CLTV's got you covered today with the latest on the big snow storm moving through Chicagoland. Even though it's expected to move out this afternoon, the storm will dump close to a foot in some places when all is said and done.

So turn to CLTV whenever you need information about the storm. We've got weather reports every ten minutes, all your school closings, reports and video from the city and suburbs and your photos and video. We'll tell you when the sides streets get cleared and if there's more on the way. And, we'll have it for you 24 hours a day.

To post a video of what it looks like in your neighborhood, go to chicagolive.com . To send us a photo, email it to cltv.desk@tribune.com.

If there's a major situation in your area, call our news tip line at 630-368-2588.

Join CLTV for live coverage of the Illinois primary starting at 6pm on Tuesday, February 5th. We'll have all the latest national primary results and keep the focus on local races important to you.

There is an unprecedented amount of interest in this year's presidential race, and the Chicago area is lucky enough to have ties to the two Democratic candidates.

CLTV's coverage will be anchored by Amy Rutledge and Tonya Francisco with UIC's Dick Simpson providing commentary. We will be live from several locations including Barack Obama's headquarters (we hear he will be there), and the Cook County Board of Elections where they will be handling an estimated record turnout for a primary.

We will also provide extensive coverage of the Cook County State's Attorney race (there are 6 Democrats!) and the 14th Congressional District race to fill the seat held by Dennis Hastert. Our camera crews will also capture Hillary Clinton and John McCain supporters as they watch the evening unfold.

Guests joining us throughout the evening include former Governor Jim Edgar, Senator Dick Durbin and Roland Burris. And, we'll hear from reporters at the Chicago Tribune about the races they're covering.

CLTV will have the results on our screen for all the local races just as soon as they are available. We will be the only television source for extensive coverage of local races early in the evening.

So please join us. We will want to hear from you during the broadcast about what's on your mind as you watch the returns come in. You can send an email to cltvdesk@tribune.com if you have questions.

CLTV is the place to be for Illinois primary tomorrow night. We've got a great list of guests including Andy McKenna, Roland Burris, Danny Davis, Jim Edgar, Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Senator Dick Durbin. Dick Simpson and reporters from the Chicago Tribune including Clarence Page will be providing commentary and analysis all night.

You can find primary preview stories on cltv.com including a profile of the six democratic candidates for State's Attorney, a look at how county and city officials think they'll handle a record turn-out and profiles of Clinton's days in Park Ridge and Obama's stint as a community organizer in Chicago.

Here are some of the primary stories we've been running:

+++UPDATE+++
TINLEY PARK POLICE ARE HAVING A 4PM NEWS CONFERENCE TO UPDATE THE MEDIA ON THIS CASE. CLTV WILL HAVE LIVE COVERAGE.

This weekend, CLTV was the only station to provide continuous coverage of the terrible shootings in Tinley Park that killed five women as the story unfolded.

Today, we are closely following developments including the search for the gunman, family reaction and village reaction.

We spoke this morning with the family of Rhoda McFarland, the Lane Bryant store manager. We are also checking to see if Tinley Park police will have another news conference, and answer questions about a sixth victim who is assisting in finding the suspect.

Here is Sunday's news conference:

Stay with CLTV as we bring you all the very latest developments.

From the Chicago Tribune:

The killer of five women at a Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park made sexual advances on at least one of the victims before the slayings and may have targeted a women's shop to avoid confrontation with men, a source said Monday.

The gunman entered the store after 10 a.m. Saturday and chatted briefly with some of the victims before announcing a holdup, and may have initially feigned that he was making a delivery, sources said.

He then took the women to a back room and bound them with duct tape he had brought with him, a law-enforcement source said. He said that before the shooting began, the man made advances toward one or more of the women.

On Tuesday, Tinley Park police finally acknowledged after two days that there was a sixth victim of the shooting who survived:

Here's the Tinley Park news conference from yesterday:

Press conference from Monday

Stay tuned to CLTV for the very latest on this story.

The polls in Illinois close in another two hours. We have just started our primary coverage and we will go wall-to-wall until the results are all in. We will also have the latest on the forecast where some models are projecting a record snow-fall.

We're live at Senator Barack Obama's headquarters at the Hyatt downtown, Cook County State's Attorney candidate Larry Sufferdin's headquarters at Harry Caray's, the Cook County Board of Elections and at the headquarters of Jim Oberweis who is running to replace Dennis Hastert.

Here's video from earlier today of Obama voting in Hyde Park:

Unedited video: Obama arrives at polling place


Unedited video: Obama votes in Hyde Park

Check the bottom of the CLTV screen for school closings starting at 7pm. There are already quite a few. Or, go back to our home page and click on "School Closings" on the left hand side of your screen.

CLTV is providing continuous coverage of the winter storm which is expected to attack Chicagoland with a vengeance this afternoon, making for a tough evening commute.

The National Weather Service earlier upgraded the amount of snow it expects the storm to bring, forecasting more than a foot in areas north of the city and up to 8 to 9 inches in Chicago, meteorologist Rich Brumer said. A winter storm warning was expanded to include southern parts of the metropolitan area, including Will County and Lake and Porter Counties in northwest Indiana.

Update from the Daily Southtown this afternoon:

Woman's 911 call enraged Tinley Park gunman

The killer of five women last week inside the Lane Bryant store became enraged when he overheard the store's manager on her cell phone with a police dispatcher, a source said.
The gunman, still at large, shot the manager Rhoda McFarland twice and shot five other women with a .40-caliber semi automatic handgun, according to a law enforcement source.

From today's Tribune:

Mourners filling the pews at the first funeral for victims of the Tinley Park store slayings were grief-stricken Thursday as they dealt with the loss of a counselor whose office was known as a haven for troubled students.

Carrie Hudek Chiuso would guide students at Homewood-Flossmoor High School through their problems with a mix of patient understanding and tough love. Her warm smile was known across the school where she coached the golf team and became a certified bus driver to take students to volunteer projects.

Her violent death Saturday left the community in shock and looking for answers.

Gaynor Hall's story from Thursday:

We are still waiting for a sketch of the suspect. There is a media briefing each day at 11am so we should know soon if this will be released. Police are apparently taking it easy with the survivor who is obviously very traumatized by her experience last Saturday.

One of the big surpises from Tuesday night was the victory of Anita Alvarez over her Democratic rivals. She earned the right to go up against Republican Tony Peracia in November for the Cook County State's Attorney top job.

CLTV's Political Reporter Carlos Hernandez spoke to both candidates:

It's here. Pothole season. The conditions are perfect for them to spring up on roads all over Chicagoland. Mayor Daley says crews are working as fast as they can. Businesses that sell tires and rims are over the moon, flush with customers wanting their services.

CLTV Regina Waldroup takes a look:

The recent shooting at the Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park raises an interesting question. How much does the public need to know about what happened that fateful day?

Right after the shooting, police were extremely tight-lipped. All the media was told is there was a shooting, 5 women were dead and police were searching for the gunman. There was no description of the suspect, no motive, no details about the crime itself, nothing. But over the course of a week, it leaked out a 6th woman had survived, one of the women had been fondled, two of the victims walked in after the robbery started, the women were shot execution style, etc.

Of course as journalists we want to know everything right away, who, what, when, where, why and when applicable how many? But Tinley Park police believe they needed to hold back the details so they wouldn’t blow the search for the suspect. That leaves the public in the middle. People, especially those that live in the area need to be assured that the shooter won’t strike again. They also need to feel comfortable leaving their homes and sending their children to school.

So where should police draw the line? Do they tell everything they know about the crime right away to put the public at ease or do they hold the information close to vest to protect their investigation? As a journalist I think my answer is obvious (tell it all) but as a victim or the family member of a victim I want to make sure there is justice for my loved one. So again I ask, how much is too much and how much is not enough?

A colleague sent me this email asking what should she do. To help you understand the context of her question you should know she’s African-American.

I took my watch into the Chanel Boutique on Michigan Ave last Thursday to have some links removed. The store director took my watch, but without reading the serial number or examining it... she looked at me and said 'this can't be real.' I immediately let her know that she was not only rude, but wrong. I got on the phone and contacted their corporate office and reported the incident. Customer service wanted to send me some parfum as a gift. Instead, I asked to meet with the CEO of Chanel and told them that I could be in NYC in 24 hours. Before, I left the store, the director apologized and admitted that she can't authenticate watches. On Friday, the VP of Chanel Boutiques USA called to find out what happened and to lure me back to as a customer. I'm not sure that he can do much to change the situation, but moving forward, their employees need diversity and sensitivity training. And I need to feel good about carrying my Chanel handbags and wearing my watch again. As I told the VP, I'm sure that this is not the first time that a black woman has walked into the boutique and left with a bad experience. I just happened to be the one that demanded better treatment.

What do you think? Is reporting the incident to the corporate office enough? Should she do more? If so, what?

The Democratic presidential race is bringing this age-old question up again.

The Associated Press reports:

Clinton's camp has perceived sexism in comments about her appearance and emotions. Supporters of Obama have complained about racial overtones in remarks about his Muslim-sounding middle name, Hussein, and his acknowledged drug use as a young man. Beyond the back-and-forth between a white woman and a black man seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, the situation has created a snapshot of the nation's sensitivity — or lack thereof — to certain kinds of comments.

It’s interesting to note this debate dates back to the late 1800s.
Freed slave Frederick Douglass and women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton sparked it. Stanton was outraged that black men were able to vote after the Civil War (even though the “privilege” didn’t last long) and women weren’t.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Frederick Douglass

Stanton declared it to be a “serious question whether we [women] had better stand aside and see Sambo walk into the kingdom [of civil rights] first.” Douglass fired back arguing the horrifying treatment black men endured as slaves entitled them the right to vote before women.

None of the scholars or intellectuals of that time or this have been able to definitively settle the debate. But political correctness has certainly shunned one more than the other leaving us with the question: Is it more acceptable to make a sexist remark than a racist remark?

CLTV will be the place for the most updated information on the Northern Illinois Shootings in Dekalb. We will catch you completely up to date on the investigation, the victims, the shooter Stephen P. Kazmierczak and reaction.

This morning, we took two news conferences live -- here's the one with Northern Illinois and law enforcement officials:

NIU President statement from morning press conference


NIU Police Chief statement

We are now waiting on a news conference with Governor Blagojevich after he meets with NIU officals. This is expected to happen around 1:30pm. We will also have a fresh report from Regina Waldroup on the investigation and Judy Wang who attended a news conference by Kishwaukee Community Hospital officials.

For more than 10 years now I've reported on tragedy and triumph--both small and large.

The shooting at NIU, by gunman Stephen Kazmierczak, hits home.

I have several friends and family members who've been students at Northern.

My college mentor, Allen May, a former television reporter who now teaches journalism at NIU was on campus during the shooting.

I called him just seconds after the first reports.

As he rattled off what he had heard from campus officials and from his own students outside, his voice--for the first time since I've known him--was shaky. You could tell that this seasoned journalist was unsure for his safety and, perhaps more importantly, for the safety of his students.

Kazmierczak, the 27 year old former NIU student, didn't just take six lives during the horrible shootings at Cole Hall; he took away the sense of security that many feel while they're on a college campus.

Because Steve Kazmierczak killed himself, we may never know what his intentions were. This is a guy who was a student himself-- even teaching as a graduate student at NIU last year.

He barged into a lecture hall and opened fire. Daniel Parmenter, Catalina Garcia, Ryanne Mace, Juliana Gehant and Gayle Dubowski were shot and killed.

Does this point to another case of the mental health system dropping the ball, such as in the case of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho?

Do we blame someone who may be mentally ill for carrying out such despicable acts?

As the investigation continues into what led up to the NIU shootings and the healing begins, I hope that leaders also take a look at how we can help those people,so sick, that they feel to end their lives--they must also take the lives of innocent people.

Hello CLTV News readers. This is Marcus Leshock - host of the "metromix" entertainment show here on CLTV. I attended NIU from the fall of '99 until the winter of '05, earning both a B.A. and M.A. in Communication.

As a communication major at NIU, I spent a lot of time in Cole Hall. Everything from Math courses, to Geology lectures, to my very first NIU class - COMS 356 - a lecture on the history of film taught by Dr. Jeffrey Chown. Cole Hall was once looked at as an old, stale lecture hall. Yesterday it became a building of worldwide significance. I've been reading a lot of media reports about the building that seem to differ from my memory. Here's a description of the Cole Hall that I remember.

It's a big building which is most often entered from the rear. You're looking at the rear section in the photo above. Once inside students have the option to enter two seperate, large lecture halls, each with roughly 200 seats. Each set of lecture hall doors lead to an aisle that goes directly down to the stage, creating three seating sections in each lecture hall. This is where other news outlets are getting it wrong with their 3D animations. There is no long center aisle, rather two side aisles leaving a large chunk of seating in the center and two smaller sections of seating on the sides.

The chairs are older and a mustard yellow color - bucket seats made of plastic material. Each chair has a small flip-up desk for writing notes. When sitting in the chairs you face the stage where professors or graduate assistants lecture students. Courses taught in Cole Hall include mathematics, sciences, communication, and more. Backstage there is another door - the door 27 year-old Stephen Kazmierczak burst through to come on stage.

By entering from backstage, Kazmierczak appeared in full view of the class. This also gave students the ability to run up the exit aisles and disperse through the rear of the building. Had Kazmierczak entered through the rear doors he would have encountered students facing a different direction, forcing them to rush towards the stage. Given that many students are probably unaware of the exit door behind the stage, this could have led to even more hysteria and carnage.

Outside in the center lobby of Cole Hall there is a large corridor that was recently remodeled to include an elevator. Near the front of the hall there is a door that leads to a small screening room that seats 20 people or so.

While earning my M.A. in Communication from NIU I worked as a graduate assistant, teaching a lab section of a field production course. I spent a lot of time with my students in the basement of Cole Hall - home to the COMS department's photojournalism lab. This is where students would check out still photography cameras, learn how to use them, or utilize their dark rooms to develop film. I cannot imagine the feelings of confusion going on in the Cole Hall basement as this incident was occuring.

More thoughts to come....

Hello readers, my name is Matt Knutson I produce CLTV's entertainment show "metromix." I graduated from NIU in '05 with a B.A. in Media Studies and a minor in Journalism. I also worked at the student newspaper, the Northern Star and television station, Northern Television Center.

Four members of our metromix staff are all NIU alumns, and the events that transpired yesterday have hit all of us with heavy hearts. At the same time I haven't been more proud to be affiliated with the school and its media program. The compassion in which the administration & students handled the situation makes the shooting easier to deal with at least from my perspective.
CLTV interviewed my former advisor at the newspaper Jim Killam who said his student reporters were anxious and willing to put themselves in harms way as the events unfolded around 3:00 p.m. Thursday. Watching those same reporters last night do interviews with local and national media outlets you would never have known they were amateurs, they carried themselves as professionals. It's that kind of determination that was engrained in me during my time in DeKalb.
Yeah, it may be dubbed a "suitcase school" but there is a community there that's showing everyone of its colors before the world.

For more information and perspective from the students I would reccommend reading their special edition on the shooting.

Thanks for your time,

Matt Knutson
metromix Producer
NIU Alum

The email I posted last week from my colleague Marion (not Marion Brooks from Channel 5) about her disheartening experience at Chanel on Michigan Avenue generated a huge response. She also sent the email to colleagues and friends around the world, who in turn wrote several letters to Chanel. Here's an update from Marion:

I received a letter from the Senior VP of Retail/Boutiques. After offering some form of remedial action toward the store director... along with re-issuing their policy handbook against discrimination and launching a company-wide diversity campaign, there's some work that needs to be done. While, the letter did offer an apology for the incident, it didn't offer specifics.

Never-the-less, the President of Chanel along with the Sr VP wants to talk to me and get my input as they move forward with their changes. I'm working with an advertising executive on suggestions resulting in measurable changes, including opportunities for Chanel to meet their clients of color... face-to-face. We [all] know that black women are spending a large amount of money on Chanel products, but we're not part of their advertising campaigns or corporate offices. This could be an opportunity to change all that.

Instead of a phone conversation, we'd like to meet with the Chanel executives in NYC and offer solutions that work for everybody. We'd also like to offer a dollars and sense approach. This is where you can help us... can you send an email out to every woman that you know who buys Chanel cosmetics, handbags, fragrances, fine jewelry, etc. and ask them to give an estimate on how much money (and where... states) they spend on Chanel products in any given year or over the last 5 and let me know? I think that we have to let them know that the face of the Chanel consumer is changing. And their attitudes must reflect that change or their bottom line suffers.

Feel free to post your thoughts. Marion and plenty of others, including Chanel want to hear them.

As this week gets started and people begin to get back to a normal routine, I wanted to take a moment and share my condolences with all the family and friends of the NIU shooting victims. The first of 5 funerals was held today. Hundreds paid tributes to Catalina Garcia as she was laid to rest in a pink coffin inside a Cicero church. The soft color such a shocking reminder of the very young life cut way to short. You can find details on services for Gayle Dubowski, Julianna Gehant, Ryanne Mace, and Dan Parmenter at www.chicagotribune.com.

For weeks, months, and likely even years to come many will be asking what led Steven Kazmierczak to this senseless shooting. Was it a mental health issue? Could stronger gun control legislation have changed the outcome? Did he slip through the cracks? I realize his family has lost and are in pain as well, but in this time and place he had some 'choice' in what happened on Thursday February 14th, the five victims did not. So for the time being, lets concentrate on remembering the victims, and what was taken away so tragically.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts about the victims here, whether you knew them or not.

February is Black History Month. To mark the occasion, CLTV has put together several vignettes celebrating African-Americans, past and present who have inspired people on our staff. Some of the inspirational heroes you will recognize, others are only familiar to the person they touched. The powerful 30 second clips will be airing throughout the day on CLTV for the rest of the month. To see all of them, go to www.youtube.com/cltv. Click on the Black History Month tab and check them out.

Men say it's one of the most difficult things to do. They say it takes a lot of courage to ask a woman to marry him. It's a very vunerable moment for them. They're pouring their heart out and laying it all on the line in hopes the woman will say, "yes!"

This poor guy was dealt a crushing blow. Not only did the woman say no, she said no in front of a huge crowd at the Houston Rockets basketball game. Check it out!

Why didn't he try to find out how she felt about him before he put himself on the line like that?

Being asked to be a bridesmaid is a thrill, at first. The closer you get to the “big day,” the nuttier the bride gets, hence the nickname “bridezilla.” Now comes word that some brides are asking their bridesmaids to sign contracts promising not to gain weight, get pregnant or change hairstyles before the wedding.

According to a survey of 1,000 women by “You & Your Wedding” magazine, one in five brides are worried about bridesmaids letting them down. And despite the fact that 61% of brides picked a best friend to be a bridesmaid and 49% chose their sister, 48% would get rid of them if they didn’t stick to the rules.

I think brides who ask their bridesmaids to sign a contract like this have lost their minds. It’s bad enough that you have to buy an expensive dress that you will never wear again and the shoes to go along with it. Not to mention plan bridal showers and bachelorette parties and come up with a gift for the couple. And on top of that, you have to play along with the bride’s whims of how to wear your hair and what jewelry to wear.

Having only been a bridesmaid, never a bride I may have a limited view. But any bride that thinks a friend or family member is going to sign a bridesmaid contract, is probably going to end up getting their feelings hurt.