Extra, Extra

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 13, 2009 11:30PM

• Roland Burris will be sworn in as Illinois' junior senator Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. (Chicago time) by Vice President Dick Cheney.
• Chicago's "Debonair Bandit", suspected of up to five area bank robberies, was arrested earlier today in Atlanta.
• Work on the city's Michigan Ave. Bridge began yesterday and will interrupt pedestrian traffic likely until June.
• If Chicago gets picked for the 2016 games, the city will need a new TIF district to help pay for the proposed Olympic Village at Michael Reese Hospital.
• The Department of Justice is suing the city of Gary, Indiana for racial discrimination. The suit alleges that the city ignored rankings when hiring a black applicant over higher-ranked white applicants for an EMT position.
• The American Lung Association and the American Heart Association are seeking to jack up the cigarette tax in the state by another $1 per pack. Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) would be the bill's sponsor.
• And in today's good news: the Baby Jesus statue stolen from a nativity scene at Incarnation Parish in Palos Heights has been returned unharmed. The church is seeking to implant GPS devices in statues to help prevent further incidents of this nature.