United moving to Willis Tower

Forget the new name given to the former Sears Tower. The nation's tallest building is becoming Chicago's real "United Center."

United Airlines owner UAL Corp. will move its operations center from the northwest suburbs to the recently renamed Willis Tower, 233 S. Wacker. City officials, including Chicago Ald. Robert Fioretti, whose 2nd Ward includes the building, confirmed the move Wednesday and said the mayor's office will announce it today.

Fioretti met with UAL officials to go over details of the company's request for a $25 million subsidy from the city. That would defray some costs of bringing 2,800 workers to Willis Tower, a symbol of downtown's dynamism and …

Bloom competition entries blossoming.

BUXTON RESIDENTS have been showing off their gardening skills as part of the annual Buxton in Bloom competition.

Opposition was tough with more entrants than ever before for all five of the categories, which were judged by members of the U3A, Ladies Circle and the Civic Association.

Months of hard work paid off for green fingered Geoff and Viv Smith of White Knowle Park when they were crowned winners of the Best Home Front category.

The first time entrants started work on their garden in April with Geoff responsible for all the digging and Viv being in charge of selecting the plants.

Geoff said: "We were elated when we found out we had won. …

WITH GOLD FIND A HOAX, BRE-X SEEKS PROTECTION.(MAIN)

Byline: Associated Press

TORONTO -- Bre-X Minerals filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday after its stock was destroyed by revelations that its much-touted gold strike on the Indonesian island of Borneo was a hoax.

Bre-X also announced it fired its senior vice president for exploration, geologist John Felderhof, who was deeply …

Another Alpine delay doesn't worry officials _ yet

The mountain is a mess, two events were postponed, and one practice session after another has been washed out in the Olympic Alpine schedule, including Sunday's for the women because of overnight snow and rain.

One could be forgiven for assuming that Olympic and Alpine skiing officials at these weather-weary Winter Games might be anxious.

So much, it seems, hinges on what happens _ or doesn't happen _ Monday.

That's when the men are supposed to compete in their marquee event, the downhill, two days late, while the women are supposed to finally get in an official training run, something they've been trying in vain to do since the middle of last …

funny how things turn out...

Take the Hammond Organ; created mid-20s century by Laurens Hammond, it was meant to be a compact, affordable substitution for the pipe organ. And it was. But it was also embraced by jazz players and rock musicians, acquiring a mystique and a set of cultural references all its own and quite beyond its creator's intentions.

Then there's the Rhodes; initially created by educator Harold Rhodes during WWII, the original was allegedly cobbled together using surplus parts from US bombers. It was used as part of a music therapy program for recovering soldiers, an instrument they could place on their laps and play in their hospital beds.

Can you imagine how the last 50-60 years of …

BASELL AND PKN ORLEN FINALIZE POLYOLEFINS JOINT VENTURE.(BASELL C.V., Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen S.A.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

POLAND

Basell and PKN Orlen (Plock, Polanc are finalizing details of a previously announced polyolefins joint venture at Plock and hope to sign a binding agreement this fall (CW, July 4/11, p. 22). The 50-50 iv has been codenamed Monika.

Basell CEO Volker Trautz says that the iv will have three production units. PKN's 150,000-m.t./year low-density polyethylene (PE) plant at Plock will be transferred to the new company, which will also build new plants to produce 320,000 m.t./year of high-density PE (HDPE) and 400,000 m.t./year of polypropylene (PP). Basell will supply its Hostalen HDPE and Spheripol homopolymer PF processes for the new plants, which are due …

New cardiology research from University of Toronto described.

Scientists discuss in 'Cell culture chips for simultaneous application of topographical and electrical cues enhance phenotype of cardiomyocytes' new findings in cardiology. According to recent research from Toronto, Canada, "In vivo, cardiomyocytes are exposed to multiple biochemical and physical cues including topographical and electrical cues. During prolonged in vitro cultivation in standard tissue culture set-ups, cardiomyocytes are known to de-differentiate due to the lack of appropriate micro-environmental cues."

"Most currently available cell culture systems provide only a single biophysical cue, thus development of advanced cell cultivation systems …