Larry Hagman dies at 81; TV's J.R. Ewing

J.R. Ewing was a business cheat, faithless husband and bottomless well of corruption. Yet with his sparkling grin, Larry Hagman masterfully created the charmingly...

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Facebook and volatile market still chill IPOs

Making a killing on initial public offerings used to be easy.At the peak of the technology boom, little more than a decade ago, a plentiful supply of companies vied to sell stock on the exchanges, and investors were assured mouthwatering returns.These days, the deals are fewer and the returns more modest.Companies are set to raise more than $ 45 billion through IPOs this year — the most since 2007,...

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‘Dallas’ star Larry Hagman dies in Texas

J.R. Ewing was a business cheat, faithless husband and bottomless well of corruption. Yet with his sparkling grin, Larry Hagman masterfully created the charmingly loathsome oil baron — and coaxed forth a Texas-size gusher of ratings — on television’s long-running and hugely successful nighttime soap, “Dallas.”Although he first gained fame as nice guy Capt. Tony Nelson on the fluffy 1965-70 NBC comedy...

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Scientists See Advances in Deep Learning, a Part of Artificial Intelligence

Hao Zhang/The New York TimesA voice recognition program translated a speech given by Richard F. Rashid, Microsoft’s top scientist, into Mandarin Chinese. Using an artificial intelligence technique inspired by theories about how the brain recognizes patterns, technology companies are reporting startling gains in fields as diverse as computer vision, speech recognition and the identification of promising...

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Walmart protests draw crowds, shoppers largely unfazed

Dozens of local workers, and hundreds nationally, took advantage of Black Friday crowds and camera crews at major retailers...

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Black Friday shopping gets an early start in Chicago

Post-Thanksgiving shopping is a ritual for Elk Grove's Krys Slattery, Chris Duncker and Gina Wirth -- a decade-long tradition among friends.Each year, they finish Thanksgiving...

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Chicago shopping frenzy gets early start

After dinner at a Maggiano's restaurant, the Tannehill/Schroeder clan headed over to Sears at Woodfield Mall in search of a...

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1 dead, 7 wounded in shootings

A man was killed and seven other people wounded in separate shootings since Wednesday morning, police said. About 9:45 a.m....

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Samsung wins U.S. court order to access Apple-HTC deal details

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge has ordered Apple Inc to disclose to rival Samsung Electronics details of a legal settlement the iPhone maker reached with Taiwan’s HTC Corp, including terms of a 10-year patents licensing agreement.The Korean electronics giant had earlier filed a motion to compel its U.S. rival — with whom it is waging a bitter legal...

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Chevy Chase is leaving NBC’s sitcom ‘Community’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The NBC series “Community” will finish the season without Chevy Chase.Sony Pictures Television said Wednesday that the actor is leaving the sitcom by mutual agreement with producers. His immediate departure means he won’t be included in the last episode or two of the show’s 13-episode season, which...

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Documents Show F.D.A.’s Failures in Meningitis Outbreak

Newly released documents add vivid detail to the emerging portrait of the Food and Drug Administration’s ineffective and halting efforts to regulate a Massachusetts company implicated in a national meningitis outbreak that has sickened nearly 500 people and killed 34. In the documents, released on Tuesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the agency would threaten to bring...

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Judge to let Hostess liquidation proceed

Hostess Brands Inc. on Wednesday won permission from a U.S. bankruptcy judge to begin shutting down, and expressed optimism...

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Man fatally shot in Albany Park neighborhood

Chicago police detectives and officers at the scene of a homicide in the 3400 block of West Sunnyside Avenue early Wednesday...

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“Rise of the Guardians” Review: Magic, but you’d better believe in Santa Claus

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – There’s a really cool idea afoot in “Rise of the Guardians,” namely that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman aren’t merely responsible for their little corner of children’s lives but are actually a super-team of “Avengers” proportions. Taking their cues from the unseen Man in the Moon, they protect...

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The New Old Age Blog: Patience, Consciousness and White Lies

My wife and I are blessed with having three “semi-independent” parents in their mid-80s living within a few blocks of us. Our children grew up knowing their grandparents as integral parts of our nuclear family, within walking distance for most of their childhoods. But now that our nest is empty, we find ourselves reliving many of the parenting issues we faced when our children were little — now in...

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Hostess, union fail to reach deal

Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, said on Tuesday that it failed to reach a deal in mediation...

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Deadly Indianapolis explosion now homicide investigation

The house explosion that killed two people and destroyed several homes in an Indianapolis neighborhood is now a homicide investigation,...

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‘Trapped’ on Broadway? R. Kelly is working on it

NEW YORK (AP) — Is Broadway ready for Twan, Sylvester, Pimp Lucius and “the package”? R. Kelly thinks so — and says he’s working to bring the wacky characters and plotlines in his even wackier “Trapped in the Closet” series to the Great White Way.The superstar announced on Monday night that he’s had an offer to bring the cult classic to the stage, and...

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Responding to Illnesses Manifesting Amid Recovery From Storm

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York TimesDr. Aaron Gardener, center, attended to a patient at an ad hoc medical unit in Long Beach, N.Y. Many people have coughs, rashes and other ailments. Day and night, victims of Hurricane Sandy have been streaming into ad hoc emergency rooms and relief centers, like the MASH-type medical unit on an athletic field in Long Beach, and the warming tent in the Rockaways the...

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