1. Firefighters killed and injured in fire (Dec. 22). The 48 images in this photo gallery tell a story as powerful as the versions that used words and paragraphs. A building in disrepair. A fire brought under control. A sudden roof collapse. Two firefighters dead, many more hurt. And sadness that echoes throughout the community.
2. Trouble on playoff horizon for Bears (Dec. 21). Yes, they patched the hull hole and bailed the bilge water in righting the ship against the Vikings on Monday. But Dan Pompei spotted tackling, penalty and third-down conversion troubles for the Bears. And playoff opponents will look more like the Patriots and Giants than the Vikes. Plus, their starting quarterback won’t be a 41-year-old who’s one hard sack from the sidelines.
3. Seventh-grader dies of food allergy (Dec. 20). People grumble about the prevalence and inconvenience of food allergies among kids these days. And then something like this happens to put those petty gripes in perspective: A daughter, classmate and honor student, Katelyn Carlson, 13, of the Sauganash neighborhood, died — apparently from a reaction to peanut oil used in Chinese food brought into her school.
4. High levels of chromium found in Chicago-area tap water (Dec. 22). A Washington advocacy group found what it said are dangerous levels of the carcinogenic chromium-6 in municipal water here and in other cities. City water officials said the water meets EPA standards; the group countered that the EPA needs to change its standards. Did Santa leave a reverse-osmosis filtering system under your tree?
5. Suburbs red-light camera revenues on the blink (Dec. 19). There’s an interesting tension in this story between revenue and public-safety goals. On the one hand, the Big Brother cameras aren’t pulling in what was expected; on the other hand, people seem to be paying more attention to red lights. A compromise solution: Take all those people waiting at stoplights and sell them lottery tickets.
