A world-renowned climber of tall buildings pleaded guilty today to misdemeanor charges filed against him after his climb last year to the top of Chicago’s 110-story Sears Tower. Alain Robert of France pleaded guilty to criminal trespass and was sentenced to a year of supervision for a feat he achieved in little more than an hour early the morning of Aug. 20, using nothing more than a bag of talcum and a cloth belt with a metal hook he used to fasten his body to the tower for brief rests.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge William O’Malley also ordered Robert to engage in no illegal contact with the Sears Tower for one year.
Robert may have gotten off easily, considering he had a history in Chicago. He was arrested in July 1994 after climbing the Citibank Citicorp Center on Madison Street.
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Tribune publisher says Times Mirror merger creates ‘strong player’ on Net
The Tribune Co.’s move to merge with Times Mirror Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times — creating the nation’s third-largest newspaper company, to be based in Chicago and named Tribune Co. — stands to strengthen the company’s Internet credentials.
Chicago Tribune President and Publisher Scott Smith said that the merger would create the “premiere major-market media company in the United States,” with print, broadcast and Internet operations in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, where Times Mirror owns the Newsday newspaper.
The merger also would create a company with $55 million in projected 2000 Internet revenues.
“Our strong sites, led by chicagotribune.com, and their strong sites, led by latimes.com, together will be among the 20 most popular news and information sites in America,” Smith said. “And that puts us in the position where we really have the national scale to be a strong player in Internet space in the years ahead.”
Acknowledging that such mergers in other sectors have often triggered a wave of similar consolidations, Smith called speculation “premature,” but he called it “a great beginning in terms of consolidating ownership of major-market newspapers.” And he said Tribune Co. sees “a big advantage to be the first mover in a major consolidation like that.”
Asked about the prospect of layoffs or bureau closings in the combined companies, Tribune Publishing President Jack Fuller told a media call-in conference, “We understand that great national and foreign coverage usually relates to a specific newspaper … with a brain that goes on inside a specific newsroom. And so we have made no plans for reducing this bureau or that bureau. … The advantage in this transaction is positioning ourselves for the future … seizing revenue streams that we couldn’t get separately and being able to position ourselves on the Internet in a way that each company individually could never have done.”
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* Audio: Chicago Tribune Publisher Scott Smith
Police seek suspects in gang shootout death
In connection with the shooting death Sunday night of a 37-year-old man who’d just arrived in Chicago Sunday, police were looking for three men identified only as Hispanic and wearing hooded sweatshirts. Monroe District Lt. James Devereaux said Ezequiel Coria, who had flown in from Mexico morning, was standing on the sidewalk of 1824 S. Throop St. just before 8 p.m. Sunday when he was struck in the head by a bullet that police said was fired by a member of one gang at a member of another.
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President Chicago-bound
President Clinton is due to return to Chicago for a series of fundraising events this evening. His schedule calls for a speech to a Democratic National Committee Women’s Leadership Forum tonight at Stefani’s Restaurant, 1418 W. Fullerton Ave.; followed by remarks at a private residence in Lincolnwood.
Strangler’s untangling begins
The notorious Hillside Strangler highway bottleneck in Chicago’s western suburbs enters its death throes Tuesday, when preliminary work begins on a congestion-relief project. The first of $97.5 million and two years’ worth of work will take place along Mannheim and Roosevelt Roads, including the start of construction for two bridges on Mannheim over the Eisenhower (I-290), the addition of left-turn lanes on Roosevelt and the demolition of buildings along a frontage road.
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In sports
Despite a 75-61 loss to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament championship game, Illinois has a bid to play in the NCAA tournament, seeded No. 4 against Pennsylvania in Friday’s East Regional at Syracuse. DePaul has been seeded No. 9, also to play Friday in the same venue.
Armed with Tony Amonte’s hat trick, the Blackhawks defeated Tampa Bay, 4-1.
The Bulls host Utah, 7 p.m. Full schedule in Sports.
DAYWATCH.
Coming up …
The Art Institute of Chicago opens “Monet to Moore: The Millennium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation,” a collection of avant-garde painting and sculpture from 1870-1960; through May 29. … The Chicago Film Critics Awards ceremony tonight at Park West will honor the founder of Facets Multimedia, Milos Stehlik, for his role as “one of the most innovative, progressive and culturally enriching not-for-profit film organizations in America,” in the words of Chicago Film Critics Association President Dann Gire; 7 p.m. … The Spertus Museum opens an exhibition featuring “Jewish Roots in Chicago,” through Aug. 31. … The Civic Opera House stages Bizet’s opera “Carmen,” through Saturday. … The Chicago Cultural Center presents “Waving Goodbye,” a staged reading about the survivors of a man who dies while climbing Mt. Everest; 6 p.m.
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