Beth Finke talks about her seeing eye dog, Hanni

Golf balls, clubs are loaded into shipping containers for troops overseas.

Bradley coach Jim Les and players Theron Wilson and Chris Roberts, and Illinois State's Osiris Eldridge and Emmanuel Holloway talk with the press after their game Tuesday night at Carver Arena.

Is there a better way to start a new year?

This fire in Friendship NY destroyed a pizza place on Main Street and four firefighters were seriously injured.

"Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts; Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders did a live television broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and Moon seen from Apollo 8. Lovell said, 'The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.' They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis."

Source: Dr. David R. Williams, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo8_xmas.html

SJ-R.com political writer Bernard Schoenburg discusses Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief-of-staff John Harris being taken into custody on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008.

Congressman Ray LaHood recounts his 14 years in national office, remembering the major events that have unfolded under his watch.

Video by Craig Murray Enterprisenews.com
A BABE IN ARMS, A LIFE OF THANKS
For Philip and Cassandra Petit of Brockton, this Thanksgiving has very special meaning.
Their son Maxwell had life saving surgery at Dana Farber Cancer Center in Boston to remove a massive tumor and is receiving chemotherapy as he battles cancer, but the seven-month-old boy is doing great and the new family has many new blessings.
Enterprise staff reporter Maureen Boyle tells their story in The Enterprise and at enterprisenews.com.
Here is part of their story.

( http://tinyurl.com/5w7vww )Actor Robert Pattinson meets his fans at Square One Mall in Saugus, MA. Interviews with fans of Pattinson, who plays vampire character Edward Cullen, in movie Twilight,based on book by Stephenie Meyers.

'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' reveals new home to Grys family in Pekin Tuesday.

Cambridge-based E Ink shows off its new product. Could it mean newspapers can finally be saved?

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge

The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com

Geneva had to come from behind in the fourth quarter to top a tenacious Glenbard South team.

I caught up backstage at the Bank of America Pavillion in Boston on Aug. 24, 2008 with Steven Tyler's cousin Steve Talarico, the president of Red Wing Motorcycles, who describes in this video what Boston For Africa is all about and Tyler's contribution to it. Tyler and Talarico are "distant cousins" & Tyler is an artistic designer for Red Wing Motorcycles. By Cathleen Jeffrey WickedLocal.com PatriotLedger.com

If you've ever wondered how all those LNG tankers and large ships maneuver in and around Boston Harbor -- this video is for you. It explains the role of the boat pilots of Boston Harbor. By Cathleen Jeffrey

Hinsdale resident Kellie O'Brien was honored Saturday for building a school for the Maasai in Tanzania

The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com
'Insane' violence shakes city
By Maria Papadopoulos
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
BROCKTON — Lisa Hanlon heard six gunshots near the James Edgar Playground on Winthrop Street around dinnertime Wednesday and thought they were firecrackers.
Moments later, after loud screams echoed outside, she would join several neighbors trying to stop the bleeding on an 18-year-old male shot multiple times and lying on a porch at 141 Winthrop St., across the street from the playground.
"The chest was the one (wound) that was bleeding the most," said Hanlon, 39, a health care worker. "I just told them to keep talking to him, because he was fading in and out of consciousness, and to hold pressure to where the gun wounds were."
The 18-year-old, whose name was not released Wednesday night, was in critical condition and undergoing surgery Wednesday night at a local hospital following the 6:07 p.m. shooting, police said. He was shot multiple times in the leg and chest area, witnesses said.
A 7-year-old boy, whose name was also not released Wednesday night, suffered non-life-threatening injuries near his eye, police said.
"He might have caught a piece of bullet fragment," said Lt. Tom LaFratta.
Wednesday's brazen daytime shooting happened less that five days after a 17-year-old was shot dead in Brockton.
Jose Gurley, 17, was gunned down early Saturday morning at Roosevelt Heights, a city-owned housing complex on Brockton's North Side. He was the third teen to be shot dead in Brockton in the past two months. No arrests have been made in that shooting, police said.
On Winthrop Street, witnesses said a car was driving by when they heard gunshots. Police recovered a handgun in bushes on nearby West Harvard Street shortly after the shooting.
No suspects had been identified by 11 p.m. Wednesday.
City residents came out of their homes to see a state police helicopter hovering over West Elm Street and Belmont Avenue shortly after the shooting looking for the suspect or suspects.
Dozens of youths and parents filled Winthrop Street near the crime scene Wednesday as state and Brockton police recovered evidence behind yellow police tape. A boys' bicycle was among evidence taken from the scene. Five shell casings were found, police said.
"It sickens me that these kids are shooting each other," said Ward 2 City Councilor Michael Brady, in whose ward the shooting happened, at the scene.
"What's going on in Brockton is just insane," Hanlon said. "There are enough shootings right now that's going on. It's insane."
Brockton Police Chief William Conlon, who responded to Wednesday's crime scene, said gun violence in the city "is an ongoing problem."
"There's just far too many guns out there, too easily accessible," Conlon said. "We're doing all that we can to try to put a crimp in that."
He said police are working with several agencies, including the state police, to help curb gun violence.
"Those are the types of issues that we're up against every day," said Conlon, who urged more witnesses to come forward to help solve cases.
"People have to start telling us some things," Conlon said. "Protect your family members. Don't let them be carrying guns because they're going to be used against them or they'll be using them on somebody else's family that then retaliates."
"It's just an endless cycle of violence if somebody doesn't say 'Enough is enough' and put a stop to it," Conlon said.
The historic James Edgar Playground on the city's West Side was where boxing champion Rocky Marciano once played baseball. Marciano grew up on Dover Street, across from the playground and Winthrop Street.
Casimiro Gomes, a neighborhood resident, came home from work Wednesday to find Winthrop Street flooded with state and Brockton police.
"It makes me cry every day," said Gomes, a 51-year-old father of four, of the recent shootings involving city youth. "I pray to God to help us. There's too much pain."

Tom Hamilton put films his father shot of Springfield in the 1930s onto a DVD to preserve the images. Here are a few samples, including the public swimming pool, Lake Springfield and Franklin Roosevelt taking a train into Springfield.

A four-alarm fire in a commercial building on Pond Street in Natick, Mass. ripped through the building's stores. Firefighters arrived at about 1:15 a.m. on 6/19/08 and battled the blaze for several hours.
www.metrowestdailynews.com

Sculptor Anish Kapoor talks about his show at the ICA, the first retrospective of his work in 15 years.

The third annual Battle of the Bands was held Sunday, May 18, in Kiwanis Park in Brookfield. Ten bands perfomed from noon to 6:00 p.m., among them Unusable Signal.

Nebraska City celebrated its 136th Arbor Day with a community tree planting,
tree climbing, music and nature trails.

Planting trees at Wildwood Park were Rotary Club, Nebraska City Garden Club,
Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Jaycees, Teammates, Arbor Day Foundation, Nebraska
City Tourism and Commerce, Arbor Lodge State Park, Beta Sigma Phi, Youth and
Adults in Action and Nebraska City Tree Board.

Sharon Mumm accepted an award for the 2008 prestigious tree and YAA
announced poster contest winners ­ Kristen Broening, best use of color;
Kylie Barton, best use of theme; Patrick O'Neil, most unique; and Emily
Marcotte, best overall.

Arbor Day honorees, the Nebraska City Volunteer Fire Department; and 2008
tree planter award winners, Camp Catron and Retreat Center; planted
tartarian maples at the commemorative tree planting at Arbor Lodge State
Park on Saturday.

Parade winners were best overall, First Presbyterian Church; best use of
theme, Arbor Day Farm; most original, Blue Star Mothers; and best
commercial, Arbor Bank. Staffing Services of Nebraska City judged the
parade, which had 38 entries.

At the music festival on Sunday, Southeast Nebraska Community Band auctioned
off the director's baton. Laura Steinman was the auction and led the band in
playing the Nebraska fight song.

Rose Ralstin of Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce said Belles A-Peelin',
Apple Corps barbershoppers and the Better Half, with Brady Weddle and Austin
Dixon, sounded phenomenal.

Mike Mennard, who played at the community barbecue on Friday, also bought
his childrens' show to the festival.

Ralstin said Darrel Draper's depiction of J. Sterling Morton was a big hit
at the children's programs on Friday, at the Arbor Day Farm tree adventure,
music festival and parade.

"We were excited to have J. Sterling Morton actually walking among us on
this 136th annual Arbor Day," she said.[ghsvid]

Greg Graffin gives an acoustic performance and interview after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Harvard Humanist Chaplain and Harvard Secular Society.

West Chicago High School Lacrosse

Bartlett boys basketball vs Nequa Valley in the sectional final.

John McCain held an open rally in DuPage County, Illinois at the Odeum in Villa Park

St. John of the Cross 8th-graders create, market products

This week's Bartlett Now newscast.

Cape Ann Beacon photographer Kirk R. Williamson shot video at this fire which claimed one life and called in several neighboring communities to help fight the blaze which destroyed a temple and apartment complex on Middle St.

Take a trip to the British School of Falconry in Manchester, Vt.

Bobbi Brown, makeup artist to the stars and founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, learned early in life to accept her unconventional looks as beautiful. It was the people around her who sometimes needed to be convinced.
"My mother, when I was 21, came to me and said I have to talk to you. 'I think you're beautiful, but you'd be gorgeous with a nose job,'" Brown told a crowd of hundreds of women and men who came to hear her speak about looking your best after turning 50.
The topic of health and beauty in the fifth decade of life was among the most popular at the convention, with doxens of product lines and expert speakers filling the exhibition hall to offer help and product samples to the women in attendance.

Revolutionary War Re-enactment, Revolution Revisited, at Thayer Birthplace, Washington Street, Braintree, Mass.