'Horrendous'

As he ranted about his religious beliefs, a 32-year-old Wisconsin man went room to room with a 9mm pistol early Wednesday -- killing his pregnant teenage wife, his baby son and two nieces in a brick home on the Southwest Side, according to his family and Chicago Police.

Wounded in the rampage were the suspect's mother and a teenage nephew, police and family said.

A 12-year-old girl in the house managed to escape and ran to a gas station, where she called 911. The gunman shot at her as she fled but missed, police said.

About an hour and a half after the horrific 4:25 a.m. shooting in the 7200 block of South Mozart, officers were taking witnesses to a police station …

Pat Steir

NEW YORK

Pat Steir

CHEIM & READ

Since 1989, Pat Steir has remained committed to producing her signature "Waterfall Paintings," for which she pours thinned, almost aqueous oil paint in multiple layers onto a dry, primed ground so that it cascades down the canvas. Reminiscent of their namesake cataracts, these works effect - through Steir's incorporation of drips and frank homage to modernist geometries - what Matthew Guy Nichols aptly described in 2008 as a "rain shower through a Newman 'zip' painting." Others have written paeans to Steir's gravity-abetted rivulets and torrents, and most cannot help but note her engagement with natural phenomena: responses …

Endangered sea dragon at Ga. aquarium pregnant

A weedy sea dragon at the Georgia Aquarium has something to celebrate this Father's Day. One of the rare creatures is pregnant for only the third time ever at a U.S. aquarium, aquarium officials said. But don't look for the expectant mom _ dads carry the eggs in this family.

The aquarium's sea dragon has about 70 fertilized eggs _ which look like small red grapes _ attached to his tail. He is expected to give birth in early to mid-July, said Kerry Gladish, a biologist at the aquarium.

Sea dragons, sea horses and pipe fish are the only species where the male carries the eggs, Gladish said. Sea dragon pregnancies are rare because researchers don't know what gets …

Computer system to track Chicago cops' performance: 'Intervention' is goal, not punishment

Chicago cops will come under closer scrutiny under a newdepartment plan announced Friday, but officials said that the goal isnot to punish officers.

A new computer system will track a number of job performancenumbers -- including officers' sick days, citizen complaints andarrest figures -- and flag supervisors to problems, Police Supt.Philip J. Cline said at police headquarters.

Cline said warnings will not trigger disciplinary actions butinstead what he called "intervention," which might include counselingor additional training.

"The idea is to correct behavior before it becomes a disciplinaryissue," said Cline.

The system will also help set …

Rural Summit Puts Focus On Advances In Key Areas

WASHINGTON In Bob Rogers' school district in Downstate Bluffs,students use computers and satellites to take Japanese, creativewriting and college-level calculus.

With health and supply problems looming, Delbert Mundt inDieterich helped organize a water cooperative to serve parts ofsouth-central Illinois.

These are some of the ways rural communities are trying to keeppace today, and their experiences will be examined Monday inEdwardsville at the Illinois portion of a national rural summit.

Agriculture Secretary Dan. Glickman and Rep. Dick Durbin(D-Ill.) are leading the Illinois conference - one of a series in theMidwest before Tuesday's meeting in Ames, …

US urges Ivory Coast's former president to give up

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. says Ivory Coast's former president, Laurent Gbagbo (BAHG'-boh), can prevent more bloodshed by stepping aside now that forces loyal to the country's internationally recognized leader have reached the main city of Abidjan (ah-bee-JAHN').

The top American diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, says Gbagbo will be held accountable for alleged human rights atrocities committed by his forces. But Carson says Gbagbo can …

Israeli PM gets home support in dispute with US

Top Israeli officials on Thursday rallied behind embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his dispute with the U.S., deepening the rift between the two allies over Israeli construction in east Jerusalem.

Before Netanyahu returned Thursday afternoon from an unsuccessful visit to the United States, a string of Cabinet ministers declared that Israel would keep on building Jewish homes in east Jerusalem and accused Washington of unfairly putting pressure on the Israeli government.

The tough stance signaled further trouble for the U.S. as it tries to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which broke down more than a year ago.

Netanyahu left …