A hearing will get underway today in which a judge will ultimately determine which, if any, hearsay statements the jury will be allowed to hear in the upcoming murder trial of Drew Peterson. Peterson has been charged with the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. The controversial law was passed by the state legislature in 2008. The law is controversial because, well, hearsay is generally not accepted in trials [see Article VIII, page 15 - PDF]. There are exceptions, which this new law proposes to be, but it still seems to walk a fine line and, if Peterson is convicted, will surely be the cornerstone of any appeal, as will the retroactive application (i.e., the ex post facto nature) of the law (as pointed out by readers in the comments of this old post on the story). more ›

• The Brookfield Zoo has a new elephant.
• Two men were hospitalized in separate mugging incidents early this morning in the Roscoe Village neighborhood; police haven't commented if these are connected to the recent spate of muggings in Lincoln Park.
• A CTA worker has died of Legionnaire's Disease after apparently contracting it from being splashed by stagnant water while washing a train car. WBBM has more.