Chicago area housing prices out-stripping inflation - by far

The move-up market, lower interest rates and a favorableeconomic climate are boosting housing prices far faster than theover-all inflation rate.

The increases throughout the Chicago area the past year havebeen higher than the national average, reported Paul Jacobson,executive vice president of Coldwell Banker Real Estate/Chicago.

On average, Chicago area prices in September were up by 15percent for new houses and by 12 percent for existing houses, fromSeptember, 1985, a Coldwell Banker survey shows.

Nationwide, prices increased by 12 percent for new housing andby 8 percent for existing housing.

In September, inflation was increasing at an annual …

EU to Probe Thomson-Reuters Bid

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Thomson Corp.'s $17.2 billion offer for news and information company Reuters Group PLC will face an in-depth inquiry by EU antitrust regulators, the European Commission said Monday.

The EU's executive arm said that its initial investigation raised "serious doubts as regards adverse effects on competition in several markets of the financial information sector." Thomson's 8.7 billion pound bid for Reuters would cut the number of major companies selling information and trading systems to the financial services industry from three - Reuters, Thomson and privately owned Bloomberg LP - to just two.

The Commission has until Feb. 25 to decide whether to clear …

Hearing set for lawyer accused of extorting Dole

A lawyer accused of taking part in a scheme to extort Dole food company for billions of dollars is under orders to appear at a contempt hearing Wednesday.

Juan Dominguez is accused of bringing fraudulent claims against Dole by men pretending to have been harmed by pesticides on Nicaraguan banana plantations in the 1970s.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney has reported Dominguez to the State Bar and to federal prosecutors for investigation of multiple crimes, including perjury, obstruction of justice, defrauding a court and conspiring to extort a United States company.

The judge called the alleged fraud "outrageous and …

NATO Jets Bomb Serb Post // Strike Aimed at Curbing Siege in Bosnian `Safe Area'

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina NATO aircraft launched an airstrike Sunday against Bosnian Serbs who ignored warnings by theUnited Nations to halt their assault on the UN-designated "safe area"of Gorazde.

President Clinton and UN Secretary-General BoutrosBoutros-Ghali warned the Serbs that they faced more attacks unlessthey pulled back.

A UN spokesman said the two F-16s dropped three bombs over asingle target, an artillery command post near the besieged easternBosnian enclave.

NATO headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the planes were U.S.F-16Cs based in Aviano, Italy, and said the attack was requested byUN forces in Gorazde because of the Serb …

SUBLIMINAL WHITE TRASH: NEW WRITINGS

SUBUMINAL WHITE TRASH: NEW WRITINGS

Zine, Kevin C. Pearce, subliminalwhitetrash. blogspot.com, kevincpearce@yahoo.com

I feel like I can't generalize about Kevin Pearce's writing based on this zine for two reasons. The first is that it's from 2007, and the second is that it's like six pages long. I'm not really sure what the point of this thing is, though. …

Norway, EU open Sudan donors conference with US$935 million in pledges

Norway and the European Union on Tuesday pledged US$935 million (euro655 million) in aid to Sudan over the next four years as a donors conference started in Oslo.

Conference host Norway pledged US$500 million (euro345 million) between 2008-2011 to help Africa's largest nation recover from 21 years of internal warfare.

The EU immediately followed up with a promise of US$435 million ( euro300 million) in the same period.

Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha called on other delegates attending the conference to step of support for his country.

"You can't have peace without development, and you can't have development without …

[ SPIN CONTROL ]

(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) NEIL YOUNG, "GREENDALE" (REPRISE)

After living for a while with Neil Young's new album, itsaccompanying 14-page booklet and the bonus DVD featuring a liveperformance of this 10-song rock opera (Neil's idiosyncratic versionof "Our Town," populated by unrepentant hippies, ecoterrorists, oldcranks railing against the intrusive media and Satan), I'm still notsure I understand the concept behind this absurdly ambitious conceptalbum. But I'm certain that that couldn't bother me less.

Young has always had some extra oomph whenever he's teamed up withCrazy Horse, the best of any of his backing bands, and not onlybecause of the much-vaunted guitar …