Extra, Extra

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Jul 19, 2006 1:42AM

• We didn't even realize it rained last night, but 75,000 people who were without power this morning because of strong overnight storms sure knew!
• In a kind of reign-by-divine-right move, Chicago Alderman Todd Stroger is replacing his father on the ballot for Cook County Board president.
• Speaking of Naperville, it's a great place to buy a Toyota. They'll rip you off, and then sexually harrass you, according to this post on Comsumerist.
• McDonald's is hitting the bars with a new promotion that puts toll-free numbers on coasters and lets drunkies program a wake-up call. A pre-recorded message by various celebs the next morning urges the hungover recipient to wake up and go to McD's for breakfast. Yeh, Mr. T telling us to go buy a breakfast burrito is just what we want to hear in the morning after one too many tequila shots!
• The Trib is cutting 120 jobs.
• 16 people have been charged by the feds for defrauding the Dept of Housing and Urban Development.
• As seen on the cbs2chicago website: "IL Seat Beat Use At All-Time High." The "Seat Beat"? Seriously, who writes these headlines?
• The judge in the R. Kelly suit fell off an 18-foot ladder and injured himself over the weekend.
• 4 years ago a woman was killed when some scaffolding collapsed at the John Hancock Center. Now her family has donated the $3 million received in the lawsuit to the University of Notre Dame to build a softball stadium in her name.
• Rival Room has a good post on the Gay Games.
• To help stop the spread of the emerald ash borer, Sen. Durbin wants some parts of Cook & Kane counties to be declared as federal emergency quarantine areas.

Lakefront beach photo via scrapplequeen on Contribute. You can feel the heat radiating just by looking at this photo!