Push for minimum wage hike intensifies

NEW YORK — Before the recession, Amie Crawford was an interior designer, earning $50,000 a year patterning baths and cabinets...

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23-year-old dies after falling down smokestack of Mag Mile hotel

A man who fell down the smoke-stack at a downtown hotel has died.The man, 23, was trying to take a photo from the top of the Intercontinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue. (WGN - Chicago) ...

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Lidl Christmas dinner offer goes viral on Twitter

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Discount retailer Lidl faces a 200,000-euro ($ 260,000) Christmas dinner bill after an offer of chicken vol-au-vents and ice cream cake for the poor went viral.The supermarket launched a Twitter campaign in Belgium on Monday, saying it would hand out five four-course Christmas dinners to food banks for each tweet on a hash tag.Lidl had expected to hand out about 1,000 of the 20-euro...

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Britney Spears, Taylor Swift are top-earning women in music

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pop star Britney Spears edged past Taylor Swift to claim the title of top-earning woman in music after bringing in an estimated $ 58 million from her album, endorsements and a perfume in the past year, Forbes said on Wednesday.Country-pop singer Swift, 22, was a close second with an estimated $ 57 million paycheck thanks to her tour – which made more than $ 1 million each night...

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Another Look at a Drink Ingredient, Brominated Vegetable Oil

James Edward Bates for The New York TimesSarah Kavanagh, 15, of Hattiesburg, Miss., started an online petition asking PepsiCo to change Gatorade’s formula. Sarah Kavanagh and her little brother were looking forward to the bottles of Gatorade they had put in the refrigerator after playing outdoors one hot, humid afternoon last month in Hattiesburg, Miss. But before she took a sip, Sarah, a...

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Illinois foreclosures up for 11th month

Foreclosure activity in Illinois posted the 11th straight year-over-year increase in November, but compared with a month earlier,...

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3 dead in medical copter crash

Three people were killed when a medical helicopter crashed Monday night near the city of Rochelle. A witness says the medical...

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WebMD to cut 14 percent of workforce to reduce expenses

(Reuters) – Health information website WebMD Health Corp said it will cut around 250 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, to reduce costs.The company, which had about 1700 employees according to Thomson Reuters data, said it would take a charge of about $ 6 million to $ 8 million in the fourth quarter, primarily on severance and other restructuring-related costs.WebMD, which is a popular and long-trusted...

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World Chefs: Keller shares memories, spotlight in latest book

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thomas Keller, one of America‘s most respected chefs, shares the food memories of his childhood and his time in France in his new book “Bouchon Bakery,” which is also the name of his chain of pastry shops in the United States.Keller is the only American chef who owns two three-Michelin-star restaurants – Per Se in New York City and The French Laundry in the Napa Valley wine region...

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Concussion Liability Issues Could Stretch Beyond N.F.L.

Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee, via Associated PressInsurers could raise premiums with a higher risk of lawsuits for concussions, like the one 49ers quarterback Alex Smith sustained a month ago. As the N.F.L. confronts a raft of lawsuits brought by thousands of former players who accuse the league of hiding information about the dangers of concussions, a less visible battle that may have a more...

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