Chicago

CHICAGO -- Before they last hosted an NFC championship game, they were the fabled 1985 Chicago Bears, and they defined brash. The Super Bowl Shuffle already was a hit, Mike Ditka was daring people to knock the chip off his shoulder and Buddy Ryan, their defensive coordinator, was correctly predicting they would force the Los Angeles Rams' Eric Dickerson into a few fumbles at Soldier Field. Saints@Bears NFC championship game, Sunday, 3 p.m., chs. 45, 5 Line: Bears by 2 1/2

CHICAGO - Word that a federal judge could throw out the 22-year-old desegregation plan for Chicago's public schools as early as this spring has caught school officials and advocates off guard. U.S. District Judge Charles P. Kocoras has ordered the Chicago school district into court Feb. 27 to discuss the possibility of dismissing the integration plan that the Board of Education agreed to in 1980 to avoid a legal battle with the U.S. Justice Department. "I do not know why it is that we should not terminate this consent decree because it is so outdated," Kocoras said at a status hearing a week ago, a court transcript shows.

CHICAGO -- They do more by 8:30 in the morning than many elementary-school children do all day.They are several dozen pupils who get help in a unique before-school tutoring program at Hart Elementary School in North Chicago -- code named HART, for Helping At Risks To Succeed.The formula is simple: Hart provides the youngsters; the nearby Great Lakes Naval Training Center provides the tutors; and Walgreens, the drugstore chain, provides the money for supplies and a breakfast for pupils and tutors after each session.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The movie musical Chicago received a leading eight Golden Globe nominations yesterday, while the film version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours got seven, and the comedy Adaptation had six. Along with Chicago and Adaptation, a comedy of in-jokes about its writers' attempts to fashion its screenplay from the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief, movies competing for best musical or comedy were the Dickens classic Nicholas Nickleby,...

Not everyone can make it to Washington for the inauguration, but can we find another way to pass a winter weekend and still feel some of that presidential pizazz? Yes we can. And Chicago is just the place to do it. As President-elect Barack Obama prepares this week to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., visitors to Chicago can get up close and personal with some of the sites around town that now have presidential significance. You can take guided tours of Obama sites or visit them on your own. And some of the places will be happy to feed you: There's no shortage of restaurants pointing out that the soon-to-be president or his wife, Michelle, have eaten there.

CHICAGO -- The nation's first charter-only school district is taking shape in New Orleans - an unprecedented opportunity to reinvent an urban district that was in an academic and financial sinkhole long before Hurricane Katrina. As education officials scramble to prepare for an estimated 24,000 students expected to return to New Orleans schools in the coming school year, they are tapping into the expertise of Chicago's charter leaders, who will help launch this extraordinary experiment over the next two years.

CHICAGO -- Precinct captains stood outside nearly empty polling places. They looked at their lists and checked off names. They got people rides to the polls. They got baby sitters for voters' children. They slipped reminders on people's front porches and palm cards in their hands.They got doors slammed in their faces and weak promises from voters who vowed they would vote but did not.By the end of Election Day in a city where politics is a blood sport more important than even baseball, less than half of the voters had cast ballots for state and congressional races that politicians said could change the face of Washington.

CHICAGO -- Congressional candidate Mel Reynolds, 40, was injured in a drive-by shooting on the South Side last night.Police and said the candidate was cut on the forehead by flying glass when two or three gunshots were fired into the car in which Mr. Reynolds was riding. The shots were fired from a car that had pulled alongside, police said.Mr. Reynolds is in a heated primary race in the 2nd Congressional District against incumbent U.S. Rep. Gus Savage, D-Ill. This is the third time that Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Savage have been opponents for that congressional seat.

CHICAGO -- The gang member from Pittsburgh wore his colors as a mask, a navy blue bandanna tied tightly about his face so that only his narrow brown eyes could be seen. A visage of suspicion, a photograph snapped in color, it anchored the front page of this city's black newspaper on the first full day of a gang peace summit here.Wallace "Gator" Bradley, summit organizer, confidant to jailed gang generals, political candidate, was not happy. "You see today's Defender?" Mr. Bradley asked the summit's press secretary, as the 41-year-old ex-convict swept through the vestibule of Trinity United Church on Chicago's Far South Side.

CHICAGO -- It will be experience vs. youth in the pitching matchup for Game 2 of the American League Championship Series today, when Dave Stewart duels Alex Fernandez.But Fernandez, a 24-year-old right-hander for the Chicago White Sox, said last night that Stewart isn't the only one in the pairing who has learned from experience. "That has been the key factor for me this year," said Fernandez, who was 18-9 during the regular season. "What I learned in the last two years has made me a much better pitcher.