Prosecutors: Woman wore mask as partner used stun gun on mom

Julie P. Franck, 36. Cook County Sheriff's photo (Cook County Sheriff's photo / November 18, 2012)

By Ryan Haggerty




Tribune reporter

8:34 p.m. CST, November 18, 2012

A Chicago woman pulled on a ski mask before her accomplice fired a stun gun about 15 times at a 55-year-old woman on a Bucktown street last month, allowing the pair to allegedly steal the woman's $40,000 engagement ring and $200 in cash, prosecutors said today.

The woman who wore the ski mask had good reason to conceal her identity -- the victim was her mother, prosecutors said in Cook County bond court.

Julie P. Franck was arrested Friday and charged with armed robbery in connection with the Oct. 9 attack outside her mother's home in the 1700 block of North Marshfield Avenue, according to court documents.

Cook County Judge Edward Harmening ordered Franck, who is pregnant, held in lieu of $300,000 bail. Prosecutors did not say whether the second suspect had been arrested.

A witness was able to pull off Franck's ski mask before Franck and the other suspect drove off in a Smart Car after the robbery, prosecutors said.

Franck and the other suspect are accused of stealing credit and debit cards from Franck's mother, in addition to her 3.5-carat diamond ring and cash, according to court documents.

Franck's mother was treated for her injuries at Resurrection St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital and released, according to court documents.

rhaggerty@tribune.com

Twitter @RyanTHaggerty

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Android de Google resta cada vez más mercado a Apple

Los teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas informáticas con el sistema operativo Android de Google están acaparando el mercado de dispositivos móviles y robando espacio a Apple al saciar el apetito por la innovación y los bajos precios, estiman analistas.

El sistema operativo Android funciona en casi tres de cada cuatro teléfonos inteligentes vendidos en el mundo en el trimestre que acaba de finalizar en momentos en que la plataforma móvil domina el mercado, de acuerdo con los analistas de la industria de la firma IDC.

“Android ha sido uno de los principales motores de crecimiento del mercado de teléfonos inteligentes desde su lanzamiento en 2008″, dice el gerente de investigación de teléfonos móviles de IDC, Ramon Llamas.

“Cada año desde entonces, Android ha desbordado el mercado y robado participación en el mercado de la competencia”, agrega.

En las tabletas, la cuota de mercado de Apple cayó a poco más del 50%, desde el 65% que registró en el segundo trimestre, mientras Android ha ganado terreno, de acuerdo con cifras de IDC.

“Tener una gran cantidad de personas que construyen un montón de cosas que cubren una gran cantidad de rangos de precio con múltiples marcas en varios lugares hace una gran diferencia”, dice el analista de NPD Group Stephen Baker.

“La variedad es la fuerza cuando se trata de artefactos móviles”, estima.

Los pedidos de teléfonos inteligentes Android aumentaron a 136 millones de dólares, superando los del mismo trimestre del año pasado por un poco más del 90%, de acuerdo con informes de IDC.

Galaxy S3 de Samsung superó al iPhone 4S de Apple en el tercer trimestre para dar a la empresa de Corea del Sur el modelo de teléfono inteligente más vendido del mundo por primera vez, según la firma de investigación Strategy Analytics.

“El ritmo de la innovación en Android es más rápido que el de Apple”, dice el vicepresidente de computación móvil de Gartner, Ken Dulaney. “Ellos están tratando de hacerlo más fuerte, Apple está muy por detrás en esa área”.

Android se está beneficiando de ser una plataforma “open-source” que los fabricantes de aplicaciones usan gratuitamente y mejoran a medida que lo estiman conveniente, proporcionando a Google conocimientos en el camino.

Apple, por su parte, supervisa muy de cerca sus productos desde el software al hardware, e inclusive la tienda online de música, libros, juegos u otro contenido.

“Lo que se obtiene con Android es este increíble circuito de retroalimentación con los desarrolladores, fabricantes de equipos, clientes y diseñadores”, dice Dulaney.

“En Apple, si bien tienen una gran visión interna que está bien, no tienen la retroalimentación que Android tiene”, añade.

Tener miles de diferentes dispositivos Android disputándose el dinero de los consumidores es un fuerte estímulo cuando se trata de participación de mercado pero pone a los fabricantes de hardware en un escenario altamente competitivo, según Baker.

“Aparte de Samsung, no sé si otros chicos (vinculados a) Android están haciendo dinero”, estima el analista.

Google ofrece Android de forma gratuita, pero la plataforma está diseñada para hacer que sea más fácil para la gente usar servicios de Google, como el de búsqueda o de mapas, entre otros, y hallar contenido en sus tiendas en línea Google Play.

El analista de Forrester Charles Golvin estimó que parte importante del éxito coyuntural de Android tiene que ver con cambios demográficos de los compradores de teléfonos inteligentes.

Los primeros usuarios de teléfonos multifunciones apreciaban más las nuevas tecnologías que el precio, pero los dispositivos se han vuelto imprescindibles y con un costo cada vez más importante para los compradores, según Golvin.

“La gente está más inclinada hacia la plataforma Android, porque hay más posibilidades de elección y la mayoría de las opciones que da es de bajo precio”, dice.

La naturaleza abierta de Android y la variedad de modelos ofrecidos por los fabricantes de dispositivos funcionan como un “arma de doble filo”, señala no obstante el analista.

Apple lanza anualmente actualizaciones del sistema operativo móvil iOS a sus dispositivos, mientras que las nuevas versiones de Android, aunque lo hacen más a menudo, deben obtenerse a través de los fabricantes de hardware y servicios de telecomunicaciones para llegar hasta los teléfonos.

“Tú tienes esta lenta cadena de intermediarios que están retrasando la instalación del nuevo software y sus innovaciones en los dispositivos existentes en el mercado”, advierte Golvin.

Los teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas informáticas con el sistema operativo Android de Google están acaparando el mercado de dispositivos móviles y robando espacio a Apple al saciar el apetito por la innovación y los bajos precios, estiman analistas.

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Singing stars arrive for American Music Awards

Pink on a song with Lauryn Hill? The pop star hopes so.

Pink said on the red carpet of the American Music Awards that she’d like to collaborate with the acclaimed singer-rapper.

Cyndi Lauper said her musical playlist includes Pink, Nicki Minaj and Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Call Me Maybe.” Boy band The Wanted is excited to see “Gangnam Style” star PSY and Colbie Caillat wants to watch No Doubt rock the stage.

The stars walking the red carpet before the AMAs were ready to take their seats as fans. Arrivals included Taylor Swift, 50 Cent, Gloria Estefan, Ludacris, Kelly Rowland, Lady Antebellum, J. Cole, Luke Bryan, the Backstreet Boys and Linkin Park.

“What makes the American Music Awards special is the fans choose the winning artists,” said Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who is nominated for favorite artist alternative rock and will perform at the show.

Carrie Underwood arrived in a magenta dress and Kerry Washington was in a banana Stella McCartney number Sunday. Heidi Klum and Ginnifer Goodwin were also on the scene.

Along with Rihanna, Minaj is the top nominee at Sunday’s American Music Awards, but the rapper-singer isn’t concerned with her four nominations.

“I don’t do music for awards,” the 29-year-old said in an interview. “It’s so crazy because people always have to remind me that I’m nominated for an award when I go to award shows.”

“I know they’re going to come. I’m sitting here looking at my awards right now,” she continued with a laugh. “I never stress it. I think of myself as ‘I’ll have a career long enough to get all those different awards.’”

In the pop/rock category, Minaj is up for favorite female artist and album for “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.” She’s also nominated for favorite artist and album in the hip-hop/rap category, two awards she won last year.

Minaj isn’t up for the night’s top award, though. Rihanna, Maroon 5, Drake, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber will battle it out for artist of the year.

But the American Music Awards are all about performances, and Sunday’s show will be no exception. Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood will perform. Justin Bieber will share the stage with Minaj. Ludacris and Chris Brown will perform with Swizz Beatz. And Stevie Wonder is set to provide the soundtrack for a tribute to the late Dick Clark.

“I’m really going there to perform ‘Freedom,’” Minaj said of her new single. “I’m very, very proud of the record and I’m happy that people are going to get to hear it. I’m performing a hip-hop song on the AMAs, and I think . that’s just a big look for hip-hop.”

Rae Jepsen, Kelly Clarkson and Usher are also among those set to sing during the three-hour program, which is to be broadcast live on ABC.

Other multiple nominees include Usher, Bieber, Drake, Maroon 5 and One Direction, who have three nods each. Perry, Underwood, Brown, Clarkson, Pitbull, fun., Gotye, J. Cole and Luke Bryan are all double nominees.

American Music Awards nominees were selected based on sales and airplay, and fans chose the winners by voting online.

The 40th anniversary show will also include the tribute to Clark, its creator.

“Dick changed the face of music back in the late ’50s,” producer Larry Klein said. “Dick is the one who made rock ‘n’ roll acceptable to come into people’s homes… We’re paying tribute to Dick because of the legacy that he’s left everybody and also the creativity of what he did on this show.”

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Follow (at)APSandy’s American Music Award updates at www.twitter.com/APEntertainment.

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Online:

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards

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Daniel Stern, Who Studied Babies’ World, Dies at 78

Dr. Daniel Stern, a psychiatrist who increased the understanding of early human development by scrutinizing the most minute interactions between mothers and babies, died on Nov. 12 in Geneva. He was 78.

The cause was heart failure, said his wife, Dr. Nadia Bruschweiler Stern.

Dr. Stern was noted for his often poetic language in describing how children respond to their world — how they feel, think and see. He wrote one of his half-dozen books in the form of a diary by a baby. In another book, he told how mothers differ psychologically from women who do not have children. He coined the term “motherese” to describe a form of communication in which mothers are able to read even the slightest of babies’ emotional signals.

Dr. Stern, who did much of his research at what is now Weill Cornell Medical College and at the University of Geneva, drew inspiration from Jay S. Rosenblatt’s work with kittens at the American Museum of Natural History in the 1950s. Dr. Rosenblatt discovered that when he removed kittens from their cage, they made their way to a specific nipple of their mother’s even when they were as young as one day old. That finding demonstrated that learning occurs naturally at an exceptionally early age in a way staged experiments had not.

Dr. Stern videotaped babies from birth through their early years, and then studied the tapes second by second to analyze interactions between mother and child. He challenged the Freudian idea that babies go through defined critical phases, like oral and anal. Rather, he said, their development is continuous, with each phase layered on top of the previous one. The interactions are punctuated by intervals, sometimes only a few seconds long, of rest, solitude and reflection. As this process goes on, they develop a sense that other people can and will share in their feelings, and in that way develop a sense of self.

These interactions can underpin emotional episodes that occur years in the future. Citing one example in a 1990 interview with The Boston Globe, Dr. Stern told of a 13-month-old who grabbed for an electric plug. His alarmed mother, who moments before had been silent and loving, suddenly turned angry and sour. Two years later, the child heard a fairy tale about a wicked witch.

“He’s been prepared for that witch for years,” Dr. Stern said. “He’s already seen someone he loves turn into something evil. It’s perfectly believable for him. He maps right into it.”

Dr. Stern described such phenomena in 1985 in “The Interpersonal World of the Infant,” which the noted psychologist Stanley Spiegel, in an interview in The New York Times, called “the book of the decade in its influence on psychoanalytic theory.”

In recent years, Dr. Stern ventured beyond childhood development to examine the psychology of how people thought about time. In one experiment, he interviewed people in depth about a single brief moment at breakfast and found that it took them a full hour to describe all that went through their minds in 30 seconds. This resulted in the 2004 book “The Present Moment: In Psychotherapy and Everyday Life,” which called for people to appreciate every moment of experience and discussed the nature of memory.

In 2010, he published “Forms of Vitality: Exploring Dynamic Experience in Psychology, the Arts, Psychotherapy and Development,” which used new understandings of neuroscience to explain human empathy.

Dr. Stern, who wrote hundreds of scientific articles, also painted, wrote poetry and had friendships with important artists. He gave Jerome Robbins, the choreographer, the title for his “Dances at a Gathering.” His friend Robert Wilson, the avant-garde director and playwright, said Dr. Stern’s slow-motion baby films helped inspire his seven-hour “silent opera,” “Deafman Glance.”

“So many things are going on, and the baby is picking them up,” Mr. Wilson said.

Daniel Norman Stern was born in Manhattan on Aug. 16, 1934. He graduated from Harvard and completed his medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After conducting psychopharmacology research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., he did his residency in psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He later trained as a psychoanalyst at the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research at Columbia.

Dr. Stern is survived by his wife, a physician who collaborated on much of his research; two sons, Michael and Adrien; three daughters, Maria, Kaia and Alice Stern; a sister, Ronnie Chalif; and 12 grandchildren.

Dr. Stern pointed out how the evolution of the human body bolstered mother-child interaction. He noted that the distance between the eyes of a baby at the breast and the mother’s eyes is about 10 inches, exactly the distance for the sharpest focus and clearest vision for a young infant.

“Her smile exerts its natural evocative powers in him and breathes a vitality into him,” he wrote. “It makes him resonate with the animation she feels and shows. His joy rises. Her smile pulls it out of him.”

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Investors rush in to rent out foreclosures

The foreclosed home on Kenmore Street in Aurora was an outdated, unkempt eyesore until crews arrived this fall, performing thousands of dollars of work to make it attractive and modern, inside and out.

But it wasn't until workers walked across the street to ask for some water that neighbors Mario Cervantes and Oralia Balderas-Cervantes learned that a corporation, not a consumer, had bought the house, intending to turn it into a rental property. Despite being landlords themselves, the couple aren't sure they like the idea.

"If it's going to be a company that is watching out for the community, yes," Cervantes said. "If it's going to be a company that is watching out for themselves, no."

Added Balderas-Cervantes: "I'd rather see a homeowner. A lot of renters don't care. It's like renting a car versus buying a car. It's different."

Similar scenarios and concerns are unfolding across Chicago and in other markets hard-hit by the housing crisis. Well-capitalized, out-of-town private equity funds are scouring neighborhoods, paying cash for distressed single-family homes and renting them out. The opportunities are plentiful, enabling investment groups to profit from low home prices, rising rents and an increase in the number of potential renters.

The transactions are returning vacant properties to active use. But they also are stoking fears among neighbors and municipalities about the long-term effect of large, private investors — including many that are operating under the radar — in their communities.

"This scares the hell out of me," said Ed Jacob, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Inc. "In this rush to say this is a new asset class, are we creating the next community development problem?

"You talk to them and it's all about neighborhood recovery. They all have the narrative down."

In April, housing research firm CoreLogic named the Chicago area one of the better housing markets for institutional investor funds. It cited the area's large number of foreclosures, which will increase the number of vacant homes, and the estimated rental income relative to the low cost of acquisition.

The general strategy of the companies is the same: buy low, make the necessary upgrades, fill them with tenants and then sell the homes in three to seven years. With companies and analysts anticipating projected returns of at least 8 percent, there also is talk of creating publicly traded real estate investment trusts.

"What this reminds me of is the dot-com boom," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of Carrington Mortgage Holdings LLC, a California firm whose asset management arm is actively looking in the Chicago market. "That's what this feels like. Every investor in America wants to buy foreclosures and turn them into rentals."

Two statistics increasing that appetite are the homeownership rate and rental rates. Foreclosures, tight lending conditions and wary consumers have pushed down the nation's homeownership rate to 65.5 percent at the end of September, according to census data. Meanwhile, the percentage of vacant rental units has been on a steady decline since 2010 as more people opt for leases rather than mortgages.

Tighter inventories are pushing up rents. As of October, annualized rents in Chicago were up 7.7 percent, more than the national increase of 5.1 percent, online real estate site Trulia found.

But investors aren't flocking to all neighborhoods equally. Most want homes in desirable neighborhoods with strong area employment. They also look at the strength of local rules protecting landlords in disputes with tenants.

After vetting the tenant and securing a lease, property managers say they routinely drive by the homes and sometimes schedule inside inspections to protect their investment.

Weighing risks, rewards

It remains to be seen whether their expectations will be met. One problem with the business model is there's no performance track record to speak of. And as housing prices slowly recover, acquisition costs also will increase and cut into returns.

There also isn't any history on property management firms tasked with overseeing so many scattered-site rental properties. Any well-publicized mistakes involving poorly maintained properties or wronged tenants could taint investors' reputations.

That's one reason why big-name players are likely to avoid buying in neighborhoods where they fear a greater chance of eviction proceedings occurring.

"You make one mistake in those properties and you'll be toast," Sharga said.

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1 killed in Little Village drive-by; 8 injured in separate shootings

A 20-year-old man was killed in the Little Village neighborhood, another fatally shot in West Englewood and at least seven people were wounded in shootings across Chicago early Saturday, police said.

The 20-year-old, Freddie Hernandez, was gunned down about 2:40 a.m. in an apparent drive-by shooting on the 2500 block of South Trumbull Avenue, officials said.

A neighborhood resident, 17-year-old Anthony Briones, said he heard about eight shots and the screeching of car tires from his home two blocks from the scene.

When police arrived, Hernandez was lying on the sidewalk with multiple gunshots to the head, authorities said.

He was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:15 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

A van was seen leaving the scene, said police, who indicated the shooting may have been gang-related.

Area Central detectives are investigating, and no suspects are in custody.

In a shooting in which police initially said a victim's condition had stabilized, Darius McGraw, 22, was declared dead at 7:20 a.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical exmainer's office.

The victim was shot in the 6600 block of South Bell Avenue in the West Englewood neighborhood about 6;40 a.m., Police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan said. Police responded to a call of shots fired and found the victim in a front yard, shot in the back and buttocks, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala.

The victim was taken to Christ, where Sullivan said this morning his condition had stabilized, but the man died less than an hour after the shooting.

In a separate shooting, a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old were injured in the Gresham neighborhood shortly after midnight, police said.

The shooting happened about 12:15 a.m. on the 8600 block of South Loomis Boulevard, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said.

One was shot in the shoulder and taken in good condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center, Gaines said.

The other was shot in the back and also taken to Christ, Gaines said. His condition was not immediately released.

Also on Saturday:

• About 6:40 a.m., a 22-year-old man was shot in on the 6600 block of South Bell Avenue in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan said. He was taken to Christ, where his condition was stabilized.


• About 4 a.m., a 17-year-old male was shot on the 4700 block of West Palmer Street in the Hermosa neighborhood on the Northwest Side, Gaines said, citing preliminary information. He was taken to a local hospital in good condition.


• About 2:35 a.m., a 27-year-old man was shot in the buttocks on the 5500 block of South California Avenue in the Gage Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side, Gaines said. He was taken to Mount Sinai in good condition. Police have a person of interest in custody, Gaines said.


• About 1:38 a.m., a 21-year-old woman was shot in the arm on the 7500 block of North Hoyne Avenue in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the Far North Side, Gaines said. She was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston in good condition.


• About 1:20 a.m., a man in his 20s was shot twice in his legs when a gunman approached him at a gas station on the 6700 block of South Jeffery Boulevard in the Jackson Park Highlands neighborhood on the South Side. He was listed in good condition.


• About 1 a.m., a 32-year-old man was shot in the shoulder near the intersection of West 75th Street and South Eggleston Avenue in Gresham, Gaines said. He was taken to Christ, where his condition was stabilized.

asege@tribune.com

Twitter: @AdamSege

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Wii U Will Launch With 24 Games This Sunday

Assassin’s Creed III

A version of the latest chapter in the Assassin’s Creed saga, a week after it was released on other console.

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: Xbox Live Celebrates 10 Years of Connecting Gamers]

Nintendo’s newest console is out this Sunday, and there are already people lining up outside retailers to get one.

There are 24 games available for the Wii U at launch. Some are highly anticipated Nintendo staples, like New Super Mario Brothers U, and some are interesting and creative titles from third-party developers, like Scribblenauts Unlimited and ZombiU. Many games already out on other systems are being released for the Wii U as well, including Assassin’s Creed III and NBA 2K13; some of these games even have extra functionality that’s been added to take advantage of the Wii U GamePad.

[More from Mashable: Competitive Gaming Seeing TV-Levels of Viewership in 2012]

If you don’t see a game in the gallery above that you thought was coming to the Wii U, it’s because many announced games will be available in the “launch window”, a broad period from now until March. That’s when games like Pikmin 3 and LEGO City Undercover will come out.

If you haven’t preordered a Wii U from a large retailer, many places will still have them available at launch day. Expect long lines at larger retailers though.

Are you planning on purchasing a Wii U this weekend, and what games do you most want to buy? Let us know in the comments.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Liam Neeson in negotiations for crime thriller “The All Nighter”

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Liam Neeson is in negotiations to star in the crime thriller “The All Nighter (AKA Run All Night)” a person familiar with the situation has told TheWrap.

The story follows an aging hit man who, in order to protect his wife and son, must take on his former boss in a single night. He then winds up on the run from the mob and the authorities with his estranged son.

The film is being produced by Vertigo Entertainment‘s Roy Lee, along with Brooklyn Weaver for Warner Bros. which declined to comment. The studio acquired Brad Ingelsby‘s spec script “The All Nighter” in January for a reported six figure sum.

Neeson’s upcoming films include “Non-Stop” and “A Walk Among The Tombstones.” He will also be featured in a voice role in the upcoming film “Lego: The Piece of Resistance.”

Lee is working on a long-list of projects including Spike Lee’s remake of the South Korean thriller, “Oldboy,” which is currently filming. He is also producing the upcoming thriller “The Double Hour”; a feature film based on the hit video game “Deus-Ex Human Revolution”; “Lego: The Piece of Resistance,” and the action thriller “Sleepless Night,” which is also set up at Warner Bros. Weaver’s credits include “Thirteen” and “Picture Book.”

Ingelsby’s upcoming projects as a writer include “The Raid.” In 2008, he made another major spec deal for his revenge thriller “The Low Dweller,” which went to Relativity Media.

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Well: Meatless Main Dishes for a Holiday Table

Most vegetarian diners are happy to fill their plates with delicious sides and salads, but if you want to make them feel special, consider one of these main course vegetarian dishes from Martha Rose Shulman. All of them are inspired by Greek cooking, which has a rich tradition of vegetarian meals.

I know that Greek food is not exactly what comes to mind when you hear the word “Thanksgiving,” yet why not consider this cuisine if you’re searching for a meatless main dish that will please a crowd? It’s certainly a better idea, in my mind, than Tofurky and all of the other overprocessed attempts at making a vegan turkey. If you want to serve something that will be somewhat reminiscent of a turkey, make the stuffed acorn squashes in this week’s selection, and once they’re out of the oven, stick some feathers in the “rump,” as I did for the first vegetarian Thanksgiving I ever cooked: I stuffed and baked a huge crookneck squash, then decorated it with turkey feathers. The filling wasn’t nearly as good as the one you’ll get this week, but the creation was fun.

Here are five new vegetarian recipes for your Thanksgiving table — or any time.

Giant Beans With Spinach, Tomatoes and Feta: This delicious, dill-infused dish is inspired by a northern Greek recipe from Diane Kochilas’s wonderful new cookbook, “The Country Cooking of Greece.”

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Northern Greek Mushroom and Onion Pie: Meaty portobello mushrooms make this a very substantial dish.

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Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas With Cinnamon-Tinged Tomato Sauce and Feta: This fragrant and comforting dish can easily be modified for vegans.

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Coiled Greek Winter Squash Pie: The extra time this beautiful vegetable pie takes to assemble is worth it for a holiday dinner.

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Baked Acorn Squash Stuffed With Wild Rice and Kale Risotto: Serve one squash to each person at your Thanksgiving meal: They’ll be like miniature vegetarian (or vegan) turkeys.

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Chocolatier finds sweet spot in Belize

Katrina Markoff, the founder of high-end Chicago chocolatier Vosges Haut-Chocolat, is nearing completion on two high-profile projects: a winery-style chocolate facility in Logan Square and an education center at a cacao plantation and eco-lodge in Belize.

Markoff isn't ready to talk about the Logan Square project, her spokeswoman said. But in an interview last week, she said she hopes the Belcampo farm in Belize will become the source of a majority of Vosges' cacao once its plants mature.

The project means Markoff will soon play a role in every aspect of production from seed selection through packaging without having to assume the financial risk of owning a tropical plantation.

Belcampo Group CEO Anya Fernald said the education center that Markoff helped design will open in mid-December, and Markoff will teach her first "master class" on cacao to guests at the 12-room lodge April 23-27. In exchange for her time and expertise, Markoff will receive a better price on the beans.

"I've always wanted to be involved through the full vertical, from actually growing the varietals of cacao I want, and being particular about how they're grown and harvested and fermented and dried," she said.

Once the farm reaches full yield in about five years, Fernald estimated it will produce 250,000 pounds of cacao annually. Already, with only 60 acres planted so far — all under a rain forest canopy — Fernald said Belcampo is already Belize's largest cacao plantation.

"The integrity of that project is really, really unique and special," Markoff said. "Typically when people buy beans to make chocolate, they just buy whatever is available in the commodity market. There's not a lot of control over how it's grafted, where it's planted, how it's nurtured, who's taking care of it. You just don't get that kind of control."

Bluhm continues gambling push

Chicago real estate and gambling executive Neil Bluhm is entering the race to build one of four planned casinos in Massachusetts and has launched an online gaming division in Chicago, said Greg Carlin, chief executive of Bluhm's Rush Street Gaming.

Earlier this year Rush Street hired Richard Schwartz from Waukegan-based WMS Industries and appointed him president of Rush Street Interactive, its new online gaming division.

"We think (Internet gaming) is going to be eventually legalized throughout the country, or in jurisdictions that have bricks-and-mortar casinos," Carlin said. "Illinois is actually a leader in selling lottery tickets online and could be a leader in Internet gaming as well if they get ahead of the curve and pass legislation before some of the other states."

Nevada and Delaware have legalized some forms of Internet gambling.

In recent years, Bluhm has built three casinos: Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, one in Pittsburgh and another in Philadelphia. In October, Bluhm sold his first U.S. casino, Riverwalk Casino and Hotel, in Vicksburg, Miss., for $141 million in cash to Churchill Downs Inc. (Bluhm held a 70 percent stake in Riverwalk.)

Churchill Downs, a horse racing and wagering company, also owns Arlington Park in Arlington Heights. Its largest shareholder is Duchossois Group, founded by Arlington Park Chairman Richard "Dick" Duchossois.

Duchossois has been trying to persuade the Illinois Legislature to approve slots at racetracks, which, if successful, would make Arlington Park a competitor of Bluhm's Des Plaines casino.

As for the Massachusetts casino, the gambling commission there will weigh applications for casino licenses well into 2013.

Alvarez joins Culloton

Public relations firm Culloton Strategies has hired Michael Alvarez, a commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, as senior vice president for public affairs.

As the Sun-Times reported in January, Alvarez, 32, has worked for Barack Obama, Rod Blagojevich and Richard M. Daley — while he has close ties to Ald. Richard Mell, Blagojevich's father-in-law.

In addition to his $70,000 annual salary at the water district, Alvarez has a $60,000-a-year public relations contract with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and a "fast-growing" lobbying practice, the Sun-Times reported.

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