A traffic incident left three dead in the Southwest Side Brighton Park neighborhood early this morning, police said.

About 12:30 a.m., a vehicle hit a light pole in the 3000 block of West 47th Street, according to police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.

Three people were killed, Alfaro said, although he did not know ages or genders.

The Chicago Fire Department did not transport anyone as the victims were dead on the scene, a spokesman said.

The Cook County medical examiner's office had not been notified as of 1:45 a.m.

Major Accidents Investigation Unit is investigating.

Illinois State Police and Chicago Police searched for a suspect on the Kennedy Expressway late Thursday, temporarily affecting service to the CTA Blue Line.

About 10:14 p.m., ISP District Chicago police were asked to assist CPD in finding a suspect from a home invasion in the Northwest Side, according to a State Police master sergeant.

Police responded to the Kennedy southbound at West Montrose Avenue, he said. There were no lane closures and traffic was not affected, according to a trooper.

At 10:10 p.m., Chicago police started chasing a male suspect on foot from the 4600 block of West Montrose Avenue, according to police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.

The suspect ended up at the Blue Line, temporarily shutting down service, but managed to evade police and was not in custody as of 11:40 p.m., Alfaro said.

Alfaro did not immediately know any details about the suspect.

State Police concluded their assistance just before midnight, the trooper said.

Albany Park District police confirmed the search had ended and that no one was in custody.

During the police activity, service on the Blue Line O'Hare branch was suspended between the Harlem and Belmont stations.

During the shutdown, trains were operating in two sections, between the O'Hare Terminal and the Harlem station, and between the Forest Park Terminal and Belmont station.

Shuttle buses were used to provide connecting service through the affected area, according to the CTA Web site.

--Caroline Kyungae Smith

Season ticket prices to jump an average of 20 percent for coming season

Tribune exclusive: The Stanley Cup winners had capacity attendance, along with record merchandise sales, television ratings and sponsorship revenues. But financially the team was a loser. One consequence: Season ticket prices will increase an average of 20 percent.

Mary Schmich: It's not every day you can stroll down a Chicago sidewalk and think you've been magically zapped to Paris. But a new bike-sharing experiment here echoes a program in the French capital.

A House panel outlines 13 counts against the New York Democratic lawmaker, whose political career spans 40 years.

Rep. Charles Rangel of New York was charged Thursday with 13 counts of violating House ethics rules, placing the Democrat's storied, 40-year political career in jeopardy.

The village of La Grange and three community leaders have been sued in federal court by the bank and property management firm that worked unsuccessfully with a Berwyn businessman to open a pawn shop in downtown La Grange last year.

Oxford Bank and Trust, with corporate offices in Oak Brook, and Fifth Avenue Property Management, with corporate offices in California, filed the lawsuit earlier this month is U.S. District Court in Chicago.

They claim in the suit that their constitutional rights were violated when the village refused to issue Andrew Grayson a building permit and amended a zoning ordinance to exclude pawnshops following the public outcry that arose after the village had initially granted him a business license to operate All-Star Jewelry & Loan. The shop would have been in a building at 71 S. La Grange Road, next to the Village Hall.

The lawsuit contends that Village President Elizabeth Asperger; Village Manager Robert Pilipiszyn; and Michael LaPidus, former president of the La Grange Business Association, conspired against the proposed pawn shop operation and therefore cost the two business enterprises proceeds. The building remains unoccupied.

A lawsuit against the village last year in Cook County Circuit Court by Grayson was dismissed.

The federal lawsuit is seeking in excess of $75,000 for all monetary losses suffered by the two firms and punitive damages.

Attorneys for the village and the businesses could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

--Art Barnum

A 16-year-old McHenry County boy died Thursday at a Chicago-area hospital following a skateboarding accident earlier this week, authorities said.

Alexander Baer, 16, of the 1900 block of North Woodlawn Park Avenue in unincorporated McHenry County near McHenry, was pronounced dead at 2:46 p.m. at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, two days after he was taken to the hospital following the accident, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

McHenry Fire Department and McHenry County Sheriff's officials were called to the scene of the accident on Tuesday, within walking distance from where the teen lived, a fire department official said.

Family members were not immediately available Thursday night and there were no details of the accident.

A McHenry Police Department sergeant said the sheriff's department is investigating.

Sheriff's department officials could not be reached.

-- Serena Maria Daniels

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted a video edited in a way that made her appear racist.

In 2003, doctor's patient said he assaulted her, but it took four years and more complaints by women before he was charged or reviewed by state regulators

A 17-year-old girl reported to Berwyn police in 2003 that her doctor, Ricardo Arze, had pulled off her clothes and sexually assaulted her in his exam room, state records show.

In 2003, doctor's patient said he assaulted her, but it took four years and more complaints by women before he was charged or reviewed by state regulators

A 17-year-old girl reported to Berwyn police in 2003 that her doctor, Ricardo Arze, had pulled off her clothes and sexually assaulted her in his exam room, state records show.

The Blackhawks ended their season with capacity attendance and record merchandise sales, television ratings and sponsorship revenues, and the Stanley Cup.

But financially the team was a loser.

Exactly how much money was lost is something team executives will not discuss.

One consequence: Season ticket prices will increase by an average of 20 percent this fall, which is projected to rocket them from the second-cheapest in the National Hockey League three seasons ago to among the 10 most expensive, according to the team. And fans should expect "more modest" increases in the future, team owner Rocky Wirtz said.

Wirtz first revealed that the team was not profitable in private. "It's going to take four (or) five years before we can actually get back in the black," Wirtz said at an April 19 forum at the Economic Club of Chicago, according to a transcript. "And right now we're still supporting the Blackhawks with our other Wirtz organizations."

In a follow-up interview this week, Wirtz said that the Blackhawks ran out of cash several times last season. Each time, he received a memo, known as an internal capital call, in which the team requested money from Wirtz Corp., the Blackhawks' parent company, to cover operating expenses. And at the end of the season, Wirtz said he double-checked that the playoffs did not cover those losses; the franchise remained in the red, the team's accountant told him.

"We have multiple businesses and obviously we want  every one to stand on its own," Wirtz said. "And what you don't want to do is manage one business from the profit of the other one."

But Wirtz pledged he would never revert to the penny-pinching ways of his father.

"We're going to do everything we can to win," team President John McDonough said. "We want this to be a destination for free agents. We want this to be a place where players want to play. ... We're going to charter our players (to away games) and we're going to stay in hotels that are going to be synonymous with a first-class operation. When Rocky and I first met, we talked about this commitment."

The team now typically lodges at the Four Seasons. Even last season's interns will receive championship rings.

The Blackhawks and its parent company, anchored by a lucrative liquor distributorship, are privately owned, so the Chicago Tribune cannot access their financial data. However, the last time a member of Wirtz's family discussed specifics, the numbers were not flattering.

Rocky's father, Bill Wirtz, ran the team from 1966 until his death in 2007. Earlier in 2007, Bill Wirtz told the Toronto Star that he had lost $191 million on the team in the last 10 years, including $31 million in the 2006-07 season.

Rocky Wirtz said he knew the franchise "wasn't doing well because I could see (Wirtz Corp.'s) consolidated tax return." But in October 2007, on his second day in charge, he learned through an internal capital call that the team was short $6 million to $7 million for that month's payroll.

"I was naive enough to think that if we filled the building up that we would be able to turn around economically the franchise," Wirtz said. Weeks later he said he learned the team had close to the lowest average ticket price in the NHL for the 2007-08 season and the second-lowest attendance rate the season before.

Wirtz puts the responsibility squarely on his family; ticket prices were allowed to dip too low.  Last season, the Hawks' average season ticket price was the 21st-cheapest in the league, according to the team.

Since he has taken over the franchise, the turnaround on the ice has been nearly unparalleled in the history of professional sports.

It also has been expensive.

One of Wirtz's early moves as team owner was to professionalize management, hiring McDonough, then president of the Chicago Cubs. As Blackhawks president, McDonough has tripled front-office staff to 75. He has hired veterans to run business operations (Jay Blunk from the Cubs), ticketing (Chris Werner from Ticketmaster Chicago) and marketing (Dave Knickerbocker, also from the Cubs).

Last season the team upgraded accommodations, constructing a private locker room, workout facility and offices at Johnny's IceHouse West, the Hawks' practice facility. The team declined to say how much the addition cost.

But Wirtz said those costs paled in comparison to players' salaries, which reached the NHL's $56.8 million salary cap last season. The team is expected to hit its maximum again next season.

A 22-game playoff run had to have made a dent, right? Yes, but "it wasn't enough," Wirtz said during the interview at his office. "Every year has been a loss."

But Wirtz said he can see "the light at the end of the tunnel" because the team "is losing less every year."

Compared with professional basketball, baseball and football, the economics of hockey are difficult.

The league operates under a 2005 revenue-sharing agreement. The way it works is that the teams that rake in the most income, generally  regardless of expenses, subsidize the teams that generate the least.

A drawback is that it disqualified the Blackhawks, because of the size of the Chicago market, from receiving revenue sharing dollars.

The primary benefit is that it capped players' salaries -- an owner's largest expense.

"The collective bargaining agreement has been a major help, but by no means did it create a league where all teams were going to be profitable from that point forward, or even most of them, quite frankly," said Marc Ganis, president of SportsCorp, a Chicago-based sports consulting firm.

Under the agreement, the more the Blackhawks earn, the more they have to share.

For instance, the Blackhawks keep ticket revenue from their regular-season home games. But for every playoff home game last season, the Hawks had to give the NHL at least 50 percent of what their gate receipts would have been at a regular-season United Center sellout.

And gate receipts are everything in hockey. Ticket sales typically account for up to half of a team's income.

"You can technically lose money during the playoffs if you don't raise your ticket prices" for them, Wirtz said.

While the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Football League also operate under revenue-sharing agreements, professional hockey has a tougher financial road because the sport lacks broad appeal and therefore doesn't command lucrative television contracts.

The NBA, for instance, receives about $930 million per year from its national broadcasting partners.

In contrast, the NHL receives between $200 million and $300 million per year from Canadian and U.S. broadcasts. Split among the league's 30 franchises, that equals less than $10 million per team per year.

Locally, Wirtz and McDonough have made progress in increasing broadcasting revenue.

During the Hawks' worst years, the team bought airtime from WSCR-AM "The Score." Wirtz quickly moved to put Hawks' home games on Comcast SportsNet, reversing his father's practice of not televising them. McDonough declined to renew The Score deal and instead signed ones in which WGN radio and WGN-Ch. 9 paid for the broadcasting rights.  (Both WGN stations are owned by Tribune Co., which also owns the Chicago Tribune.)

Unlike baseball, "where small market teams can get revenue from both television and Internet and a number of other sources," in hockey, that isn't there, Wirtz said. "You have your gate receipt, your local TV and radio package, and that's about it."

But the Blackhawks have been able to thrive because Wirtz provides a cushion.

Wirtz Corp. includes Wirtz Beverage Co., a five-state liquor distributorship, which Wirtz said has about $1.5 billion in annual sales; an insurance business; prime real estate; two banks; a 350-acre farm;  a stake in Comcast's regional sports network; investments in Alberto-Culver, U.S. Bank, Sally Beauty Supply and The Sun-Times Media Group; and half of the United Center. The Bulls own the other half.

That means the Blackhawks' rent payments end up right where they started: in Wirtz's pocket.

And Wirtz has been able to mine all sorts of synergies between the liquor business and the sports franchise. For the coming season, the Blackhawks plan to add two more bars on the 300 level of the United Center, which are likely to include  Wirtz Beverage brands, in addition to the two bars they installed last season.

But some benefits are more subtle, such as offering clients free tickets to games and inviting them to spend intermissions at the Wirtz family's private bar in the art deco Sonja Henie Room. Marketers call it the halo effect.

"Think about how many times Rocky Wirtz's name has been in the newspaper because of the Blackhawks, and he doesn't have to pay for it," said Bill Brandt, chief executive of Development Specialists Inc. and a bankruptcy expert. "And I'm sure potential clients are going to agree to a meeting, just so they can tell their buddies they were hobnobbing with the owner who just won the Stanley Cup. Making money is the least of the Hawks' worries."

But Ganis, of SportsCorp, has a different take.

"Business people do not like keeping money-losing ventures on their portfolio," he said. "It's more than pride and ego. It's a business philosophy."

Wirtz said the plan is to increase sponsorships, the one traditional revenue source with room to grow; slowly raise ticket prices; draft well; and pay a premium for premium players so  the team can contend for the Stanley Cup every year.

But he admits that's the hard way.

The easiest way to make money from an NHL franchise, Wirtz said, is to sell it.

And he has no intention of doing that. He said he plans to leave the franchise to his children "in better shape than I found it."

--Melissa Harris

Reporter Melissa Harris talks about how she got this scoop HERE on Trib Nation.

In the wake of still-unsettled labor disputes, union workers from Chicago-area Hyatt hotels voted Thursday to authorize a strike.

The vote does not mean workers will strike. It authorizes the union's negotiating committee to call a strike if it is deemed necessary.

Read more on chicagobreakingbusiness.com.

About 100 demonstrators rallied inside City Hall today in support of a federal judge's temporary block of the most controversial sections of Arizona's immigration law.

The rally, which was part of a "National Day of Action" with similar demonstrations opposing the law around the country, also celebrated a recently introduced Chicago City Council resolution that calls for a symbolic boycott of Arizona businesses.

But the group -- led by immigration groups, elected officials and religious leaders -- cautioned the fight isn't over.

Mary Sullivan, left, is among those joining The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights at a news conference at City Hall in Chicago today to announce a City Council resolution against anti-immigrant laws. (Nancy Stone/Tribune)

"The architects of (Arizona SB)1070 and other vicious, hateful laws have not gone away," said Leone Bicchieri, director of the Chicago Workers Collaborative. "They're busy regrouping."

Some see the resolution introduced yesterday as a way to fight back.

The resolution calls for a second symbolic boycott of Arizona in two months. Like a similar resolution endorsed in June, the one introduced Wednesday calls for Chicago to reject business from Arizona companies and to limit city employees' travel to the state.

"We need to set the example for others in the country and I think this resolution does so," said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), who spoke at the rally. "This country can do better than Arizona."

-- Becky Schlikerman

Even before Gov. Pat Quinn signed landmark nursing home safety reforms into law Thursday in a room packed with senior citizens, top state officials have been working behind the scenes to implement many provisions of the new legislation aimed at ending chronic violence in the facilities.

Even before Gov. Pat Quinn signed landmark nursing home safety reforms into law Thursday in a room packed with senior citizens, top state officials have been working behind the scenes to implement many provisions of the new legislation aimed at ending chronic violence in the facilities.

60-day term to fill Obama seat and 6-year term to be on Nov. 2 ballot

Illinois voters will cast two votes for U.S. Senate on Nov. 2 — one for a senator who will serve 60 days and the other for one who will serve a six-year term — under an order issued Thursday by Gov. Pat Quinn as required by the federal courts.

Lake County officials turned out en masse today to push hard for a 40-year-old plan to extend Illinois Highway 53 north from Lake Cook Road through the middle of the county.

Complaining of "paralyzing" congestion and impatient with decades of state inaction, dozens of local leaders pleaded with Illinois Tollway directors to adopt the Illinois 53 extension.

They also made a strong pitch for a companion project, the Illinois Highway 120 corridor, which would cut east-west across the county.

"The state is broke, we all know that," said State Rep. Sid Mathias, (R-Buffalo Grove). "We don't have the money. The only way ... to build Highway 120 or 53 is through the toll highway system."

The cost of building both the Illinois 53 extension and the Illinois 120 corridor would be more than $2.2 billion, said Rocco Zucchero, the tollway's deputy chief of engineering.

Lake County's growth has far outstripped its roadway system, which lacks cross-county thoroughfares, officials said. But opponents urged caution, saying building more highways wasn't the only answer to the congestion problem.

Tollway directors are in the midst of a months-long evaluation of several potential projects. Besides Illinois 53, they have discussed the proposed western access to O'Hare International Airport, upgrading the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (Interstate 90) and constructing a new interchange where the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294) crosses Interstate 57.

Chairwoman Paula Wolfe said the agency was unsure when, if ever, it would expand the current 286-mile tollway system.

Wolfe and other directors stress that any new tollway would have to pay for itself, create jobs and spur the economy while treading lightly on the environment.

The Illinois 53/120 project is competing with other proposals, and Lake County must make its case that it should get top priority, said state Sen. Michael Bond (D-Grayslake).

The desire to extend Illinois 53 has been known since the early 1960s, and the project has been the subject of several studies. The General Assembly initially gave the tollway authorization to build the extension in 1993, but the project ran into considerable local opposition.

Foes include environmentalists who contend building a six-lane superhighway will wreak havoc on Lake County's wetlands and endangered species. Communities such as Long Grove fear the project will degrade the quality of life.

Other opponents believe arterial roads ought to be upgraded, and that attention ought to focus on mass transit alternatives instead of concrete.

The solution to Lake County's traffic congestion is "not just roads," said Michael Sands, environmental team leader for Prairie Crossing, a conservation-oriented development in Grayslake.

"We need an integrated proposal that should address environmental concerns and impact."

-- Richard Wronski

Ruth Fromer sobbed with joy at the news that her mother's cremated remains were found on Thursday, well over a week after the U.S. Postal Service lost them.

She placed a hand on the unopened package containing the ashes when it was finally delivered to her South Holland home.

"Welcome home, Mom," she said.

The urn with Mabel Bink's ashes, and a locket left to her grandaugther, after they arrived in South Holland. (For the Tribune / John Booz)

The ashes of 89-year-old Mabel Bink had been shipped from the Phoenix, Ariz., area, where Bink had been living when she died of congestive heart failure on June 18. The 20-pound package was supposed to be in South Holland on July 19, in time for the family's July 23 burial service.

But it didn't arrive. The family reported it missing to Postal Service officials in South Holland and waited. Fromer and other relatives were starting to fear that Bink's ashes would never be recovered, and she wouldn't have a proper burial.

Postal Service officials found the package at a mail processing plant in Elk Grove Village on Thursday afternoon after reading a Tribune story about the missing remains.

A Postal Service spokesman said the South Holland office had never notified the Chicago office that the remains were missing, so other regional branches weren't looking for the package. Managers at all the Postal Service plants in the Chicagoland area began searching for it after the story appeared online on Wednesday.

"How it got lost is something we're still trying to solve," said Mark Reynolds, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Chicago.

He said the postal service is still investigating why the parcel wasn't tracked properly and hopes to put measures in place so a sensitive package like this one isn't lost again. The package was hand-delivered by six postal service employees who apologized several times to Fromer, 66.

"I do believe all the media coverage sped it up," said Bink's granddaughter, Beth Biancalana, 47, of Barrington. "This means the world to us."

The package also included an urn with a gold plaque that reads "Beloved wife, mother and grandmother," as well as a family heirloom: a locket Bink's husband had given her when they were courting.

The family plans to reschedule Bink's burial service. Relatives said they haven't decided whether they'll pursue any legal action against the Postal Service.

-- Angie Leventis Lourgos

Instructor had been barred after his comments on homosexuality

An adjunct religion instructor barred from teaching by the University of Illinois after defending the Roman Catholic stance on homosexuality has been invited back to teach this fall.

The village of La Grange and three community leaders have been sued in federal court by the bank and property management firm that worked unsuccessfully with a Berwyn businessman to open a pawn shop in downtown La Grange last year.