I remember my first trip to Brookfield Zoo.
I was in the 4th grade.

My class took a bus there all the way from Markham. It seemed liked such a long trip.

Faithful Michael Jackson fans started flocking to his childhood home in Gary, Indiana at 4 this morning.

Samantha Moritz and her dad drove from the town of Highland, Indiana to pay their condolences to the king of pop.

Now, 15, Samantha swears she fell in love with Jackson's music at the tender age of 3. Samantha clutched a laminated photograph and autograph of Jackson. She got them during Jackson's last visit to Gary in 2003.

Ever think about getting a tattoo? Let me be the first to tell you, it's not as painful as you may think! And once you start, it's hard to stop at just one.
This weekend you can get a tattoo of your own, or just check out some inked inspiration, at the "Body Art Expo" at Navy Pier.
The Expo features hundreds of tattoo artists, from as far away as Japan, and as close as right here in Chicago.
For more information head to www.bodyartexpo.com
and if you can't make it out to the Expo, check out our behind the scenes photo gallery, at cltv.com.
Enjoy!

Ronald Holt walked into the Cook County Criminal Courts Building this morning with his son still fresh on his mind.

Jury selection soon was to get underway today for the trial of a 17-year-old accused of gunning down Holt’s16-year-old son, Blair, on a CTA bus in May 2007.

Holt expected to sit through hours of jury selection; instead, he received an unexpected surprise.

Just what is in the water being served up in Chicago City Council chambers?

For decades now, the place has been a magnetic pull for the ethically challenged.

This morning, 29th Ward Alderman Ike Carothers pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges that include bribery and fraud.

For even more creative ways to save, head over to www.mummydeals.org
which is where we found this yummy (smelling) recipe, for laundry detergent!

Stacy Peterson, Lisa Stebic, Irma Rodriguez?

Rodriguez disappeared from her Oak Forest home Sunday night.

Last night, her car was found in nearby Midlothian with a woman’s body stuffed in the trunk. The woman had been shot to death.

Your favorite "Britain's Got Talent" contestant, takes the stage in the Final Round.

I've reported on some heinous and heartless crimes over my career, but this is one of the cruelest.

Earlier this month, 15-year-old Alex Arellano's brutalized body was found in a gangway on the Southwest Side. He had been beaten, burned and shot in the head.

I’m not a political reporter, but I occasionally cover politics. I’ve talked to Roland Burris numerous times over the past two years and he always seemed like a genial person – and an honest person, at least by Chicago standards.

But this morning, I saw a very different side of the man who is now the junior senator from Illinois.

I didn't even know this existed.

A museum dedicated to my first and favorite childhood doll: Raggedy Ann.
The Raggedy Ann & Andy Museum is located in downstate Arcola, Illinois.

This morning I was disheartened to learn that the slumping economy is forcing the museum to close.

It's hard to imagine what the loved ones of Stacy Peterson and Lisa Stebic must be going through right now.

This morning, an autopsy will be performed on the badly decomposed body found yesterday by a cleanup crew on the banks of the Des Plaines River near Channahon and Interstate Highway 55.

That's an area where searchers have looked for Peterson since she disappeared Oct. 28, 2007.

Bus drivers who don’t stop to pick up passengers.

That’s the top complaint right now for the Chicago Transit Authority, according to new statistics released by the agency.

There is good news for the CTA and its riders, however -- complaints are down in most other areas.

What a Friday this has been for one Hanover Park family. Their home was devastated by a fast-moving fire earlier today, but the family of four managed to escape unharmed.

As I walked up to the burned out shell in the 2100 block of Laurel Avenue I could see what looked like a kitchen chair but not much else in the charred rubble.

I was quickly taken back to October of 2001.

It's officially Marine week in Chicago; a way to honor our local heroes.
Events are going on until this Sunday the 17th.
Check out the website below for more information.

http://chicagomarines.com/

Bristol Palin is the new teen ambassador for Candie's Foundation.

The company that makes the Candie's line of teen fashions started the foundation in response to people who criticized the "designs" of the clothing it sells to young women. The foundation's goal is to fight teen pregnancy.

In earlier interviews, Bristol Palin said abstinence isn't realistic.
Now-- as the foundation's ambassador-- she's promoting abstinence because it's the only safe choice.

So, which is it?

Red light cameras are popping up all over the city and suburbs, whether you like it or not.
Some of you may think it's just a way for the city to earn an extra buck, while others truly believe it will help make the streets safer.
Meanwhile an electronics company is working to help you spot those red light cameras, a little bit easier.
Check it out for yourself, here's their website.

http://www.cobra.com/

Yes, they're fake.

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, got FREE breast implants right before she competed in the Miss USA pageant. The director of the pageant program in California confirms-- the pageant paid for the surgery, perhaps to help increase her chances of winning. (Prejean is the contestant who believes she lost because of her answer to a question about gay marriage.)

I have no problem with anyone having plastic surgery-- none of my business really.
But-- isn't the point of a beauty contest to showcase natural beauties? Maybe, that's just too old-school these days.

Today I met with one of the nicest and most creative people I have met to date. Clair Boone.
And if you met her, you'd love her too, along with her dimpled little 14 month old.
But since chances are you won't be running into Clair anytime soon (she lives in Highland, Indiana) you could always check out her website, and do some saving.

I am an animal lover. I love them so much that, when I get tired of covering news, I just might go back to school to become a veterinarian or at least volunteer at an animal shelter.
Over the years, I have adopted everything from a chicken and green iguana to snakes, turtles and rabbits.

If you have a bag of pistachios or any product containing pistachios in your home don't eat them.

The Food and Drug Administration is warning people not to eat foods containing pistachios while they figure out the source of a possible Salmonella contamination. One big California-based producer - Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella - is voluntarily recalling more than 2 million pounds of the nuts. California is the second-largest producer of pistachios in the world.

Ousted governor Rod Blagojevich morphed into Radio Rod - serving as a guest host on the Don Wade and Roma show. As he left WLS studios, it was apparent that although Blagojevich is no longer governor, he still acts as if he is.

I really feel bad for Shaun Gayle. I also feel bad for 41-year-old-Marni Kay Yang, the woman police say killed Gayle’s pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child in October of 2007.

A friend and business associate of Gayle’s, Yang appeared in bond court this morning in Waukegan. I was seated in the second row of the courtroom. Her name was called and police led a tiny woman in blue jeans, with tussled brown, shoulder length hair in front of the judge. The prosecutor began going over the details of the case, to make a point as to why bond should be denied for the mother of three turned murder suspect.

The Olympics, they are great, everybody loves them, but do you love them in your city? Tomorrow we will see the details of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. With the Olympics comes massive construction which will make it harder to travel around the city not only in 2016, but in the years leading up. However, this time inconvenience can be offset by the sense of pride having the Olympics would bring. The real question is the question of the year, where is the money coming from?

In the proposal we may learn how the city is coming up with the $500 million in private guarantees as well as the $1.1 billion needed to build the Olympic village. Mayor Daley has said that city taxes will not pay for the games and most funding will come from the federal government, but last month Daley said the city was willling to pay for extra police used to patrol the games as well as paying for extra barriers and protection. So in this time of sacrifice how much are we willing to sacrifice for our city and national pride? Are you hoping for a good proposal and a big win for the City of Chicago or are you praying that Madrid is as good at hosting an Olympics as they are at soccer?
Please leave your comments.

Governor Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial has started in the Illinois Senate. CLTV is committed to bringing you the most comprehensive local coverage of the trial. We will bring you the events on the senate floor as they happen until the final vote is taken.

Tune in daily for live coverage or check it out anytime in our cltv.com video player.

Have something to say about the impeachment trial? Join Garrard McClendon each night at 6:30 and 9:30 to give your opinion on GML.

The holiday shopping season is officially underway. I don't know about you, but I love giving one-of-a-kind gifts to my friends and family. But I think the folks at Miller Park Zoo in downstate Bloomington are missing the mark with their idea of a unique Christmas gift.

They're actually making and selling Christmas ornaments out of...get this ...droppings from reindeer. This is no joke folks.

Turns out that staying in school makes a lot of sense for students and taxpayers.

A new study out of Boston's Northeastern University found taxpayers - get this - lose $221,000 over the course of a lifetime for each Illinois student who drops out of school.
All I can say is, wow! Now, that's money that could be in my savings account.

Spanking, swats and licks.
A quarter of a million schoolchildren got them last year - and a new study says African American, American Indians and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment.

While a majority of states have outlawed corporal punishment, it remains widespread across the south, according to the study by the Human Rights Watch. The national P-T-A believes paddling should be banned everywhere.

And I wholeheartedly agree.

Harlen Hayes is fighting for his life, after he was doused with gasoline and set on fire.

The 77-year-old landlord of a South Side apartment building, Hayes is a Korean War vet and retired postal worker. He's is in critical condition with burns to about 90 percent of his body. Police are looking for a 28-year-old man who was a former tenant. Neighbors say the man was evicted after a drug bust.

This story made me sad, angry - but also thankful that my parents are no longer in the business of being landlords.

Michael Phelps keeps finding gold at the Beijing Olympics.

The American swimmer has claimed five gold medals at the summer games so far, and he still has three more events to go.

I think his achievements in the pool are awesome and incredible.
But I also think more attention should be paid to the accomplishments of all the other talented athletes - especially those who don't win medals.

In 1996, my oldest brother, Derrick, competed in the summer games in Atlanta.
He was a Greco-Roman wrestler and 37 years old.

Greta Garbo and Monroe, Dietrich and DiMaggio.

Years ago, these icons of pop culture held influence over what did, said and thought. So much so that they're in Madonna's "Vogue".

Take a close look at the pictures above. Notice something?

They're all smoking.

Thing is, everyone who was anyone smoked in the first half of the 20th Century. It was a status symbol. Right?

I'm exhausted.

Today, I put in an honest day's work at the Chicago Fire Department training facility. I'm not the newest recruit- trust me, I could never make their cut- but today the folks at the C.F.D. were kind enough to welcome members of the media in for a glimpse and a go at the kind of exercises they perform every day.

Their regimen is certainly rigorous.

We started our day at their scuba facility, where I decked out in a "dry suit" and dove right in.

photo courtesy NY Daily News

Oprah Winfrey called it a “new definition of what diversity means for everybody.”
In an interview on her show Thursday, a transgender man who is pregnant told the nation he always wanted a child and considers it a miracle. People Magazine first picked up Beatie’s story and has a full spread on him on newsstands Friday, April 4th.

Here’s the background;
34-year old Thomas Beatie, a one time pageant queen, says he decided to become a man 10 years ago, taking testosterone treatments and having breast surgery to remove glands and flatten his chest. He says he kept his reproductive organs knowing he wanted a child one day. That one-day happened 6 months ago when his wife Nancy inseminated him using a syringe of sperm from a donor bank. Beatie says he stopped taking testosterone 2 years ago, and his hormone levels are normal. The happy couple also says their roles in raising the child won’t change. Nancy will be mommy Thomas will be daddy.

What his doctor says;
First, Beatie says he was turned down by several other doctors before Dr. Kimberly James, a doctor in the couple’s Oregon town, decided to pick Thomas up. Dr. James says the baby is totally healthy, and it is a normal pregnancy.

Arguments of course have erupted over this story.
Some are wondering if they are bringing the child into a healthy environment or will their be confusion because daddy gave birth. Others are wondering why the couple are parading themselves before the media and seeking out attention. To that, the couple has said they wanted to release the news on their own terms, instead of having it spread after the baby is born. By the way.. it’s a girl.

Whether good or bad, I want to hear your thoughts on this story.

I come from an incredibly happy family. Holidays, Birthday parties, BBQ's.. all our family gatherings are loud and very social events. So I was interested to see this new study by British and Australian researchers that shows it appears you can inherit your happiness. A researcher at the University of Edinburgh studied nearly 1,000 pairs of identical and non identical twins and found genes control half the personality traits that make people happy. Factors like relationships, health and careers are responsible for the other half.
Researchers say, "It appears people with positive inherited personality traits may, in effect, also have a reserve of happiness to draw on in stressful times."

Especially in a career like this one, I've often noticed in times of higher stress people metabolize their anxiety very differently. While some are able to plow forward and work harder, others allow their stress to bubble up and over.

Take a look at how you handle stressful situations and how happy you are. Are your family members behind it, or do you think every person writes their own path to happiness?

Well he may not be too happy with it, but it appears Governor Blagojevich is poised to sign the bail out plan for Chicago's mass transit. It's going to raise sales and real estate taxes in the area, but it will keep Chicagoland’s transit moving.
Now there is finally some positive movement to get this long drawn out transit saga under control. What is wrong with this state? I say that more as a rhetorical question. I'm from Chicago but being in news I have moved around to a half dozen states in the last 12 years reporting on state government and I am dumbfounded at how money in the state of Illinois is handled. We live in one of the largest city's in the U.S. our sales tax is already enormous and still our local and state leaders cannot find money to keep public transportation, which I'd argue isn't that great to begin with, a float. It seems crazy to me; transit problems, the state budget, the county budget, the city budget, and just about anything else where money is involved take so long for our politicians to agree on. Given the number of people who live here and the amount of money in taxes we all pay, shouldn't there be enough? There seems to be enough money in other cities, with less people and arguably better public transportation.
Why can't Chicago model its Public transportation after Washington D.C., New York, or London? In London you pay for public transportation by zones. Why would that be so hard for Chicago? It only makes sense for someone traveling from Rosemont getting off at Clark on the Blue line, to pay a little more than someone getting on at Grand. And what about O'hare? Why not leave everything the same and jack up prices to O'hare? Make it a $5.00 ride every time, with a special pass for O’hare employees to pay normal fare routes. Five bucks is still cheaper than a 30-dollar cab ride or paying to park.
I agree special concessions should likely be made in those cases of the elderly, disabled, and for students. But I venture to guess many CTA riders wouldn't mind paying a little more if it meant things showed up on time, and were occasionally clean.
At least with the new legislation things will still keep showing up. And we’d like to think it couldn’t run the way it is forever, right?

As we ring in the 1st day of 2008 some are already making and breaking resolutions,
I have never been a fan of resolutions. I don't trust myself to keep one for an entire year so instead of setting myself up for failures, I like to set up "guidelines" at the beginning of every year. They are simply little mini-goals I would like to catch in the days ahead; things like getting more involved in the community, finishing a half marathon in an hour 50 minutes, maybe dropping a few pounds. I admit even my mini-goals sometimes fall a bit short. So I am tasking you readers to come up with real solutions to help people reach the difficult resolutions many often fail to meet. Resolutions including things like weight loss, smoking.. you know the toughies, and often most crucial.
The good news for all of you who have already broken, or have yet to make your New Year's Resolution, the New Year doesn't begin on January 1st everywhere only in cultures which use the 365-day solar calendar. So if you've already fallen off the horse.. another will gallop into another culture soon!

My last internet gift should arrive Christmas Eve.. whew!
That said.. a lot of stores are staying open late, or around the clock to accommodate us last minute shoppers.
Who are the real last minute shopping scrappers? Post your down to the wire stories! We want to hear how close you cut that Christmas deadline.

Okay..
Forbes.com just released its list of Hollywood's most Influential Infants. Which almost seems like it should be an oxymoron to me, but whatever.. here goes.

5. Pax Jolie-Pitt
4. Sean Preston Federline
3. Zahara Jolie-Pitt
2. Suri Cruise
1. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt

The countdown is based on A-list babies with the most effect on pop culture, and was whittled down by the number of press clippings and consumer appeal. Oh.. and of course they had to be under the age of 5 which is why Forbes says Maddox Jolie-Pitt didn't make the list.
A fascinating or freakish study.. You decide.

You're probably wondering where I've been. Well I haven't been on vacation, that's for sure. I've been working on a special project, our annual "Chicago Magazine's Chicagoans of the Year" program. The honorees this year are fascinating. This is my 2nd time doing this show and each time I finish, I feel like I should be doing more to help others. The magazine version of the program will be on magazine stands soon. And CLTV's version begins airing on December 22nd. We're in the process of editing it now. In the meantime, here's a peak at the cover shot for the magazine story.