were confiscated following a routine car stop on Interstate 95 in Upper Chichester, according to Pennsylvania State Police." [Delco Times]

American Idol winner Taylor Hicks will be in the touring company of Grease, which comes to Chicago in January. [Trib]

"Pie I have eaten | Pie I have not yet eaten." [LogicNest]