February, 2008

If you're a young professional, chances are compact electronic devices are indispensable. Cell phones, handhelds and iPods contain your social calendar, work schedule and contact numbers.

You probably trade up to newer versions often to get the latest technology. That means a lot of old, used electronics being tossed aside. So what do you do with them?

You might throw them out with the trash, but that contributes to landfills, wastes recyclable materials, and in some cases puts toxic metals in the waste stream. So what's the greenest and most convenient way to dispose of these devices?

The answer: Take them back to the company that made them. They might even reward you for it.

"If it's a device that you recharge, then that battery is recyclable," said Mark Kohorst, senior manager for Environment Health and Safety at the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.

According to Kohorst, virtually all handheld devices and cell phones are powered by rechargeable lithium ion batteries. Many of these batteries contain cobalt, which is expensive to manufacture, he said. So it is much more profitable and cheaper to recycle a rechargeable battery made with cobalt than to toss it out.

Furthermore, some parts can be reused, which not only cuts down on manufacturing costs, but lowers the amount of natural resources that go into making new electronics. Reusing parts also keeps them out of garbage landfills so they won't be mixed in with other types of garbage, such as organic waste.

Almost all cell phone companies, including Motorola, T-Mobile, Nokia, Sprint and Verizon Wireless, have recycling programs set up for old phones. All the customer has to do is bring in the old phone to a company location. The phone is either disassembled and certain parts reused for the manufacturing of new phones, or donated to people who are unable to afford cell phones.

The same goes for Palm, Inc., the corporation behind Palm Centro and Treo smartphones. These handhelds often double as mobile phones, mini-computers with Internet and GPS navigators. Palm has a recycling program for its handhelds, phones and accessories. Its Web site provides information on how to erase personal information from these devices. Once that is done, customers should place the item in a box and attach a postage-paid mailing label (available for download on Palm's Web site), and send it off.

The old devices are evaluated, tested and ultimately sent for materials reclamation or reuse, according to Jennifer Donahue, spokeswoman for Palm. During the reclamation process, metals are safely recovered and made available for reuse, according to Donahue. The process ensures that all products sent in will not end up in a landfill or be sent to underdeveloped countries, according to Donahue. Revenues generated from the reuse of these handhelds also fund the Palm Foundation, a charity that supports educational programs.

Apple Inc. has also set up a special recycling program for iPod products that is conducted through its retail stores. Consumers who bring in an old iPod not only get rid of it in an eco-friendly way, they also receive a 10 percent discount on a new iPod purchase. Like Palm, consumers can also mail their iPods using prepaid mailing labels available on the Apple Web site.

Rechargeable lithium ion batteries are so recyclable; they're subject to recycling by law in some states.

"Even when they're not, they're collected and recycled through RBRC-Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation," Kohorst said. "This is an industry-funded, non-profit corporation that operates in the U.S. and Canada. It's funded by battery-manufacturers and device-manufacturers and exists to facilitate the recycling of rechargeable batteries."

Kohorst recommends taking a rechargeable battery to the nearest RBRC location to be recycled, provided the battery can be removed from the device. If it cannot, the entire device should be taken back to the company.

Some manufacturers are using manganese and nickel in their lithium ion batteries as a cheaper alternative to cobalt. But even then, they should be recycled, according to Kohorst.

Although there are no known toxicity issues associated with lithium ion batteries, other kinds of batteries, such as nickel cadmium batteries, are toxic and should not be disposed of in the trash. Hence, the most foolproof way to get rid of old cell phones and handheld devices in general is either to recycle the battery with RBRC or take the entire device back to the manufacturing company.

The breast cancer mortality rate for black women is 68 percent higher than for white women in Chicago, a study by Sinai Urban Health Institute found, and while the reasons for the disparity are complicated, experts said insurance is a major factor.

"Black women are two years behind," said Sharon Brown, supervisor at the Breast Imaging Center at Rush Medical College. "[Doctors] don't catch it early, and it tends to be more aggressive."

For every 100,000 black women nationwide, 34.4 will die of breast cancer. For white women that number is 25.4, according to the organization Y-Me.

In Chicago, in 2003, the last year data was available, for every 100,000 black women, 40.1 died of breast cancer, while 25.9 white women did, the Sinai study said.

"Disparities are related to having insurance or not having insurance," Kristi Allgood, an epidemiologist at the Sinai Urban Health Institute, said this week. "White women are more likely to have insurance that covers beast health, while [many] African-Americans have insurance, but not for breast health."

And those who have some insurance are ineligible for the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention Program, which provides free mammograms, pelvic exams and pap smears to the uninsured.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich expanded the IBCCP program last October by $5 million to $11 million in state dollars, to serve all uninsured women ages 35-64 in Illinois, said Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Health.

"Parts of the additional $5 million is [for] looking to expand [services] to the underinsured as well," Arnold said.

Until then, if women are on Medicaid, they can get treatment for breast cancer, but it is often difficult to find. It's not profitable for centers to treat people on Medicaid, so spaces are often limited at treatment centers for Medicaid patients, Allgood said.

"There are slots limited where they can go, and after they are diagnosed they have to find someone who will treat them," Allgood said. "It keeps going on and on. It's a huge problem in Chicago."

The quality of mammograms, doctors and care all contribute to the racial disparity in breast cancer mortality.

White women tend to go to private hospitals with better services for mammography and treatment options, while black women tend to use more public hospitals that may be lacking in quality treatment.

"The type of machines that are used, and type of radiologist reading it matters," Teena Francois, another epidemiologist at Sinai, said this week.

The Mammography Quality Standards Act of 1992 mandated image quality, but it doesn't enforce to the same extent who is reading the mammogram.

"It did a good job making sure machines are doing what they are supposed to be doing," Allgood said, "but not far enough in interpreting the image itself."

Transportation is a barrier for some because quality treatment centers are often not located in places where it's easy to get to by public transportation, Francois said.

"A woman may have to take a day off of work, and a couple of buses to get [to the appointment] only to be turned away at the door," Allgood said. "It's a big hassle and she may not come back."

Programs like IBCCP does outreach to get women free screenings.

"We host 'Women Take Charge' nights to try and make sure every woman in Illinois knows this program is available," Arnold said. "We want to provide the best care and treatment."

The program enrolled 8,500 women from last October to February, compared with last year's enrollment of 3,800 during the same time period.

"There are available services, women are just not aware," Brown said.

There is also a distrust of doctors in the African-American community, Allgood said, that dates back to the Tuskegee experiment, where antibiotics were withheld from black people with syphilis that were participating in a study.

"That trickled down through generations, you can't get rid of that so quickly," Allgood said. "People still mention Tuskegee as why they don't trust the health care system."

To lessen the disparity, issues with insurance, access to care, quality of treatment and ability to receive treatment have to be solved, experts agree.

"It's a crazy system," Allgood said. "The system is really basically broken."

With scientists bickering over the benefits or disadvantages of biofuels production, it's hard to know who to believe.

Corn ethanol, already under fire for its role in food price increases, received another blow from the scientific community when a study published in Feb. 8 issue of Science magazine showed that current production methods of biofuels may do more harm for the environment than good.

They could release significantly more carbon into the atmosphere than gasoline production, adding to greenhouse gases and global warming, the study concluded.

Such studies "may misguide policy fuel development," wrote Michael Wang, a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory, in a recent letter sent to the editors of Science.

Wang developed the software analysis tool, known as the GREET model, used in the study reported in Science. He wrote that the study incorporated a few key assumptions that, taken together, exaggerate the greenhouse gas impact of biofuel production.

Two contradictory studies reported that the production of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass resulted in a net increase in greenhouse gases of 50 percent or reduced greenhouse gases by 94 percent compared with gasoline production.

Wang, who has conducted extensive fuel production analyses of his own, noted in his letter that the recent study used outdated corn yields and assumed that crops used in biofuel production would replace cropland used to grow corn and other food crops, which is not necessarily the case.

The study "modeled a case in which U.S. corn ethanol production increased from 15 billion gallons a year to 30 billion gallons a year by 2015," Wang wrote. However, Congress capped ethanol production at 15 billion gallons a year by 2015 in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act "to help prevent dramatic land use changes."

The 2007 energy legislation, signed by President Bush in December, mandates that 36 billion gallons per year of ethanol be a part of the American fuel system by 2022. Almost two-thirds of this ethanol, however, must be derived from non-food sources, necessitating the production of so-called next generation ethanol such as cellulosic ethanol.

Next generation biofuels could be made from plants such as switchgrass and jatropha that grow on land inhospitable to food crops.

Cellulosic ethanol technology developed by Warrenville-based Coskata Inc. in partnership with General Motors Corp. could turn municipal waste, crop residues and non-food crops into low-cost cellulosic ethanol.

Go to an interactive chart comparing the results of studies analyzing the greenhouse gas impact of biofuels production

It was 9 a.m. and Zeus was standing patiently in line at a crowded downtown Chicago Starbucks, a common morning ritual for so many humans. Zeus, however, is not your typical Starbucks patron: he sports a blue vest and has four legs.

Zeus is a psychiatric service dog, a relatively new breed of service animal that works to mitigate a handler's psychiatric disabilities, such as anxiety disorder, depression or post traumatic stress disorder.

The 5-year-old shih tzu plays a valuable role for his companion, Connie Clark, a consultant who suffers from mental illness. In town on business Wednesday, she said Zeus helps her cope with an anxiety disorder and panic attacks.

"It causes me personally to kind of freeze in my environment at times, or feel like I need to run, or not recognize where I'm at," Clark said about her anxiety. "In Zeus' case, when I have a panic attack he starts tapping me on the leg or stretching out so that I will focus on him," she said.

'Psychiatric service dog' is "a legal classification referring to a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks that benefit its owner with a mental illness such as depression," according to the Psychiatric Service Dog Society (PSDS). Only people with a disability, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act, can qualify for a psychiatric service dog.

"This is something that is relatively new in the service dog world," said Pat Schwartz, the executive director of Golden Kimba Service Dogs, a Colorado-based organization that trains and places service dogs with people with disabilities.

Schwartz noted that psychiatric service dogs differ from therapy dogs, which are trained, certified pets that provide comfort and emotional well-being during visits to people in nursing homes, hospitals or other institutions.

"I coined the phrase 'psychiatric service dog' in 1997, and at that time I realized that this was going to be big," said Joan Esnayra, Ph.D., the president and founder of PSDS. The organization provides education for mental health consumers about psychiatric service dogs, advocacy, research and training facilitation.

She said most of her clients have either mood disorders or anxiety disorder, and a small percentage have psychotic disorders.

Like service animals that perform tasks for people with disabilities such as blindness, psychiatric service dogs fall under the American Disabilities Act and have the right to go anywhere that business patrons would normally be allowed to go.

On business trips, for example, Zeus flies with his owner and sits on her lap, Clark said, because she can become extremely panicked on planes.

However, some business employees and customers are unfamiliar with the ADA rules on service dogs. Clark said she has been questioned in restaurants and was stopped in her Chicago hotel when Zeus returned from a walk without his service dog vest. Clark explained that he was her service animal and pointed out that she'd been a hotel occupant all week.

"The reason that I go ahead and put his uniform on is because he's such a little dog, people don't see him as a service animal," Clark said. "And, I mean, I look physically healthy, so not knowing what the underlying factors are, they wonder why this little cute thing would be wandering around .. Zeus is not a pet while he's working."

Little scientific research exists on psychiatric service dogs' effect on their human handlers. However, Esnayra said her organization is pushing for grants that will fund clinical trials.

Esnayra points to stories about clients who have become reclusive as a result of severe panic disorder, and through the help of a service dog been able to return to society. Others battling severe depression, she said, have even called their dogs "suicide prevention."

Esnayra said she is often asked: 'Aren't these dogs acting like a crutch?'

"Is medicine a crutch? Is talk therapy a crutch? .... These partnerships are restoring people's ability to function and that's the bottom line," she said. Service dogs are meant to be an adjunct for people who still suffer debilitating symptoms despite undergoing more conventional treatments, she said.

"We have placed two with people and they do work," said Jack Giambrone of Morris Service Dog Program in Burr Ridge. However, Giambrone stresses that under the ADA, a service dog must "provide at least two specific tasks directly related to the disability."

One sector where psychiatric service dogs are becoming more widely used is among veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"My contract rate with veterans has gone way up in the last two years," Esnayra said. In fact, PSDS is planning to launch a pilot program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and will soon begin a campaign to raise $100,000 for the program.

Schwartz said Golden Kimba, too, has begun working with a New York-based program, called "Dog Tags," places service dogs with veterans.

"One of the main things is helping the veteran to be comfortable ... away from home," Schwartz said. She said they train the dogs to meet the veterans' needs and that the dogs provide a "constant, non-judgmental presence."

"It's so beautiful when you see it work," Schwartz said.

Psychiatric service dogs may not be for everyone suffering from mental illness, however. Liking dogs is an understandable prerequisite and cost is another important consideration.

Esnayra estimates that service dogs can cost around $4,000 for the first year and after that annual upkeep is about $2,000 a year. At Golden Kimba, an 18-month-old, fully-trained service dog costs around $3,000. Schwartz said they do not charge for the dog, but that the cost covers the dog's training, some veterinarian costs and two weeks of intense team training with the handler.

To learn more about psychiatric service dogs, visit PSDS at www.psychdog.org or call (571)-216-1589.

Barely a month after the Super Tuesday primaries, two congressional candidates in the west suburban 14th district are asking voters to return to the polls--on a Saturday no less.

A special general election on March 8 will determine whether Jim Oberweis or Bill Foster will be able to run as the incumbent in November when they will be vying for a full two-year term. The special election will put the Republican Oberweis or the Democrat Foster in office until at least January 2009.

The question is: Will voters turn out to grant this 8-month trial run that may or may not prove to be the start of a long-term replacement for former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert?

The answers vary.

"We would hope that at least the number of people who voted in the primary would be coming out, if not even more," said Doreen Nelson, assistant director of the DuPage County Election Commission.

Confidence in equaling the primary turnout is not as high in DeKalb County, one of the other seven counties included in the district.

"I don't see that we're going to have a huge turnout," DeKalb County Clerk Sharon Holmes said. "If 50 percent turned out I would love it. I would think that is great. I don't think that's going to happen."

Holmes said a lack of early and absentee voting has indicated the March 8 numbers won't match Feb. 5.

"We're not having that big a turnout [in early voting]," she said. "We maybe have five, six, seven, eight [people voting] a day compared to 30, 40, 50 a day for the [February] primary."

With all the voters turning out to vote in the Feb. 5 primary, which featured the presidential race, the special primary totaled more than 141,000 votes between the Democratic and Republican ballots across the district. Still, that was more than 10,000 fewer votes than the same race garnered on the regular primary ballot.

Voters were asked-but not required-to pull a regular and special primary ballot. Despite efforts to educate voters on the confusing process, Holmes said many voters just didn't get it.

"A lot of voters still do not understand why there's a second election, why we're having the March 8 [election]," she said. "People just aren't that aware."

So the drop in number of votes from the regular primary to the special primary is not surprising, but how it breaks along party lines is intriguing. While Republican candidates on the special primary ballot maintained about 96 percent of the votes they received in the regular primary, Democrats totaled just 88 percent of their regular total.

In fact, in some counties like DeKalb, Henry and Lee there were more votes cast in the Republican special primary election than in the same race on the regular primary. This contrasts with the Democratic candidates who received a lower number of aggregate votes in the special primary than the regular primary in each of those counties.

This was a result of voters selecting a Democratic regular primary ballot and a Republican special primary ballot, according to Bill Pascoe, campaign spokesman for Jim Oberweis.

"There were actually more people who asked for a Democratic ballot in the regular primary throughout the 14th district than there were people who asked for a Republican ballot," Pascoe said. "That's a shocking piece of information politically because no one's ever seen that before in the 14th district."

Pascoe has a theory as to why so many voters in this traditionally conservative district opted to vote in the regular Democratic primary.

"What appears to be happening is [Republicans] don't want to wait until November to take the opportunity to cast a ballot against Hillary Clinton," Pascoe said. "[They are saying] 'The more important thing for me to do is be able to make absolutely positive that Hillary Clinton doesn't get anywhere near the White House."

Theories about the discrepancy of votes between the regular and special primaries are just conjecture, said Don Rose, a longtime political consultant.

The breakdown of the Feb. 5 results is not the focus of Foster's campaign, which is directing all of its attention to the March 8 primary, according to press secretary Andrew Pupuy. It's clear though that Foster must improve on the number of Democratic votes cast in the special primary if he is to win the special general.

The fact that the election falls on a Saturday is a wild card no one is sure how to measure.

"Looking into my crystal ball that's really difficult to say," Nelson said. "We've not had an election on Saturday since before consolidation of elections."

Saturday elections generally produce greater turnout, according to Rose.

"It's a day off. People can do it easier," he said. "They don't have to stop on the way to work or rush in after work."

While Pascoe is uncertain who the Saturday election might favor, he doesn't think Gov. Rod Blagojevich scheduled it that way without reason.

"I'm sure Governor Blagojevich, a close Bill Foster ally, believes that the [Saturday election day] favors Foster," Pascoe said.

"What [Gov. Blagojevich] didn't obviously think about was that the day before the March 8 election Northern Illinois University goes on spring break," Holmes said. "Now do you think those students are going to be worrying about voting or being on the beach? You tell me."

NIU is located in DeKalb County. The 14th Congressional District also includes parts of Bureau, DuPage, Henry, Lee, Kane, Kendall and Whiteside counties.

I was halfway through my own interpretation of the Swan Lake ballet (with ski-boot instead of pointe) in my living room when it hit me. One foot locked into my ski boot and the other splayed outward to demonstrate the Balanchine method, it dawned on me that perhaps I was moving too fast.

Want to see global warming in action? Just visit your local botanic garden. Some plants are now thriving in places where centuries ago they froze.

"For the first time in recorded history, we're starting to see some measurable changes in the environment and the climate around us," said Boyce Tankersley, the director of living plant documentation at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. "Plants respond to those changes."

The Chicago Botanic Garden is relatively young - it opened in 1972 - but other gardens around the world, particularly in Britain, have "immaculately kept" records that go back centuries, Tankersley said. Comparing those records with current ones can offer "exciting insights into climate change," he said.

Botanists' records from the mid-19th century, for example, note instances of plants from warmer climates that could not grow in the cold English weather.

"If you follow the progress over time," Tankersley said, "then you see in the records, say in the 1960s, '70s, '90s, plants starting to [thrive] that were historically planted and froze out."

Comparing such records is not a simple task, however, when the information sits in separate collections at different gardens.

But historical records and a wealth of other plant information once split among many gardens will soon be available through PlantCollections, a free online database anyone can search. Tankersley, the project administrator, said the database should be up and running this spring.

The database will make it easier for gardens to coordinate their plant conservation efforts, said Pam Allenstein of the American Public Gardens Association. Curators will be able to learn which rare and endangered plants are growing at other gardens and exchange information on propagating those species, with the goal of building up wild populations.

"Horticulturists are involved who know how to care for these plants in cultivation," she said. "That's key for reintroducing plants into the wild."

The database includes information from living plant collections, seed banks, DNA databases and herbaria (collections of dried and pressed plants). Ecologists can use it to find out where specific plants were collected in the wild, while home gardeners can get information about the best conditions to grow a particular type of flower.

"In the past, efforts like this have focused just on staff that work in botanic gardens. They've focused on what the curators wanted," Tankersley said. "We've expanded that."

PlantCollections is a collaboration between the Chicago Botanic Garden, the American Public Gardens Association and several other institutions. The database combines the records of 16 North American botanic gardens, the Beijing Botanic Garden and the National Trust, a British conservation organization that manages more than 500 "significant gardens," said Tankersley.

The project won a $666,000 grant in 2005 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency. Several partners are applying for additional funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tankersley said, and an anonymous donor gave a grant to expand the project to include more botanic gardens overseas.

Data is stored in Google Base, a free online data depository. This removes the burden of maintaining computer infrastructure from any one garden.

"No one institution would have necessarily had the resources to organize such a project," Allenstein said. "It really does take this community approach to make it happen."

Preserving the records and allowing the public to access them is also an investment in future research, Allenstein said. The new insights into global warming Tankersley mentioned are just one example.

"Could we have guessed 10 years ago that that would be a use for these plant records? I'll bet not," Allenstein said. "I think it underscores the importance of saving these records, that this is an important piece of what public gardens can do with plant collections, to maintain these records and make them available."

The PlantCollections database contains 161 searchable data fields. Search results can be downloaded as spreadsheets or as maps of where plants were collected or are growing.

Here is some of the information you can find in PlantCollections:

Climate data
- Temperature highs and lows, snowfall, rainfall, and climate zone for each garden

Geographic and environmental data
- Where plants have been collected in the wild.
- Elevation and a general description of the environment.
- What institution collected the plant, where copies went, and which other plants were collected nearby.

Conservation
- Which plants are rare and endangered.
- Which gardens have examples of rare plants.

Information for gardeners
- "One of the questions we're frequently asked is 'Where can I get one?'" Tankersley said. "We're for the first time sharing with folks where they can get these plants commercially."
- Gardeners also can learn what techniques work best to get seeds to germinate or cuttings to root.

Ornamental characteristics
- Users can search for plants by a range of attributes, including flower color, foliage color, fruit color, height and resistance to pest and diseases.

Images
- Users can download images from the scientific image database Morphbank at Florida State University, a PlantCollections partner.

Snow and slick ice pave the sidewalks. The temperature is 24 degrees and the 22-mile-per-hour wind gusts make it feel even colder. But none of those factors are stopping about 140 runners who are meeting at a local Irish pub to run another 6 miles on a frigid Tuesday evening.

"Because we're all crazy," said Kirsten Fedderke, one of the runners.

Fedderke is running in the Six Leaf Clover Series training program with the Chicago Area Runners Association. The training group meets every week, freezing or not, to prepare for the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle.

"I need some motivation to keep coming out in the cold weather, so meeting up with all these people is a good way to kind of keep myself up to it," Fedderke.

Training Manager Mike Swisher said these group runs are all about camaraderie in the running community and keeping people motivated, especially during the Chicago winter months.

The group meets in a different Irish pub every week until the 8-kilometer run on March 30.

"We try to mix it up by doing something fun. We meet in an establishment where we can run, then have some food and drinks afterwards," Swisher said.

This week, they met at Finley Dunnes Tavern near the corner of  Lincoln Avenue and Addison Street. The runners ran as far west to Wrigley Field, then all the way north to Foster Avenue and back to the tavern.

After the run, many of them took full advantage of meeting in an Irish pub. They ordered hot chicken wings and drank pints of beer.

"That's not my idea of the best thing to do afterwards, but my friends are into it," Fedderke said.

But there are also runners in Chicago who prefer to run with nobody else around but the winds behind them and the open trails.

"I love running in the snow and I see the cold as just another challenge," said Chicagoan Michael Lobianco. He ran the Last Chance for Boston Marathon in Ohio earlier this month.

"My wife just laughs at me because I do the same thing all the time," Lobianco said. When he finds an opening in his schedule, he goes to the lakefront and runs. Lobianco, 53, is a firefighter and a father of five children but still manages to run 3-10 hours a week.

Lobianco's goal - to run in all 50 states. He has 35 states to go.

Here are some ways to avoid injuries and stay motivated in cold weather, courtesy of the Chicago Area Runners Association:

- Wear clothing with poly brands or silk wool. They pull the moisture away from your body and keep the heat in. Stay away from cotton or anything heavy.
- Shorten your stride when running. It provides better footing, especially this time of the year when the ground can be icy.
- Spend more time stretching and warming up. It is also important to stretch after the run.
- Add some cross training to your training regimen. This can include yoga and Pilates.
- Accept the fact that sometimes you'll have to train indoors. The goal is to raise the heart rate. Options include a treadmill, stationary bike or racquetball.
- Wear reflective clothing when running at night. During the winter months, there is less light. You want to be seen when running through the crowded Chicago streets and sidewalks.

Forty-two Chicago restaurants offer three-course meals this week for a fraction of regular price, in celebration of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau's inaugural Restaurant Week. The response is good, they say.

The special menus feature prix-fixe lunch and dinner meals priced at $21.95 and $31.95 respectively.

"We've noticed our reservations have greatly increased," said Chad Wunderlich, general manager at Carnivale Restaurant, a division of Fulton Catering Corp., 702 W. Fulton St. "For example, our Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday business has almost doubled. Our Sunday actually tripled this past Sunday so we can definitely tell it's helping a lot."

Wunderlich added: "I do know of people who tried to make reservations at other places [participating restaurants] and they're full. I don't think that would be happen if it wasn't for… the restaurant week in Chicago."

Krissy Schwedtmann, manager at Roy's Chicago, a unit of OSI Restaurant Partners LLC, 720 N. State St., said, "Last year we did 64 covers [customers] on Sunday, this year we did 264 covers on Sunday," she said.

"February is normally a slower month, we will be up probably about $20,000 this month while most restaurants who did not participate will probably be down this month," Schwedtmann went on. "We would absolutely be interested in participating next year."

Cathy Domanico, director of the Convention & Tourism Bureau said, "Restaurant week is something that a lot of cities do, but it's new to Chicago."

The event was created to showcase the city's rich culinary scene and to boost historically sluggish February sales. The Tourism Bureau plans for Restaurant Week to take place each February.

"When a lot of people think about Chicago dining they think about hot dogs, Italian beef," Domanico said. But Chicago is increasingly becoming known for its gourmet dining, she said, and Restaurant Week is meant to show off the city's assortment of fine dining establishments.

"We also wanted to encourage people to come out when it's a little slower," Domanico said.

"It's a time when people suffer a little from cabin fever," she said. "So this is one opportunity to get people out to explore our city and explore fine dining."

So far, the Tourism Bureau is delighted with the event's success. "The program has been so successful that some restaurants that didn't initially want to participate wanted to jump on the bandwagon," said Domanico. "Some restaurants were added late, after hearing positive responses from already-participating restaurants," she explained.

In order to participate, restaurants were required to complete a short form about their offering for the week, as well as pay a nominal fee used to pay for marketing the program. Restaurants could choose to participate during the weekdays only, or throughout the entire week.

The Tourism Bureau promoted Restaurant Week on its Web site and through opentable.com, the online reservation service.

Chicago Restaurant Week began on Feb. 22 and runs through Feb. 29. More information can be obtained by visiting the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau's Web site at www.choosechicago.com.

Louis Farrakhan's return as the head of the Nation of Islam was met with an audience 20,000 strong, cash support totaling more than $25,000 and a religious nation looking to him for solutions - none of which had anything to do with Barack Obama.

In fact, some Nation of Islam officials told the Medill News Service that they were not aware that the minister's keynote speech at the annual Saviours Day 2008 celebration would be dominated by support for the senator.

"Obama was an important factor, but this event was about making sure we were all united in our struggle" said Ashahed Muhammad, assistant editor of The Final Call, the organization's official newspaper.

"We're living here in the United States; we have the same questions and concerns as everyone else. The emphasis was on uniting the oppressed people."

But despite the surprise, Muhammad said he knew that Farrakhan planned to address a prevalent concern among members: There are some evils, internal and external, facing the Nation of Islam.

The weekend celebration, to commemorate the Feb. 26 birth of Master Fard Muhammad, the Founder of the Nation of Islam, focused on family, identity, economic hardship and the challenges that face the younger generations who will carry the nation's ideals.

The theme, "The Gods at War: The Future is All about Youth," addressed the fear that younger generations are facing a slow demise by their own hands and those who are enemies of the Nation of Islam, which Ashahed Muhammad defined as "anyone who is against justice for our people, anyone who uses manipulative tactics to keep people down. They can be any color."

Farrakhan's anticipated address capped off a weekend of workshops focusing on various topics from relationships to the mortgage crisis. And Islamic youth came out in hopes of a morale boost and unified support from the organization's members.

"I am hoping to gain a consensus with the rest of the believers across the nation," Sharifah Muhammad, 20, said during a town hall meeting at McCormick Place on Saturday.

"Minister Farrakhan always delivers as if he can read the minds of the people in the audience. He always says what we need to hear. We just need to make sure that all the believers across the nation are on the same page."

Farrakhan admitted that the presence of the nation has diminished since the 74-year-old leader underwent life-threatening surgery in January 2007 to battle prostate cancer. But now proclaiming health and stealth, he said he is ready to return and build the infrastructure of the nation.

"You know how it is when you go to the bathroom. You don't invite a lot of people in when you go in," Farrakhan said. "I wanted by the grace of God to put the Nation on the best road possible to make up true and better servants of our people . so, that internal work is still going on. But I cannot stay on the inside, when there's so much to do on the outside."

The outside work began not with a call to support Obama, but rather with a call to the members to take notice of the world around them - the part of the speech that the minister aptly titled: "The world in peril."

Citing the War in Iraq, extreme weather patterns and economic crises as signs of the end of days, Farrakhan said he is seeking to guide a nation that he suggested in his absence may not have known they were in peril.

"We see floods, drought, famine. There are new and incurable diseases, viruses and plagues sweeping across the country - this is no longer biblical prophecies," Farrakhan said. "These things are here - right in America. In just the last month, there were rare, winter tornadoes right here in the Midwest, fires, mudslides. In 2007, the U.S. experienced the second-highest level of extreme weather events since they started keeping records."

The minister continued, "We see the drying up of lakes and rivers. Every day they are reporting more and more sightings of these so-called unidentifiable, foreign objects. It's hard for America to admit that a greater intelligence, a greater technology, a greater science is in the world than anything that they know or ever conceived of."

This, Farrakhan said, led to him urging members to embrace and master the technological age and secure economic investments such as land and other indispensable resources. He criticized President Bush's economic policies, which he said will dupe members into economic turmoil.

The minister even suggested a Chinese conspiracy in the recent toy recalls that poisoned American children to illustrate the tumultuous relationship America has with the rest of the world.

"What's going on? Why is all of this happening at this time?" Farrakhan asked. "It is because, The Gods are at War. And you don't even know that the war has already started and you are being victimized right now by the arch-deceiver."

He even used recent events seen as progress in international affairs to warn members.

"A few nights ago Kosovo declared its independence. That doesn't mean anything to you. You haven't declared yours yet," he said.

That independence, Farrakhan said, would be captured by the youth if they could survive long enough.

"The country is spiraling downward," Farrakhan said. "There's a high level of stress that we see manifested in children, 10 years old, having strokes. Diabetes. Lethal obesity. Heart problems."

He also criticized hip-hop artists, whom he deemed responsible for the glamorization of sex, drugs and violence. But even some he criticized were in the audience in support of the minister's words.

Mitchell "Divine" Diggs of the popular rap group Wu-Tang Clan, who joined the Nation of Islam at 14 years old, attended Saviour's Day events, including town hall meetings at which he addressed his role in the negative effects of hip-hop on youth.

"I'm a product of moving out of the ghetto, but returning to the ghetto to refine it, to dignify it, to moralize it," Diggs said. "That's what I want [the youth] to see when they look at Wu-Tang. I want them to see we made it out as a family, we remain a family and through trials and tribulations we return as a family. And that's what makes Wu-Tang different from any other rap group."

Diggs acknowledged that there is still a lot to be done and said he supported Farrakhan with $5,000 for more programming to address the topic. He joined hundreds of others who enthusiastically gave money to the Nation of Islam to replenish Farrakhan's resources as he looks to carry out a new vision.

According to Ashahed Muhammad, this vision entails using the momentum of Farrakhan's speech in re-establishing the nation's identity. "We're not struggling for our existence; we're struggling for what it really means - to define who we are."

"People don't give their money if they don't believe in you and say: Whatever you decide," Ashahed Muhammad said. "Because of his vision, he is able to do what we can't do for ourselves. They are making a statement that I am willing to invest in the survival of our nation."

Despite a backlash over Farrakhan's speech, Ashahed said that feedback from members indicated that Farrakhan's keynote address was a success.

"He is what we call an organic leader - leadership that is not elected and placed before you, based on Democrats or Republicans," Ashahed Muhammad said. "Leadership based on the will of the people. Clearly the U.S. hasn't made him a leader. Clearly, the media hasn't made him a leader. The people have made him a leader."

I had an idea. What if the Chicago Craigslist users had a voice? What if they told me what they liked / didn’t like on Craigslist? And, most importantly, what if I didn’t have to write a column today?

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has news for you: You are not alone.

 Forty-four percent of adult Americans have switched religions at least once in their lifetime, according to a new comprehensive religion study on religious affiliation in the United States.

  The numbers show that the religious landscape in the United States is in flux, with forces like immigration, decline in birth rate and even consumerism at play.

 What it boils down to, improbably, is this:

 "Everybody in this country is losing members. Everyone is gaining members."

 That's the word from Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. At the release of the survey on Monay, Lugo said.  "It's a very competitive marketplace."

 But who are the winners and losers in this competition?

"It does appear to us that evangelical protestant tradition is still growing, but as it's growing, it's becoming more diverse," said John Green, senior fellow at the forum, in light of figures that reflect an increased fragmentation within Protestantism.

 According to the study, there are hundreds of Protestant denominations "loosely grouped around three fairly distinct religious traditions: evangelical Protestant churches (26.3 percent of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1 percent) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9 percent)."

 This diversity prompts Americans to evaluate their beliefs and line them up with a church, a trend popular especially among the young.

 Mike Niebauer, 27, is a lay pastor at the Church of the Redeemer at Northwestern University, an Anglican church that he says "tries to find the middle way between Catholicism and the evangelical church."

 Raised Catholic in rural Pennsylvania, Niebauer said that as a child, he "had never thought of Christianity as something that was a choice of mine to make."

 When he encountered evangelical Christianity in college, he began to attend churches out of a "practical sense of wanting to be involved with a community of people who are intentional in following God." He said he later found his niche within the Anglican Church.

 Niebauer isn't unique in making such a jump. According to the study, adults under 30 have a greater inclination to switch between traditions-for instance from Catholic to Protestant-than older adults.

 But Niebauer said he's aware of the downfalls of each man creating his own faith.

 "Part of it is the sense that there's this American, individualistic sense with the evangelical church where people switch denominations all the time," Niebauer said. "That is really based on the one person's decision on what is right for their life."

 For some people, that decision is to leave organized religion entirely. According to the  survey, the group showing the largest gain in "membership" was the unaffiliated, who make up 16 percent of the American population. That group includes atheists, agnostics and those who don't identify with any religion but say that religion is somewhat important or very important in their lives.

 Competition for believers is a longstanding fact of the American religious landscape, said Dr. Vincent Miller, professor of theology at Georgetown University and author of "Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture."

But the cultural acceptance of individuals seeking their own religious identity outside of a longstanding tradition is new.

"In terms of liberation, people are freer to make intentional religious choices, so they actively embrace the teachings of a religious community rather than just passively accept them because they were born into that [tradition]," Miller said.

 On the other hand, Miller added, "When religious communities become communities of choice, they become enclaves of the like-minded."

And Miller said that when dissenters flee "rather than challenging that community and going deeper into the traditions, communities harden." As a result, churches become less likely to engage their congregants' questions.

Bill Stoltzman last visited Jarosch Bakery three days ago.  He purchased the same thing he’s bought “since Jarosch opened”: sweet, crumbly slices of apricot graham cookies. 

Jarosch Bakery Inc., in Elk Grove Village, is a family-owned company with very loyal customers.  It will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year and Stoltzman, 73, expects to be there.

Despite the seemingly ever-increasing presence of chain bakeries, owner Ken Jarosch says his small business is stable.  “Our revenues are in the vicinity of $2.5 million,” he said, “The same as last year.”

“We’re a pretty well-established business, making the stuff that we make, and people like to come in and get exactly that, because they’ve been getting it for years. That’s what they want,” Jarosch said.

Case in point:  “We have five grown children, four of whom live out of town,” Stoltzman said. “The first place the four from out of town stop is Jarosch. They all have their favorites.”

Jarosch Bakery is known mostly for its custom-made, decorated cakes.  “One of the more unique ones that I can remember, because I ended up making it, was a cake for a nurse,” Ken Jarosch said. “They wanted a severed arm. And so we made a severed arm and put a band-aid on it and everything.”

The business frequently gets requests for cakes for bachelor and bachelorette parties.  Jarosch said he’ll fill some of those orders, but “generally what people are really wanting is what I would consider a pornographic cake.” 

Jarosch’s prices range from pocket change to weekend splurge.  A small Easter egg cake costs $1.55, while an eight-inch Boston cream pie costs $6.25.  A decadent amaretto whipped cream torte comes in at $20.75.

Jarosch regularly employs about 50 people. “We’ve got 25 people in the back and roughly 25 people in the front.  A good majority of those 25 in the front are either high-school kids or college kids going to a local school,” Jarosch said.

Though the bakery relies on part-time help, particularly during the Christmas rush, a number of employees have worked there more than a decade.

One woman “has been here not quite since we opened, but pretty darn close.  She’s over 45 years at this point,” Jarosch said.  “One of our managers in the back with coffee cakes is about 30 years. One other guy working on sweet rolls has been with us over 25…  The ones who haven’t been here 30 years have been here eight to 12 years, which I think is a good thing.”

Marianne Domino, head decorator in the cake department, has been employed by Jarosch for more than 27 years. When asked what convinced her to stick around, she said cake decorating satisfies her creative side.

“I just really, really enjoy it,” she said.

Jarosch is large enough that the tasks for a single product are done by separate bakers, assembly-line style, particularly with the large, tiered cakes.

“There’s somebody down there who will take the layers and put it together,” Domino said, “then it goes to another person who will ice it, and then I just strictly decorate them.”

The amount of time it takes to make and decorate a wedding cake depends on the size and complexity of design, but Domino estimates it generally takes a couple of hours.

The bakery is able to match icing colors to fabric swatches, a critical issue for any bride.

“Sometimes they’ll bring in the lace of their wedding dress and they’ll want the lace done onto the wedding cake… and that can be very detailed, with all the beading and things like that.”

Decorated cakes start at $18.25, while the wedding cakes range from $84 to about $700.

Head Baker Raul Farfan has been with Jarosch for 26 years. “Originally it was just a summer job,” he laughed. 

Jarosch estimates that he goes through about 3,000 pounds of flour and 2,000 pounds of sugar each week.  “It definitely goes up in December,” he said, “because that is by far our highest production run throughout the year.  It probably goes up by about 25 percent, possibly a little more.”

But Jarosch not only feeds its customers – it feeds the community, too.

“We live in Elk Grove Village, we work in Elk Grove Village, our kids went to Elk Grove Village schools,” Jarosch said. The bakery gives gift certificates for raffles and auctions to local theater groups, churches and scouting organizations.  It hires frequently from Elk Grove High School and has what Jarosch calls “an excellent relationship” with the school and the community in general.  “We try to help the local organizations or the local chapters because those are our customers,” he said.

Jarosch Bakery gets shortening products from Illinois-based companies.  Its cherries come from Wisconsin.  The blueberries, Michigan.  The wheat used for the flour is usually milled in Minnesota.  “A lot of our suppliers are local,” Jarosch said.  And it’s the commitment to being a presence in the community that makes Jarosch Bakery special.

Farfan said the quality is what makes Jarosch distinctive. “We use the finest ingredients.  It’s in our reputation, you can tell. When I bring stuff home people say, ‘Oh, I’ve been there, I know that.’”

Stoltzman agreed that the “quality and variety” separate Jarosch from other bakeries.

The bakery expanded in 1993, absorbing an adjacent dry-cleaning business.  The move doubled the size of the retail store and also increased production area.  “We stayed basically in the same spot, we just got a little bit wider,” Jarosch said. “The business, that is.”

Though he acknowledges more space is needed at Easter, Christmas and during graduations, he's not thinking of opening a second location.

 “Our business relies heavily on the artistic ability of our employees and the supervising of that talent,” he said, “And the fact that we’re here watching over things and making sure things are getting done is the way we want it.”

The consistently freezing temperatures this winter have kept many Chicagoans inside.  But one friend of women has not been deterred by the cold and wet weather -- the high heel.

Despite the snow storm and ice Tuesday morning, high heels came striding out in numbers, trudging stylishly through the puddles and slippery surfaces of the city's streets.

But why?

"I'm still wearing heels and it was snowing like crazy this morning," said Jillian Radke, a self-described shoe lover. "I think you should still look cute even though the weather's bad."

Many women share this view.  The month of February has seen temperatures drop into single digits and even below zero, but women have not allowed the cold to alter their style.  And shoe stores like Akira on State Street are profiting because of it.

"We've sold more high-heeled boots than anything else in the store," said Alison Barritt, manager of Akira. Barritt said 75 percent of the store's sales this winter were from high-heeled boots.

But foot fashion comes with a price tag.

"We've seen a higher percentage of shoe-related incidents among women this winter," said Dr. Neal Frankel, a podiatrist at A Foot and Ankle Centre in the Loop.

Frankel said he has seen more twists, fractures and frost bite of the feet-all caused by wearing high heels.

"Last week we had a few patients with significant frostbite," Frankel said.  "It's because they were wearing nylons and the high heeled shoes themselves are really thin and their toes are cramped, so there's a lack of circulation that led to frostbite."

Frankel said it takes just five minutes for a woman in high-heeled shoes to get frostbite if she's standing outside in weather below zero. Add damp conditions to the mix and it could happen even faster.

But not even a frostbite or fracture warning can stop some women from going out in their heels. "Women still want a sexy, sassy boot because they have to wear it all the time," Barritt said.

It seems that the high heeled fashion that Catherine de' Medici unveiled when she wed the Duke of Orleans in 1533 not only transcends centuries, but also seasons.

 "Last night I went out in heels and kept slipping and tripping," Radke said. "But I'm not going to stop wearing my high heels -- they make you feel so confident."

The body is better equipped to absorb nutrients from food than from dietary supplements, experts say. Though it won't hurt to take a daily multivitamin, eating a variety of healthy foods is a better strategy.

 "Food is put on this earth so we can eat it and absorb the nutrients," Colleen Lammel-Harmon, a registered dietitian with the Illinois Dietetic Association. "The further you go from a food source the less you're going to absorb."

 Because of this, botanicals - supplements derived from plants - are sometimes more effective than chemically synthesized pills, she said.  These include herbal tea, as well as oil from plants. The effectiveness of these products, however, depends on how they are manufactured and how old they are.

 But as effective as some are, no supplement does it all. "Dietary supplements are no substitute for a healthy diet and lifestyle," Francine Dudzinski, a registered dietitian, said at the Skokie Department of Health's monthly nutrition seminar Thursday.

 It's important to eat a variety of nutrient-dense foods in order to get all the body needs, she said.  The more "empty-calorie foods" you eat, the less likely you are to get the necessary amounts of vitamins and minerals.

 Dudzinski recommended simple changes in habit to get extra nutrients. "A handful of nuts a day - lovely.  A handful of berries a day - lovely," she said.

 Taking a few extra steps in preparing a meal could add a lot of nutrition, she added. Include tomato slices or carrot shavings on a sandwich rather than eating it plain. Or cook fresh tomato sauce for your pasta, because it has more antioxidants and lycopene than raw tomatoes. If you cook it yourself, it's also likely to have less sodium than sauce you would buy at the store.

 "We say, 'It's a lot of work.'  Now if you had a friend over, you would do it," she said. "Pretend you're your friend.  You've got to be nice to yourself."

 It's especially important for seniors to make the extra effort, she said.  That's because as people age, their absorption rate of vitamins and minerals decreases.  Seniors need more nutrients, even though it's recommended they eat fewer calories.  "That's why it's important to get nutrient-dense foods," Dudzinski said.

 Even if you are getting the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, you might not be getting all the nutrition you need, Lammel-Harmon said. These foods can lose some of their nutrients through the air if they sit too long, so supplements can be used as insurance to make sure you're meeting your dietary needs, she said. However, she stressed that supplements should not be used to prevent or treat any disease.

 A representative for Centrum, a vitamin company, agrees. "The first thing any consumer should do is try to get the nutrients and minerals that they need from food first," said a Centrum spokeswoman.  "The premise of a multivitamin from our standpoint would be to help fill in the nutritional gaps."

 Certain groups need to take care that they get enough of specific vitamins and minerals, according to Lammel-Harmon:

- Vegetarians and people over 50 should be careful to get enough B12.
 Adolescent female women, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women, should make sure to get enough folic acid and iron.
 

- Young people and pregnant women need more calcium than most people: 1,200 mg compared to the average 1,000 mg. If you're taking a calcium supplement, make sure that you're also getting vitamin D, especially if you don't get a lot of sun or have heavily pigmented skin.

 - Supplement companies have accounted for the needs different groups of people have by developing specialized formulas, but experts warn against overdoing fat soluble vitamins. Vitamins A, D, E and K stay in the body longer because they're stored in fat rather than water.  Taking supplements and fortified food on top of foods that naturally have these vitamins can be toxic in large amounts, Lammel-Harmon said.

 To avoid reaching dangerous levels, less than 100 percent of the recommended intake for fat-soluble vitamins is included in Centrum, the spokeswoman said.

 A representative of One A Day recommended speaking with your doctor to make sure what you're taking is right for you. For most people, limiting multivitamins to one per day is a good way to make sure you get the benefits without any negative effects, she said.

Taking a "gap year" - or a year between high school and college to travel, do service work or an independent study - has long been popular in the United Kingdom and Europe.

While the concept has been slow to catch on in the United States, Princeton University is taking steps to make a "bridge year" part of its university program.

Tentatively slated to begin in 2009, the program would focus specifically on public service work abroad and would be open to all admitted incoming freshman. The University does not plan to charge tuition for the program and will also offer financial aid.

While acknowledging that the Princeton idea is a good one, prestigious Chicago-area institutions seem unlikely to follow suit.

"A program like the one Princeton is considering would be very expensive," said Ronald R. Braeutigam, the associate provost for undergraduate education at Northwestern University. "My guess is that many universities will decide that the resources needed to support such a program could be used more productively in other ways, including, for example, additional financial support and programming for those students who are on campus."

Martha Merritt, associate dean for international education at the University of Chicago, said that while 40 percent of the student body studies abroad in some capacity while enrolled, there are no plans to begin a "bridge year" program.

The United States has not readily warmed to the "gap year" idea, which enjoys wild popularity in the United Kingdom and Europe. London's Observer newspaper reported that in 2006 about 24,000 students deferred their entry to university in England in favor of a year working or volunteering, usually in another country.

Jill Meyer, a coordinator at the college/career center at Evanston Township High School, said cultural reasons might be a reason for the discrepancy.

"You get in the mind frame of, 'Go, go, go, work hard and get the American dream,'" she said. "So it's like, 'Huh, take year off? That's not what we do here.' But people are realizing the value of not always working so hard- [a gap year] is challenging in a different way.

Despite the growing awareness of a gap year option, she said, it has not become popular.

"The word is out more and more," she said. "But I don't know that I've seen a spike in our students taking advantage of it."

Students who do choose to take a year off, said Meyer, are still very focused on their studies. Most plan to attend college the following year.

"I think for some students it can help provide a time to rest up before meeting the demands of college," she said. "They grow personally before being thrown in new environment."

Donna Virklan, a college counselor at Niles North High School in Skokie, agrees. The decision to take a year off, she said, depends on many factors, including parental encouragement.

"Lots of parents are afraid that if their kids don't start college right away, they won't start at all," she said. "But sometimes kids get tired and need something to reenergize them. It's a good thing to take a year off as long as you're doing something."

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Yali Derman has been through a lot in her 17 years. As a young child, she overcame leukemia once, with chemotherapy, then had chemotherapy again, radiation and a bone-marrow transplant from her brother when the disease came back five years later. She has now been cancer-free for seven years.

Celebrating hope and her triumph over leukemia, Derman unveiled the "Yali Carry On Bag" Sunday that she helped create for Kate Spade handbags.

Two-time breast cancer survivor Maggie Daley attended the emotional launch party to show her support for cancer survivors of all ages. "It reminds everybody of the hopefulness..We're really not sure why these mysterious things happen in our lives, but it is our responsibility to do the best that we can," said the Daley, First Lady of Chicago.

Friends, family and well-wishers gathered at the Kate Spade store off Michigan Avenue to support the young cancer survivor and to purchase the purse she designed, thanks to the Make-A-Wish foundation, an organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

"Yali's Carry On symbolizes carrying on, even after survivorship.  It is not only about surviving, but about thriving," Derman said

"Yes, we carry our baggage on the outside and it can be black and dark sometimes. And that is on the outside.  But on the inside, if you carry positivity and vibrance within, then that will lead to healing of the soul, and that is what surviving is all about," said Derman.

The bag retails for $325, with half of the proceeds benefitting the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

For more information about the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois or to find out how to refer a child, call (312)602-WISH or visit www.wishes.org.  For more information about the handbag, call Kate Spade (312)654-8853.

Rarely a day goes by when owner Bob Koester doesn't hear a foreign accent in his store. Located on Illinois Street between State and Wabash, the Jazz Record Mart "is pretty well-known throughout the world," he said. But even though the store's been a Chicago institution for 50 years, Koester said "a lot of people here don't know about it."

No city except New York has more historical importance to jazz than Chicago. Louis Armstrong forged his legend here, first with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, then when he recorded his legendary records with The Hot Fives and The Hot Sevens. Jelly Roll Morton and Illinois native Miles Davis recorded some of their most celebrated works here. Even today, many acclaimed artists like Kurt Elling and Patricia Barber call the Windy City their home.

But the jazz scene has been changing for quite some time, and lately it's been especially volatile.

For the past decade, the entire recording industry has been reeling from falling sales. Koester's Chicago-based label, Delmark Records, has issued landmark albums like Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound" and Anthony Braxton's "For Alto." Despite being one of the oldest independent labels in business today, however, Delmark lost $28,000 in 2006.

"We had a little party to celebrate," Koester said, "because the year before we lost [$100,000]." He added that some major labels have deleted many albums in recent years in response to poor sales. "We happened to see the sales figures for 2005...An Ella Fitzgerald record sold 100 copies. I was astounded by poor sales of Lester Young product. I felt less down in the dumps by what we're doing."

Bobby Broom, guitarist with the Deep Blue Organ Trio, said, "When I was a kid, I'd listen to the radio…and that would inform me about what I was going to buy." Jazz is scarce on the airwaves these days, and just last year Chicago Public Radio abandoned its weekday jazz programming. Many in the business say the lack of radio support is contributing to declining record sales.

More troubling has been the loss of local performance venues. The Deep Blue Organ Trio plays regular gigs at The Green Mill, one of the country's most famous jazz lounges located in Uptown on Broadway near Lawrence. The trio's drummer, Greg Rockingham, said their group gets plenty of work nowadays, but he believes "the places to play are dwindling."

The legendary Jazz Showcase lost its lease and closed down a year ago. It's set to open soon in the South Loop at Dearborn Station but only after a long, hard search that left many supporters worried. Once a popular spot for avant-garde jazz, the HotHouse closed in July and is still searching for a new location. Buddy Guy's Legends lost its lease as well, but for now, it remains open in its South Loop space until a new home is found.

Still, there's plenty of reason to remain optimistic. The Chicago Music Commission, a non-profit organization seeking to promote the city's music industry, presented a study last month that ranked Chicago fourth behind Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York in the number of seats available at small, popular music venues. The number in Chicago is 28,467. Chicago has a total capacity of 408,420 seats at music venues of all sizes, second only to Los Angeles, which has 860,511.

Having said that, the report offered a brief but worrisome assessment of the local jazz scene. "When we look at consumption of recorded music…Chicago has a comparatively weak appetite for country music, jazz and gospel," the report stated. "That latter two findings are particularly surprising…more research would be needed to explain what lies behind unexpectedly low demand in these particular categories."

Commercially, jazz may be moving through an unstable phase in Chicago, but artistically, Broom compares it favorably with other cities.

"It's just burgeoning in terms of the energy," he said, citing the growing interest in jazz at local universities like DePaul, where he currently teaches. Last November, after a two-year search that accompanied the suspension of its jazz program, Northwestern University named Victor L. Goines the director of jazz studies. Goines had played extensively with the celebrated Wynton Marsalis Septet and is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

While some established venues are facing troubles, this week Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place introduced a Monday night cabaret series that will bring jazz performers back to its theater.

"The difference between Chicago and New York is there are very few clubs in New York," says Koester. This makes New York's scene "extremely competitive…[Here it's] more of a fraternal thing, and I think it'll probably remain that way for quite some time."

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE 

Floating silver pillows gently bump into dancers. The dancers continue, seemingly undisturbed by the airborne intrusion. Meanwhile, audience members swat away the drifting metallic balloons.

This is not part of a dream, but an interactive exhibition now appearing at the Loyola University Museum of Art.

The museum has invited local dance ensembles to perform in Andy Warhol's installation "Silver Clouds."

Before the installation closes on April 27, five Chicago area ensembles will perform. The first group, The Seldoms, appeared on Tuesday night and will have another show on Saturday afternoon.

The installation, which opened last Saturday, consists of 40 helium-filled balloons made of Mylar that float around a room with weak air currents.

Originally installed in a New York gallery in 1966, "Silver Clouds" inspired choreographer Merce Cunningham to create a dance called "RainForest" in 1968.

In the work, the dancers' movements are determined by the I Ching, a method of finding order in chance events. 

"I think [Cunningham] thought it would be a very interesting set to use for a dance that involved a certain randomness or chance," said Pamela Ambrose, Loyola's director of cultural affairs. "The clouds aren't controllable, and so there is this chance element to the performance."

Ambrose said she jumped at the chance for the museum to showcase collaboration between visual art and dance, which she said has a notable history. She said the relationship between the two forms -- dance and visual art -- dates back to the 1910s and 1920s, when Serge Diaghilev, manager of Ballets Russes in Paris, enlisted a large group of artists as collaborators, including Pablo Picasso.

"I thought how terrific it would be, in the tradition of Merce Cunningham's 'RainForest,' to ask some of our more prominent dance ensembles in Chicago to come in and do the same thing, essentially to use the 'Silver Clouds' as a bridge between performance and practice," she said.

The museum is continuously projecting a film of "RainForest" on two 15-foot by 15-foot walls in the room next to "Silver Clouds."

Carrie Hanson, artistic director of The Seldoms, said the group was excited to perform in the installation because of its historic relationship with dance.

"There's something so rich about this experience," she said. "There's an aura around this installation because of Warhol."

The Seldoms' dance - like Cunningham's "RainForest" - relies upon chance.

To determine the specifics of The Seldoms' performance, Hanson asked audience members to roll a set of dice. The dice decided which of five actions the dancers take at what location in the room. There were seven chapters in the work, so each dancer performed seven actions, including sucking in helium from a balloon and then speaking.

Hanson said that because the performance relies on chance, Saturday's performance could be completely different from Tuesday evening's.

Molly Shanahan, who will perform in the installation on March 4 and March 8, said her solo dance will be in response to, rather than inspired by, the installation.

"My work really harnesses a relationship to gravity as a specific and necessary partner to all movement, whether I'm just surrendering to the flow of gravity or resisting it," she said. "And I love that the 'Silver Clouds' exhibit is about this very purposeful weightlessness."

Shanahan explained that she doesn't like to consider her work improvisation but rather "spontaneous composition," which is "composed in the moment."

"[The installation] is an additional catalyst to that spontaneous response, and specifically I was intrigued by the clouds component because of what it suggests in terms of weight and reflectivity," she said.

So what is it like to dance while surrounded by balloons?

 "Scary. I wouldn't want to pop an expensive exhibit," said Seldoms dancer Christina Gonzalez-Gillett jokingly.

Eating food infested with bacteria is not always a bad a thing.Oak Park triathlete Karen Steward-Nolan does just that to keep her body going while training, which sometimes requires running 10-20 miles on a treadmill during the Chicago winter months.

One of Steward-Nolan's favorites is yogurt, a good choice of snack because it contains "good" bacteria.

And a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine this month concluded that a daily dose of these microorganisms, or probiotics, can help endurance athletes boost their immune systems.

This is good news for distance runners, like Steward-Nolan, who continue to train in the winter, when they are more prone to upper respiratory tract infections such as common cold and bronchitis.

"Athletes walk a fine line. You want to make your body stronger, but if you push too hard, you're just going to overload," Steward-Nolan said.

In the study, Australian scientists randomly divided 20 elite athletes into two groups. Half were given a capsule with lactobacillus fermentum, while the others got a placebo. The athletes took the capsules everyday for 14 weeks while running an average of 62 miles a week.

The runners who consumed the placebo had respiratory symptoms, on average, for 72 days while those who took the probiotics had symptoms for only 30 days.

"The most important finding of this study was a significant reduction in the number of days of respiratory illness symptoms," the authors of the study wrote.

But probiotics are not solely for endurance athletes. They're beneficial to anyone of any age, especially during the flu season, according to Colleen Lammel-Harmon of the Illinois Dietetic Association.

"They help enhance the lymphocytes and antibodies in the body," Lammel-Harmon said.

Probiotic cultures also help maintain the good bacteria in the intestine, shorten the symptoms of lactose intolerance and reduce the symptoms of irritable bowel disease, she said.

Mainly found in dairy products such as yogurt and fermented dairy beverages, these beneficial organisms can also be taken as dietary supplements.

But taking them as dietary supplements is not recommended by Annie Neuendorf, a registered dietitian at the Northwestern Wellness Institute in Chicago.

"I don't feel comfortable recommending these to my patients because there are no standards yet," said Neuendorf. For now, people should stay with something more natural like yogurt, she said.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Eco-friendly development is springing up everywhere you look.

Whether it is in big cities or small towns, many builders are deciding to go green.

With this mounting itch to go green, builders face challenges to comply with green certification ratings, while also trying to maintain their bottom line.

Members of a building team that's constructing an eco-friendly development spoke Tuesday at the American Institute of Architects Chicago chapter about the project.

The Green Exchange, being built at 2545 West Diversey Ave., will house more than 100 businesses that provide green products and services. Apart from the eco-friendly tenants, the developers hope to achieve a LEED platinum rating upon completion of the project.

The LEED rating system awards points for different eco-friendly improvements.

The exchange, which is also in the process of attaining city and national historic landmark distinctions for the building being rehabbed, expects to be the epicenter of green development in the Midwest.

Phil Baugh, the director of leasing for the Green Exchange and senior vice president of corporate relations for Baum Reality Group, the developer behind the project, said that the challenge is incorporating every green idea in a feasible manner.

"We have to rely on our design team to create a holistic picture," Baugh said. "It has been interesting trying to achieve a platinum LEED certification while also keeping it a historic landmark."

The possibilities for green development are endless, yet economic limitations are apparent. Baugh said that it is important to trust the design team, but you need to keep their feet on the ground.

"The budget and timeline ultimately affect the success of the building," Baugh said.

Kevin Pierce, director of sustainable design for Shaw Environmental Infrastructure, who is a LEED consultant for the project, said is acutely aware of the positives and negatives of the LEED rating system.

Pierce says the certification process is a complicated one and, without a thorough and thoughtful team, failure is certain.

The LEED rating system does have its opponents, yet Pierce says that any sweeping system, whether political or environmental, is open to error and abuse.

Among the attendees, there was still a question of whether performance and design are attached when talking about LEED.

One of the digs on the LEED rating system is that there is no testing for performance once certification is attained.

Baugh doesn't pretend to have all the answers, and says that mistakes will undoubtedly be made along the way. The a