Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 2-3

3 CHICAGO TRIBUNE METRO SECTION2 The collection of past-due child-support payments increased 71 percent to $420,000 in 2007, thanks to a partnership between two state agencies seeking to crack down on delinquent parents, according to a statement released Sunday by Gov. Rod office. The state collected $245,000 in overdue child-support payments in 2006, according to the statement. But beginning this year, officials combined the services of the Illinois Departmentof Healthcare and Family Services, which collects child-supportpayments, with the Financial and Professional Regulation Department, the agency that issues state licenses for everything from public accountants to message therapists. With this partnership, people who owe more than $1,000 in child support can be denied licenses when they are up for renewal.

Child-support payments statewide rose to $1.22 billion this year from $1.14 billion in 2006. ILLINOIS State child-support collection up in A West Side woman has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of her husband early Sunday, police said. Officers were called to an apartment in the 100 block of South Campbell Avenue about 1:15 a.m., Chicago Police Officer Marcel Bright said. When they arrived, they found the body of Alexander Barnes, 70, police said. wife, Rovenne Barnes, 51, was taken into custody and charged hours later with first-degree murder, police said.

She is scheduled to appear in Bond Court Monday, Chicago Police Sgt. Eugene Mullins said. WEST SIDE Wife charged in fatal stabbing of husband, 70 Barnes Chicago police were questioning the driver of a minivan that crashed into a television news studio Sunday, moments after the station went on-air for its 10 p.m. newscast. No one inside the WLS-Ch.

7 studios at 190 N. State St. was injured, police said, but the loud impact unnerved anchor Ravi Baichwal, who shouted and looked off camera. It was not immediately clear why the male driver of a Mazda MPV with Indiana license plates plowed into the reinforced glass wall, police said. The thick, bullet-proof glass did not shatter and the driver was uninjured, said Chicago Police Sgt.

Darien Easterday. ABC 7 President and General Manager Emily Barr said the incident might have been deliberate, we verify A structural engineer will look at the building after the vehicle is removed, she said, but she expects the station will broadcast its 5 a.m. Monday newscast as usual from the studio. CHICAGO Driver hits Ch. 7 studio during news broadcast CTA Yellow Line service will not be operating during the Monday morning rush hour because of a downed power line, officials said.

Rail service will be shut down at least through midmorning while a Commonwealth Edison crew works to repair the line on Prairie Road in north suburban Skokie, said Chicago Transit Authority spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney. The No. 97 Skokie bus will be operating in both directions between the Skokie stop and the Howard stop, which are the only ones on the line. SKOKIE CTA Yellow Line to halt for power-line repairs The parents and grandparents of a Plainfield woman missing since April have filed a petition in Will County Circuit Court seeking visitation rights with her children. Lisa parents and grandparents have asked that the court appoint a counselor to meet independently with them and her children to determine whether to bring the two sides together.

Melanie Greenberg, cousin and the spokeswoman, has said parents and grandparents have not been allowed to see or speak to thechildren 11 and for about two years. Lisa Stebic, 37, and her estranged husband, Craig Stebic, had begun divorce proceedings when she vanished April 30. PLAINFIELD Lisa parents file petition to see grandkids METROPOLITAN DIGEST By Alexa Aguilar Tribune staff reporter Her youngest fame may have focused the attention on her death, but Rose life was what drew more than 600 people to her memorial service Sunday. Relatives gathered in the neighborhood church she attended for decades to remember the life of the 90-year-old Lombard woman, who was killed Wednesday when her car was struck by a train in Lombard. Her youngest son, Daniel Tani, is aboard the International Space Station.

Before the astronaut became one of most famous citizens, his mother was building relationships and earning a reputation in thecommunity as a generous and tireless giver of time and money, said Rev. Rob Hatfield, senior minister at First Church of Lombard and a longtime family friend. Though she was 90, she lived as though she were in the prime of her life, her children recalled. She spent hours volunteering, was a regular at church events and still loved to get on the floor to play with her grandchildren, relatives remembered. Rose Tani was on hand for white-water rafting trips, visited Russia and traveled to Cape Canaveral, to watch Daniel launch into space in October.

Tani, who return to Earth until late January, sent a videotaped message from space that was played during the service. He recalled watching his elderly mother scoot down a playground slide and roll around on the lawn with his daughters. Though his mother spent years in a U.S. government internment camp during World War II and was later widowed with five children, Rose Tani chose to make the best of her life, he said, adding that use her example to deal with the tragedy. He ended the message by telling his mother, love you so Tears were shed, but several memories from Rose children brought chuckles.

Richard Tani recalled when his mother asked him to come over to help trim a tree in the back yard. When he arrived, he asked which branches she wanted him to cut. His elderly response? hold the she told him. His sister, Christine, told the crowd that when Rose was a child, it was culturally expected by her Japanese immigrant parents that a young daughter would be seen, but not heard, by adults. Rose Tani was determined that she would let her future daughter speak her mind, she said.

Daniel siblings are used to hearing how proud they must be of their successful space-traveling brother, Christine Tani said. But they are proudest of their mother, who raised him alone to become the man he is, she said. They will likely gather together as a family for a private service when Daniel Tani returns, Hatfield said. Kathy Bafundo, a Lombard resident and church member, attended the service Sunday to honor a woman known since Bafundo was a little girl. because of her famous she said.

church still would be full with people because she was so loved and so Tribune photo by M. Osorio The pews of First Church of Lombard are packed as Rev. Rob Hatfield speaks at a memorial service for Rose Tani. 600 attend memorial for mother Daniel Tani (right) sends a videotaped message from space to a service for his mother, Rose Tani Tribune photo by M. Osorio Family members of Rose Tani console each other Sunday.

on fire. No one was hurt, officials said. One of the cars was a green Nissan Maxima. The other was a skeleton of blackened metal, its make unrecognizable. The incident shook up Paul and Rose Santana, who live a few doors down from the home that lost its roof.

heard then the car alarm going said Rose Santana, 42, the owner. By early afternoon, a ComEd crew was repairing the electric line. no said Larry Mikolajczak, a ComEd crew member. By Sara Olkon Tribune staff reporter About 215,000 homes in the Chicago area lost power at some point Sunday after a fierce overnight storm and gusting daytime winds toppled trees and power lines across the region. Residents of Chicago and the south suburbs, including South Holland, Orland Park and Oak Lawn, were the hardest hit.

ComEd dispatched more than 140 crews working 16-hour shifts, company spokesman Joe Trost said. As of 8 p.m., about 15,000 ComEd homes remained in the dark. Jim Bosco, who lives in West Town neighborhood, said Sunday afternoon that his home had been without power for 12 hours. He reported that a high- voltage wire was still lying, unprotected, in an alley near his home. much longer can I go before the pipes Bosco said.

The winds made it harder for Chicago firefighters to put out a 4 a.m. blaze on the West Side. The weather forced the cancellation of about 300 flights scheduled out of International Airport, and both and Midway Airport reported delays. On the roads, about 10 drivers who were in the thick of the storm early Sunday morning spun out and landed their cars in ditches along Interstate Highway 90 and Interstate Highway 294, near the Wisconsin border, according to Illinois State Police. Trees smashed windows, tarps on construction sites were ripping in the wind, and aconstruction sign blocked a lane on I-90.

is a weird weather said Matt Smith, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation. is the biggest The department blamed the storm for 547 tree emergencies and 169 knocked-out traffic signals. In Garfield Ridge, the wind blew a roof off a two-story home. The roof then smashed over an electric pole, knocking power lines onto a pair of parked cars and setting them Tribune photo by Chuck Berman strong winds knocked a tree into a house in Little Village neighborhood. City officials said there were 547 tree emergencies.

Bitter winds leave thousands without power City, south suburbs hardest hit by storm, gusts and outages Tribune photo by Nancy Stone A traffic light dangles in the wind Sunday at Lake Shore Drive and West Goethe Street. According to Chicago officials, about 169 signals were damaged by the weather. By Brian Cox Special to the Tribune A group of Northwestern University engineering students wants cooking oil from residence halls to fuel the three shuttle buses and reduce the harmful carbon dioxide they produce. The switch would cut the greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 90 percent and save the university about $11,000 a year, the students said. want our actions now to negatively affect our said 19-year-old chemical engineering student Ritu Gopal.

want to reduce poverty and use renewable energy, things like One of the shuttle buses makes at least 10 trips a day between the Evanston and Chicago campuses, and the other two take students around the Evanston campus. Gopal said the buses run more than 1,500 miles a week, producing about 3.5 tons of harmful carbon dioxide a year. She said the plan calls for converting 150 gallons of used cooking oil from residence halls for use with diesel oil to operate the shuttle buses. cooking oil is from the french fries, onion rings and other fried Gopal said. now, being hauled Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations, said the biofuel proposal has the tentative backing of the school, which is willing to work with the students to bring it to fruition.

university is certainly interested and open to the Cubbage said. More than a dozen Northwestern engineering students form the local chapter of a national group called Engineers for a Sustainable World. They are behind the push to use the cooking oil as fuel. The students came up with the idea after taking part in the launch of action last month in which the city looked for ways to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by 15 percent by 2012. Gopal said other universities in Illinois are using alternative fuels to power their vehicles, so it made sense to bring the new technology to Evanston.

hoping to have this in place in the next year or she said. Students cook up biofuel proposal Used food oil eyed to fuel NU buses Product: CTMETRO PubDate: 12-24-2007 Zone: ALL Edition: HD Page: 2-3 User: bfletcher Time: Color:.