*********** For Immediate Release **********

*********** For Immediate Release **********

ReliefSpark.org is pleased to announce a new message board to help
provide an online place for evacuees and volunteers to connect and share
information.

Have something to donate? Need practical FEMA information? Looking for a place to
stay? Visit our new message board at:

http://www.reliefspark.org/messageboard/

Other topics on the message board include:

-Fire News
-Long Term Recovery Needs
-Donations Offered
-Donations Requested
-Donation Drives
-Free Services Available
-FEMA Information
-Insurance Company Information
-Temporary Housing Solutions
-Temporary Pet Housing Solutions
-Volunteer Information
-Non-Profits Helping Out
-Information on Fraud, Price Gouging, Scams and Ripoffs

Visit the message boards today! :)

http://www.reliefspark.org/messageboard/

-------------------
About Relief Spark:
-------------------

Relief Spark is a non-profit that provides marketing, PR and volunteer support to
grassroots organizations in New Orleans, LA and Southern CA that assist with
helping communities respond and rebuild during and after natural disasters.

We are a network of volunteers that span across the world. We create channels of
distribution, we collect information and provide resources for volunteers and
individuals alike.

For more information please visit our website:

http://www.ReliefSpark.org

On the wind in Chicago: Bears mania

Here in the Windy City, few things are more sacrosanct than the '85 Bears.

Fans talk about that year's team in hushed tones, compare good linebackers to the legendary Mike Singletary, and remember listening to the "Super Bowl Shuffle." It was a time when the Bears name inspired respect, not derision. After 21 years in the desert, the team is finally winning - and many loyal fans are feeling that old Bears fever. With six games to go in the season, tickets that sold for $150 apiece are now going for three times that. Just a parking pass to Soldier Field costs at least $280. A few starry-eyed Chicagoans are already plunking down thousands for Super Bowl tickets.

This is a city where baseball loyalties are split between the White Sox and the Cubs, where the NHL's Blackhawks are barely followed and the NBA's Bulls gain notice only if they win. But as soon as cold weather hits, the one thing most Chicagoans can agree on is their love of the Bears.

"Everyone roots for the Bears," says Randy Merkin, sports director of the Chicago-based Sporting News Radio. "It unifies. At a time when the weather's cold and the days are shorter, what do you have to look forward to? Sundays at 3 o'clock."

The team is off to a 9-1 start, its hopes for a perfect season dashed three games ago by poorly ranked Miami. On Sunday it travels to New England to take on the 7-3 Patriots. If all keeps going well, the Bears will probably have home-field advantage for the playoffs - and they'll compete in a division and conference with few strong opponents.

Visions of Super Bowl dance in their heads

All of this - combined with the desperate dreams of fans who haven't tasted victory in a long time - have many Chicagoans drooling over prospects for a Super Bowl berth.

"We've stuck through a lot of miserable seasons. This year we finally have reason to hope," says Dale Lorance, who's had season tickets for 11 years with his girlfriend, Marie Delabre. In all that time, they've missed only one game, sticking it out through the late 1990s when the Bears finished last in their division for four years running.

"As long as everybody stays healthy, I don't see anyone in the NFC that can match them," says Mr. Lorance, wearing a bright orange Bears jersey and watching Monday night football at Junior's Sports Lounge, about a mile west of Soldier Field.

He and Ms. Delabre say the atmosphere has changed this year. People who used to feel sorry for them as season ticket-holders are trying desperately to buy their tickets. When they show up at the stadium at 5:30 in the morning for a day of tailgating before the game, they're never the first ones there.

Columnists and fans started comparing this team with the '85 championship Bears back in October, when the team got off to an undefeated start and seemed to have - like that other team - an unbeatable defense.

Still, even the most die-hard fans admit that this team isn't quite as good as the legendary one of Walter Payton, Jim McMahon, and Mike Singletary. For starters, it lacks a consistent quarterback - a point driven home during the Bears' loss to Miami and an eked-out win against Arizona, which the defense won in spite of six turnovers by quarterback Rex Grossman.

Shake that 'loser city' rap

Chicago's reputation as a sports loser - an image that has stuck despite the White Sox World Series victory last year and the Bulls dynasty in the 1990s - causes many fans to brace themselves for disappointment even as they dare to hope.

"People are cautiously optimistic," says Mr. Merkin of Sporting News Radio. But if the Bears do make it to the Super Bowl, he says, "it'll get rid of that tag that's been on this city as a loser city."

At least one player on that '85 team says he's watching and rooting right along with everyone else. "The city deserves a championship," says Shaun Gayle, who played safety, during a relaxed evening watching football at Junior's. "Most of the guys from '85, we know these guys are enjoying it, and they should.... I think their loss to Miami early helped them to focus. I really think they have a chance to get to the Super Bowl."

Like great Bears teams of the past, this one is in many ways a mirror of Chicago: rough and tumble, scrappy and tough. The Bears typically rely on defense more than offense, and the team looks to its great linebackers - from Dick Butkus to Brian Urlacher - more than to its quarterbacks. That may explain why so many Chicagoans identify so closely with the team.

"This is a Bears town," says Lorance, the season ticket-holder. "Twenty years from now, will they still be talking about the '05 White Sox? Probably not. But we still talk about the '85 Bears. That team was feared by everyone in the league."

Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman knows what he's facing

The opponent has the fourth-ranked defense and has allowed fewer points than any team but his own, not that Rex Grossman needed the reminder.

It wasn't necessary to mention the New England Patriots have won three of the past five Super Bowls, either. The Chicago Bears quarterback knows what he's up against, and he realizes he needs to get off to a better start than in last week's 10-0 victory over the New York Jets.

"It's not something complicated that I'm going to figure out," Grossman said on Wednesday. "It's just a matter of going out and playing well. For the most part, I made good decisions, but I didn't deliver the ball the way I wanted to. That's easily correctable."

All but seven of Grossman's 119 yards against the Jets came in the second half. And he wound up 11-for-22 with a touchdown - a short pass that Mark Bradley turned into a 57-yarder - after completing 5-of-11 in the first two quarters.

The Jets outgained the Bears 156 yards to 80 in the first half, but Chicago prevailed thanks to its running game and several key plays by the defense and special teams. Chris Harris recovered a Jets onside kick to start the third quarter, leading to a field goal. Brian Urlacher intercepted Chad Pennington in the end zone in the second quarter, and Nathan Vasher picked off a pass in Bears territory in the third.

Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson each averaged more than five yards per carry, with Jones running for 121 and Benson adding 51.

"We didn't go into the game saying we'll be conservative," offensive coordinator Ron Turner said. "We never got a chance to get Rex into a rhythm or get our offense into a rhythm. And in the second half, we did get conservative. We were getting six, seven yards a carry."

That explains why a Bears team (9-1) that looked like it was headed toward a slump after losing 31-13 to Miami at Soldier Field, has visions of a three-game road sweep.

After beating the New York Giants and Jets on back-to-back weekends at the Meadowlands, the Bears have the NFC North all but wrapped up and hold a three-game lead in the race for the conference's No. 1 seed. A win on Sunday and losses by Green Bay and Minnesota would give Chicago the division title.

"We're excited about where we're at," Grossman said. "We're pumped up at 9-1. ... It's up to you to decide if it's a measuring stick."

To Vasher, this week's game is just that.

"It's a measuring stick to where we ultimately want to be," he said. "That's one of the premier teams in the league."

The Bears will be tested by quarterback Tom Brady, and Grossman will see a defense that's among the best at confusing quarterbacks.

"They do a really good job, and they always seem to have some wrinkles," offensive co-ordinator Ron Turner said. "They try to take away what you do best."

Grossman has had moments of brilliance and games where he had more success getting the ball to the opponent than to his receivers. He committed six turnovers in a one-point win at Arizona on Oct. 16 and four in the loss to Miami, and he has a tendency to veer from his fundamentals when pressured.

Still, he's 13-4 as a starter.

Grossman acknowledged he's trying to find a balance between his gunslinging instincts and simply managing the offense, which is what he did last week. He plans to spend "a lot of time" reviewing the Patriots (7-3), who run the same defense as the Jets, but he already realizes New England's front seven is one of the best in the league.

He doesn't need a reminder.

"They're not only great players, but they've been in the system a long time," Grossman said. "They really understand what they're trying to do with pass routes and coverages and mixing up different looks."

Cubs ride Lee's first HR in nearly 3 months

Derrek Lee’s first homer in almost three months came at the best possible time for the reeling Chicago Cubs.
His long, two-run shot into the left-field bleachers tied the score in the eighth inning, and the Cubs scored three more runs to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 Wednesday and end a five-game losing streak. Chicago had dropped nine straight at Wrigley Field.
“It’s a huge relief,” manager Dusty Baker said. “Now you see what it means to have D-Lee back, to have that big bat in the lineup.” Lee, who came off the disabled list Sunday after missing 59 games with a broken wrist, hit his first homer since April 8, a shot off Dan Kolb (2-2) that started the comeback.
Obviously, after missing so much time, the defending NL batting champ is still feeling his way around the plate and the field. He is 4-for-17 since being activated.
“I don’t feel great, honestly, at the plate,” Lee said. “But you just keep working and you don’t know when good things can happen. I’ll keep fighting until I get that rhythm down and get in a groove.”
Kolb struck out the next two batters before Jacque Jones singled to left. Ronny Cedeno then blooped a double into shallow right just out of the reach of diving second baseman Rickie Weeks.

White Sox hand Pirates 13th straight loss

The Pittsburgh Pirates set a team record with their 13th consecutive defeat Wednesday night, blowing a three-run lead in the seventh inning and losing 4-3 to the Chicago White Sox.
Juan Uribe’s bases-loaded triple keyed Chicago’s four-run comeback. The Pirates put two runners on in the ninth against closer Bobby Jenks, but their best hitter, Jason Bay, struck out to end it.
The Pirates, winless for more than two weeks, broke the modern-era (since 1900) club record of 12 straight losses set in 1939. The only longer losing streak in Pittsburgh’s major league history was a 23-game slide by the Pittsburg Alleghenies in 1890. Until the current streak — one that has all but assured them of a 14th consecutive losing season — the Pirates had not lost more than 10 in a row in 38 years or more than 11 in a row in 51 years.
The White Sox, by contrast, are playing almost as well as the Pirates are playing poorly. With Scott Podsednik finishing off the seventh with a go-ahead RBI single, the World Series champions won their 11th in 12 games and 13th in 15 games. They are 12-2 in interleague play and have won their last eight series since dropping two of three to the Rangers from June 2-4.

Play-by-play of the Cubs-Brewers game from a guy who's going to temple tonight

Well, I'm back after almost two months away from any action. I won't get into details as to why, let's just say Tribune doesn't like to see one of it's employees involved with the phrases "lap dance" and "Sue the dinosaur." I'll try to behave from now on.
Let's see, anything happen to the Cubs in the past two months? No, nothing I can think of. I had the "pleasure" of seeing them play live on Monday night. The tickets were free, so I suppose I got my money's worth. I decided to avoid watching them last night, and it turns out that had I paid for it I might have gotten my money's worth in sheer comedy. They do find their ways of losing.(For the record, my favorite is the pop-up bouncing off of Ramirez's head, with two runs scoring on a sac fly a close second. And both of those in one weekend.)
The result of all this losing is that our readers' All-City Team is the White Sox, and it doesn't appear that it's because some techie rigged it (as has been the case in recent years). Y'all just seem to think the White Sox are substantially better at each position, and you are, as we say in the business, "not wrong."
Righty Carlos Marmol, who looked promising at first but is coming down to earth, starts for the Cubs, sporting a 1-2 record with a 4.98 ERA. The Brewers counter with righty Dave Bush (5-6, 4.61), who can surpass his career high in victories if he notches one today. According to several sources on the Web, Bush has had a Major League career. Coulda fooled me. Today's lineups. Drop me a line via e-mail (rstrohl@tribune.com) or via the comment board on the right. Click on auto-refresh if that's what you want, also over on the right. Baseball soon.
FIRST INNING
Doug Eddings calling balls and strikes today. Catchers, make sure you tag any strikeout victims. As for the chances of the Cubs picking up Carlos Lee, judging by their decisions the past few years, who knows? The Brewers just may want to hold onto him. Rickie Weeks sends one high to left field, the wind knocks it down and Nevin makes the catch. Wind blowing hard in from left, by the way. Glad to see the Lord Vishnu coming to my aid on the comment board. I knew if I just had faith… Marmol fans Bill Hall and gets Geoff Geonkins looking.
Brewers 0, Cubs comin' up
This time Juan Pierre's bunt is of the swinging variety, but Weeks makes a nice play to get him by a half step. Sorry I forgot the auto-refresh. It's up now. Walker flies out to Geonkins, Lee does the same.
Scoreless
SECOND INNING
Apu, I'd take you up on the Squishy but I just finished an ice cream bar, so I'm good for now. We come back to the sight of the poor Walgreens celebrity bat kids being forced to wave for way longer than seems comfortable. Carlos Lee, whom most on the board want to see in Cubbie blue next year, continues his ownership of Wrigley with a double off the right-center ivy. Prince Fielder, of the wide-bottomed Fielders, pops up behind the plate and Blanco does a good job of following it swirling in the wind, and squeezes it. Lee tries to catch Marmol napping, nothing doing as Carlos M. spins off the rubber and runs right at Carlos L., applying the tag himself. Koskie bounces weekly to Lee, Derrek, and the inning is over.
Nuf'n
Ramirez grounds out and Len and Bob are rambling on about the teddy bears that were the party favors for showing up to Wrigley today. Monday was Old Style Light Cubs road cap day. I declined the honor of taking one. Nevin grounds out to third. Jacque Jones breaks up the perfect game with a single to left, one that wouldn't have happened if the Brewers weren't playing the shift. To some comment board matters: David, I kinda want the Bulls to take Adam Morrisson just for the theatricalities that will result. Politically Correct, I have no problem with going to church. I do that twice a year to appease the WASP half of me. Can you guess which days? Jones swipes second off his former USC teammate Chad Moeller. That info courtesy Len. Cedeno breaks his bat while grounding weakly to second.
Nil-nil
THIRD INNING
Moeller grounds to third as Peter Frampton talks to Len and Bob. Do you feel like he does? Gabe Gross flies to his counterpart, Juan Pierre, and Bush strikes out against his counterpart, Carlos Marmol.
Goose eggs
Let's put an end to the holy wars on the board and just agree, in the name of Michael Jordan, that we will all just get along. And to those thinking I'm going to Philly tonight, that Temple has a capital "T." As for the hopelessness of the Cubs, well, at least it's worth it to tune in toward the end of each game to see if they can pull something as spectacular as last night. Blanco flies to Lee, Carlos, in left. Bush returns the favor that Marmol offered him in the top of the inning and Marmol walks back to the bench. Juan Pierre hits a homer. That is not a typo. My colleague, Adam Caldarelli, asked if it was a bunt home run, then asked if he showed bunt earlier in the at-bat. Nope, Adam, that was a first-pitch tater. First homer as a Cub and 10th of his career, so Pierre is back to trailing Zambrano by only one homer. Pierre did the Sammy chest tap kiss thing to the camera, to the smiles of a few teammates. Walker does as his name would suggest, looking at four pitched balls outside of the strike zone. Frampton has left the booth, but Len and Bob continue on the topic.
a