federal authorities ready to launch "operation red zone" in the loop next week... a very public show of force as they gear-up for the "nato" summit. good afternoon. i am steve sanders. and i'm dina bair. we welcome our viewers who are watching us around the country on wgn america and on the web. w-g-n's julie unruh is live on the south side with details. starting next week the chicago loop could resemble a militarized zone in today's sun- times aberration red zone was laid out outfitting teams and battle gear and the city was surprised to learn of this as well ... from harrison north to adams and then from state street on the east to

franklin on the west this area is where thousands of federal employees work and where government offices are located buildings like the federal courthouse and others ... officers in battle gear will be caring non lethal long guns and beanbag weapons and there will be highly visible there will not be stopping people from entering the zone but their job is to secure and protect it ... the chicago financial district is also believed to be a target of protesters the director of the summit herself could not have been more surprised to learn about this red zone >>the federal government does not consult with the city when they do these things many were unaware. it is common practice for what i hear for the federal government to have protection

around its own buildings i can make no other comments on that ... there was a meeting that was held earlier this week the federal protection services spoke to local business owners and residents ... they need to ensure that video cameras need to be working ... these officers will be moving in as early as next week and there were asked to hand over vendor lists said commerce won't be interrupted as much jurors are hearing more testimony today in the trial of william balfour.. the man accused of killing three members of singer jennifer hudson's family at cook county criminal court. tonya? there are only five alternates

hearing testimony today as one alternate juror called in sick ... photos of william balfour and his clothing were taken the day he was taken into custody ... this turned out to be an emotional day for william balfour in the courtroom. he welled up when he saw the large screen photographs of julian king playing dad.laying dead investigators say that balfour still an s u v and drove the child across town where the child had been shot twice in the back of the head and found dead days later ... jennifer hudson and william belfort's ex-wife the sister of jeff rutzen julie hudson were not in the courtroom

a phone call was made to julia hudson the morning of the murders and then a cellphone was turned off for several hours after that other officers are scheduled to testify today other members of the hudson family including jennifer hudson will be in the courtroom this afternoon a boy who was kidnapped from a saint louis hospital on tuesday while awaiting a heart transplant is headed back home. five-year-old porter stone was reunited with his mother this morning. his father, grandmother, and aunt face charges in his abduction. they will also face extradition back to missouri. porter was found unharmed in a motel room in alsip yesterday. he is heading back to saint louis for treatment for his heart condition. a man from oak park says he beat another man because he was angry over the shooting death of trayvon martin. 18-year-old alton hayes is charged with a hate crime along with attempted robbery and battery. police say hayes and a 15-year- old boy approached a 19-year- old white man from behind on

april 17th. they pushed him up against a tree and hit him in the head and shoulders befores hayes reached inside the man's pockets. police caught the two were a few few blocks away. hayes told police he was angry about the martin shooting and attacked the victim because of his race. the 15-year-old was also charged. if you're having trouble getting ravinia tickets today; you're not alone. tickets went on sale at five ths morning; but many customers are having problems getting through on the website. wgn's randi belisomo is live at ravinia- in highland park with details randi? ravinia officials say that if you don't already have tickets to see santana buy the album tickets to see james taylor are sold out as well the music demand hair has never been higher. more than 100 shows are

offered this morning on line the wait time on line is about 15 minutes earlier today was much longer if you are trying for tickets please stick with it provided you see an orange box on the screen do not leave the page you are in the queue ... more than 50 acts this season have never played ravinia before so there's lots of demand for those who have never been here we are getting updates from viewers on the wgn facebook page you are frustrated with the process ... many are posting messages ... officials are begging people to be patient >>we call posting service to

triple capacity last year was a record year at ravinia for sales and attendance and at peak on the first day of sales we at 2400 people trying to get online to buy tickets today we had 9000 people competing for the same amount of space ... >>if your show is not a show in demand you ought to wait until tomorrow it will be easier to book ... the box office opens may 19th for in private person purchases and phone purchases begin the following day may 20th next at noon -- the secret service is investigating whether its agents were involved in a second prostitution scandal. a bungled drug trafficking deal results in the arrest of some crooked tsa agents. and rupert murdoch apologizes for the phone hacking scandal at his flagship british tabloid... and admits to a cover-up.

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a new round of accusations against the secret service for unprofessional behavior. this time, it apparently happened in san salvador in 2011. there are claims several agents and military specialists went to a strip club there several times... just days before president obama visited the city. the reports say they drank heavily, and some of them received sexual favors in a v-i- p section. it adds the agents brought some of the strippers back to their hotel rooms. this development comes as the secret service is dealing with an alleged prostitution scandal in colombia.

four current and former t-s-a agents have been arrested.. charged with allowing drug- filled luggage to pass through security. the incidents took place last year at los angeles international airport. authorities say, on five separate occasions: large quantities of cocaine and other drugs made it through the x-ray screening machines at l-a-x. according to prosecutors: drug couriers had a free pass through airport security. the four agents allegedly took bribes of up to 24-hundred dollars. if convicted, they each face a minimum of 10 years in prison. some startling admissions today from media mogul rupert murdoch.. as he testified before an independent inquiry looking into britain's phone hacking scandal. murdoch admitted there was a "cover-up" of phone hacking at his flagship british tabloid.. and he apologized for not paying more attention to the scandal. he said he and his senior executives were misinformed and kept in the dark about the extent of the phone hacking. murdoch also said he shut down "news of the world" out of "panic".. in the face of public fury about the revelation that a murdered teenage girl had been

a victim of phone hacking. in the john edwards trial expert witnesses say that andrew young was trying to promote his book ... enter young testified yesterday deadening to expose the truth edwards denied allegations and challenge his credibility

emily herx taught at st. vincent de paul catholic school for eight years on the school learned about the in vitro effort she was fired ... the government says that as a religious employer the church and that school has a right to make decisions about who hires ... the catholic church does not condone in.vitro fertilization because embryos are often destroyed under catholic teachings every embryo has the right to life three teenage girls from northwest indiana have been expelled from school for their posts on facebook and the aclu is coming to their defense the

girls are eighth graders at griffith middle school in january there were expelled for bullying harassment and intimidation after school officials were informed about a conversation they posted on facebook the teen's claim that there were only joking and they argue that what they do outside of school is private and should not be the school's business the aclu filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that the school violated the teenagers first amendment rights the school is not return phone calls about the case but in a letter to one of the teen-ager's parents officials said that the death remarks were considered to be harassment and intimidating which violated the provisions of the student handbook the school district has 21 days to respond to that aclu lawsuit the day's top business stories are up next as well as the news that

time for your bloomberg on the money report ... housing sales for march are coming in better than expected rising to the higher levels since april 2010 ... there's more buyers confidence ... but more americans are expected to file for first-time jobless benefits ... and there is a sign that the labor market has only had slight improvements while the unemployment rate remains at elevated levels ... the senate has delivered the postal service a lifeline voting to giving the postal service

access to billions more in cash to keep going ... this will head to the house of representatives which has to vote by mid may to make this sicko ...is law with the average wedding costing thousands of dollars the pursuit of the dream wedding means that more people need to save a logger for the big ed ventevent ... the average is 15 months ... the market is higher stocks are trading higher right now thinks to those housing reports on pending home sales ... a cook county judge says that

the illinois online sales tax is unconstitutional ... it allows sites like amazon to collect taxes if they have operations in the state ... it is argued that it conflicts with the federal internet tax freedom act and the commerce clause of the u.s. constitution but the illinois retail merchants association which supports the law says that the decision is just the first up in a very long battle state lawmakers investigating a colleague for alleged bribery hold a hearing this morning the special investigating committee is looking into rep derrick smith he is accused of taking a $7,000 bribe from a campaign worker authorities say that he thought the money was a payoff from a day care operator wanted a state grant democratic leaders are calling on him to resign and

withdraw from the november election but his attorney says he will not step down he did not attend today's hearing the dollars, will be speaking at loyola university today where he will also receive an honorary degree the tibetan spiritual leader will address it exclusive loyal audience about interfaith collaboration there will be high security and students are required to have identification since it is a big event significant traffic days are expected in the area near the lake shore campus people are revised to use public transportation we will be crews in illinois again with julian crews taking a self for birds gideon a bit of a history lesson in the forest and later tom skilling will be discussing fema it was like a red rash... very sore looking kinda blistery.

like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i was a firefighter for 24 years. but, i have never encountered such a burning sensation until i had the shingles. i remember it well. i was in the back yard doing yard work. i had this irritation going on in my lower neck. i changed shirts because i thought there was something in the collar of the shirt irritating my neck. and i couldn't figure out what was going on. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. i always thought shingles was associated with people... a lot older than myself. i can tell you from experience it is bad. it's something you never want to encounter. for more of the inside story visit shinglesinfo.com

adventure. i love this segment. >>it's time for crusin' illin ois ... you will need your gps because we have got our own personal tour guide julian crews ... >>whether it is a waterfall or a fast running river or a cool forest lake, there are wanders across illinois north of chicago you will find 6 mi. of lake michigan shoreline. there are sand dunes and native plants here at illinois beach

state park the last major stretch of undeveloped shoreline in the state this season on cruising illinois we are setting up to the self is a breeze of five and a half hour drive from chicago you will find the last great wilderness of illinois is shawnee national forest with a quarter million acres of old-growth woodlands the shimmering lakes and rivers have seven illinois a rich watershed ... in the cypress creek water life refuge you will see the louisiana style swamps with natural diversity pushing north on the mississippi for migratory birds southern illinois is vital habitat all the way to the south to the

gulf coast beyond that having these refuges allow the birds time to stop and rest ... and then there's magnolia manor and cairo ... the john bogan museum in murphy borough tells the dramatic story of the region's the civil war history and how ulysses grant was rushed to southern illinois to keep this strategically important piece of real estate from falling into confederate hands with rebel forces on either side of the two great rivers fort defiance with its battery

of canon's defended cairo which sits at the confluence of the mississippi and the ohio rivers to this day amazingly rich territory that you will love to explore we have a pair of web exclusive stories on illinois and the civil war and if you want to learn more about general grant and fort defiance you can go to our web site wgntv.com/

i know that it has been cooler but i keep waiting for that afternoon sun ...

>>there has never been a warmer. as what we had last month and over a hundred years of weather records it's amazing ... we still see the signs that seven out of 10 summers following these mild spring seasons have themselves been warmer than normal. we're looking at the wind carving out the wave is on lake michigan we have whitecaps those northerly winds have locked in blowing with gusto over 30 mi. per hour. they are their strongest coming off the lake. they're coming in without friction and they get stronger ... the wind is carrying a cooler temperatures with it. there's a

sprawling canadian high temperature front that is crushing the warm air mass ... there has been precipitation these last few days across the area the big story is that cool air with big storms last night that occurred downstate including hailstones and 60 mi. per hour wind in central illinois they are wearing a cross slut carolina right nowroaring across north carolina right now it feels like 43 degrees right now. look at some of these wind gusts it is a windy day with 46 degrees in wrigleyville. o'hare

airport is 51 degrees ... the temperatures are trending downward. the temperature is down state are still miles but the cool air is on the way there as well. in dire indiana the clouds have arrived as well we have a dry air north to northeast flow ... there is a storm coming across the plains states right now on the nose of the jet stream that rolled across the rockies overnight here's where it will be over the

weekend ... the jets stream is bringing that northern canadian air down that's the weekend durmast right there we are warming to the mid '50s by sun. however ... that warm air mass that dominated march here moved westward ... temperatures are reaching the hundreds in the southwestern states. here are the regional temperatures at this hour: humidity here is 68% ... the

tree pollen is high today. the line here is our next rainmaker it will be here tomorrow night the rain will make its way across nebraska and kansas with embedded thunderstorms. we need the rain it is very dry in these parts. tonight we will have scattered clouds but they will come in again tomorrow filtering the sunlight as the day continues. we will see rain showers tomorrow evening into saturday they will wind down and clear

out by saturday night that high pressure from canada will re- enter and we will see rain monday once again. we may get pretty good rain tomorrow night into saturday and we need that. we have frost and freeze watches and the fact to the north and in parts of indiana temperatures in eastern new mexico made it to the hundreds yesterday by contrast it will turn sunny this afternoon clouds will diminish it will be windy and noticeably cooler into the evening hours. we will get into the 40's. tonight scattered clouds windy

... 36 at 0 hera 30 inland tomorrow we will see the ninth time rain increasing cloudiness during the afternoon. 44 degrees saturday cloudy with rain tapering to sprinkles by evening wind blows from the lake cooling things down once again ... we will have a seven day forecast later in the broadcast. it is time now for today's trivia question ... which architectural style popularized the use of synthetic building materials such as glass plastic and steel it's time to get going. to have the energy to turn a "to do" list into

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time for sports: the bulls starters have only played together 15 times this season. despite clinching to top seed in the east, all of the starters played last night. bulls' second to last regualr season game, in indiana. up seven in the first quarter... some nice passing from luol deng to carlos boozer to joakim noah for the dunk... he had 14. still up nearing halftime... derrick rose fights through traffic for the lay up... he scored ten points in 27 minutes. the high scorer came off the bench... kyle korver hit four of six three pointers, and scored a team- high 20 points. bulls win 92-87... they can clinch the best record in the n- b-a with a win in the regualr season finale against cleveland tonight. george costanza showing off a new hairdo at wrigley. cubs down one to the cardinals in the fourth, when brian lahair ties it with his fourth home run... the rest of the team only has three homers. but saint louis goes up again and in the sixth david freese add insurance with a two run

homer. cubs lose 5-1, but still win the series. meanwhile the white sox captain reached a career milestone. that ties it at two in the ninth. paul konerko is just the 48-th player to hit four- hundred home runs, and second all- time for the sox, behind frank thomas. sox led in 14-th... but hector santiago gives up five straight hits to oakland, including a game- tying home run and walk- off single. sox lose 5-4... they host the red sox tonight. philip humber starts for the first time since his perfect game... and you can see it at seven on wgn.

that's a look at sports. your live illinois lottery drawing is next. good afternoon here is your midday drawing for thursday april 26th, 2012. here are the winning pick three numbers: 5 6 9 the mega-millions jackpot is $88 million ... and here are the winning pick four numbers: 5 9 8 0

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[ male announcer ] if you think tylenol is the pain reliever orthopedic doctors recommend most for arthritis pain think again. and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain. two pills can last all day. ♪ ♪ in medical watch.. berries may protect the brain from age-related memory loss. researchers studied the effect of eating berries on more than 16 thousand women older than 70 who had never had a stroke. women who ate a single half-cup serving of blueberries, or two half-cup servings of strawberries each week had a slower rate of developing memory problems. the difference was equal to about two and a half years of aging. the study doesn't prove berries protected the women's brains directly.. but it builds on

other studies suggesting berries can benefit the brain. children who experience bullying or violence appear to age more quickly than others. researchers analyzed d-n-a samples from children ages five and ten. they compared the genetic material to three types of violence: domestic violence between the mother and her partner.. bullying.. and physical mistreatment by an adult. the researchers report the d-n-a of children who experienced violence showed the type of wear and tear usually associated with advancing age. up next: tom skilling is speaking with fema about national severe weather awareness week.

this week marks the anniversary of this country's worst tornado outbreak in terms of number of storms ever between april 25th- 282011358 tornadoes hit from skies along many states from texas to new york 346 people died it was the deadliest day since the tristate tornado crossed missouri and indiana 1925 the price tag was $11 billion and the weather troubles did not stop there a catastrophic before-5 twister

hit joplin missouri ... with billions of dollars in property damage and loss of life and injury ... 551 deaths ... what is significant is that it's nearly the grand total of all lost in such weather situations in the history of record keeping ... this is national weather preparedness week ... it is part of the fema called to citizens to address the forces of nature ... we welcome craig fugate who is the administrator he was appointed by president obama 2005 a native of gainesville fla. he knows something about disasters ... he dealt with the

four hurricane's heading florida 2004 ... and in the 2005 hurricane season in florida with dennis and katrina and wilma ... >>in 1998 we had a tornado killed 42 people in central florida we seem to get lots of weather in florida ... >>i remember that strong well middle of the night near orlando ... >>lots of times these hit the middle of the night and it's hard to warn people ... >>your message to administrator craig fugate is clear ... we need to get warnings out to people more accurately ... we are getting improved technology

to forecast one week ahead of time but people are still dying in these horrendous numbers ... you and the national weather service are teaming up during whether prepared this week in an effort to call people to get more involved and think out safety planning ... >>do this now. people need to really understand the need to know what to do in such situations and spread the word. too many people are still dying even with better forecasting tools >>we had that tragic pre-dawn tornado in harrisburg illinois that destroyed 200 homes and businesses february 29th. there was lots of discussion about this because fema had not gone involved at the outset but you

are working hard with people doing the post analysis ... >>many people are under the assumption that everything will get declared a federal emergency disaster situation ... but there are so many state level programs ... just because we did not declare it did not mean that it was bad or tragic it just did not meet those benchmarks to raise it to the federal level of involvement ... >>what do you suggest that people do you have a web site ... but you suggest that people consider communicating with family members and neighbors in the event of certain separation.

what else do you recommend that people consider doing? >>take a community view. get a good communication plan said that if there is a warning to everyone you know gets it. as soon as you know there is severe weather user social media and cellular technology is to communicate to friends and loved ones and people who know where you are and follow you ... and get off the road and get out of your vehicles getting to someplace safe ... it's one of the most dangerous places to be in a serious tornado is in your vehicle ...

>>and you suggest staying clear of windows if you are inside of a building ... >>lots of homes now don't have basements if you have one use it get as low as you can if you can't get someplace small like a bathtub or put a mattress on top of you and your family it could make a difference in your protection to get through that disaster ... >>we're working with wild greens here in chicago and madeleine radio to get more of these noa weather radios to people. these radios can be programmed to turn on automatically ... we are on

may 5th getting to arlington heights at the walgreen's there to help people program the radios i'm sure you support such a program >>i have one of those radios right here ... they are loud and obnoxious but they wake you up from a dead sleep to let you know that severe weather is upon you ... even communities with sirens are hard to here with this by your bedside it will wake you up ... >>thank you craig fugate for your time and your effort in this and all that great air work that you knew at fema we'll be right back in j

and now the answer for today's trivia question: which architectural style popularized

the use of synthetic building materials such as glass plastic and steel? the answer is: art deco we are seven degrees cooler than we were 24 hours ago. we are importing that arctic air ... and those northerly winds from canada are hitting lake michigan ... the wind will be strong saturday morning. the wind will be going much of the weekend. we will be in the '30's this evening there will be subfreezing temperatures away from the lake tonight it will rise to around the 40's near the lake tomorrow ... we will be down to the twenties and

thirties across the midwest tomorrow evening and it will be cool on saturday. we're looking at that call their flirting with us saturday into sunday and then the warm air blossoms spreading into the country taking over from coast to coast by tuesday we will go back into and above normal temperature regime pushing that arctic air out of here. a welcome development ... rainfall accumulations this weekend ... we will have a batch tomorrow night and saturday and sunday in to monday ... we need to get that rain now. you can't

address these moisture deficits were in the summer arrives ... 40's tomorrow low 50s and landed same thing for saturday with rain ... we will be back into the '70s by tuesday thank-you tom skilling and thank-you for joining us today we hope you have a great afternoon remember we will be back here at 5:00 and 9:00 p.m.