Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO -- For several hours on a muggy Sunday, police and protesters coexisted more or less as it was drawn up on the city permit: demonstrators rallied in Grant Park, then marched south to Michigan Avenue and Cermak Road.

But after the anti-war speeches were done, and the military veterans had disavowed their war medals, protesters had a decision to make: stay or go.

CHICAGO -- Two employees of a Chicago Heights bakery are suing co-workers, saying they are being cut out of a share of the winnings from a recent $118 million Mega Millions jackpot.

According to the suit, Jose L. Franco and Marco Medina were regular participants in a lottery pool with about a dozen other co-workers for about the last year.

You have to hand it to Josh Hamilton. While he's constantly on guard against his personal demons, he somehow still seems to be exactly what we want all athletes to be -- a big kid playing a child's game.

CHICAGO -- A day after President Barack Obama endorsed equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn made it clear that he stands with the president on the politically divisive issue of marriage equality.

CHICAGO -- It is not a scene you expect to witness: a wolf, out cold, immobilized, its feral snout inside the giant doughnut ring of a high-tech medical device.

It's also striking purely on the level of language: a canine in a CAT scan. The Brookfield Zoo recently used the internal imaging technology common in human medicine to check its eight Mexican gray wolves for nose cancer.

Here's a new spin on the saying, "If you snooze you lose."

What if the "lose" part applied to your weight? No, it's not as simple as going to sleep and waking up slimmer. Alas.

But a recent Harvard study does suggest that people who get a good night's rest find it easier to resist overeating -- especially when it comes to gorging on high-calorie foods like ice cream, cheeseburgers or French fries.

We all know the temptation: You're drowsy during the day, get hungry and head to the snacks aisle or a vending machine for junk food or a candy bar.

What would I do with a five-day mini-getaway? Let's see, maybe New York City, San Francisco, Miami or -- South Dakota? Lets be honest, the Mount Rushmore State doesn't generally come to mind when thinking "vacation." But after seeing a photo of Badlands National Park in the book "501 Must-Visit Natural Wonders," I changed my mind.

The National Park Service describes the South Dakota Badlands as one of the plan-et's fastest-eroding landscapes. What you see today will in some way be different tomorrow. The Badlands also are a geological gem boasting a poetic blend of simple grandiosity and rugged natural beauty. The never-ending dance of deposition and erosion is what makes the Badlands remind us of the age of the planet and the truth behind the saying "Nothing lasts forever."