Malik Yoba in Chicago for 'Whatever She Wants'

Sweethearts may be in for a frosty Valentines Day, but a new romantic stage comedy will come to town just in time to get couples all warmed up and give some relationship pointers to singles looking for that special someone.

The award-winning team of Je'Caryous Johnson and Gary Guidry of I'm Ready Productions, has created hits like The Maintenance Man and Men Cry In the Dark, right from the pages of bestsellers. This week they bring the stage hit Whatever She Wants to the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place, 2301 S. Lakeshore Dr., for three nights only.

Whatever She Wants picks at women's fascination with lists when it comes to dreaming up the perfect mate. The central …

Italian Soccer Results

Results in the Serie A, the Italian first-division soccer league (home teams listed first):

Saturday's Games

Udinese 2, Lazio 2

AS Roma 2, AC Milan 1

Sunday's Games

Atalanta 4, Empoli 1

Cagliari 3, Torino 0

Fiorentina 3, Genoa 1

Inter Milan 2, Palermo 1

Livorno 1, Parma 1

Reggina 4, Siena …

OUT & ABOUT

Chicago-based Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Lisel Mueller willreader fro her works on Wednesday at the School of the Art Instituteof Chicago in the South Loop.

Mueller, who is also a founding member of the Poetry Center, isthe author of seven books of poetry including: Alive Together: New &Selected Poems (it …

Strategic positioning: M&A's new frontier

Once M&A stood for the consolidation of the banking industry-- cost cutting and efficiency were paramount Today, with regulatory and market barriers all but the field is wide open and strategic mergers and acquisitions are the means to support tremendous cross-industry growth... ...and expansion.

IN THE NEARLY TWO DECADES since the banking industry was deregulated, thousands of institutions large and small have been absorbed or shuttered. The waves of consolidation that nearly halved the number of U.S. banks since the mid-1980s were driven by relentless competitive pressures and the unceasing push for improvements in efficiency and greater economics of scale.

But the …

Martha Stewart in the kitchen with new baking show

NEW YORK (AP) — The oven is on, Martha Stewart is in the kitchen, and class is in session.

Stewart is adding a new show dedicated to teaching the basics of baking to the growing list of programs her company produces for the Hallmark Channel, the cable network to which she moved her daily show, "The Martha Stewart Show," in the fall.

Stewart's initial ratings after the move were disappointing, but she says they have improved and she believes viewers looking to learn rather than simply to be entertained will appreciate the 13-episode "Martha Bakes" series.

The format of the series — Stewart in the kitchen walking viewers step-by-step through recipes — is at odds with much …

No records in banned suits: Sullivan

World records set by swimmers wearing now-banned polyurethane swimsuits should not be allowed to stand, Australian Olympic silver medalist Eamon Sullivan said Tuesday.

Sullivan, who finished second in the 100m freestyle at the Beijing Olympics, said it would be "incredibly stupid" for world records set during 2009 by swimmers using the outlawed suit to be retained. Records set by some of swimming's greatest names had been lowered and Sullivan said FINA should consider restoring records set before the banned suits came into use.

"I definitely think now that the polyurethane suits have gone, to keep the records would be incredibly stupid," …

Suit calls Cook County Hospital practices unsafe

A doctor who was fired from Cook County Hospital has fired backwith a federal lawsuit that accuses hospital officials of condoningnegligent practices that resulted in death and injury to numerouspatients.

The 102-page complaint from Dr. Thomas Draghi paints a scarypicture of a hospital in which brain surgery was performed on thewrong patient, an otherwise-healthy asthma patient was rendered braindead by medical foulups and a newborn baby was killed by a hot airblast from a respirator that was improperly set.

Draghi contends patients in the hospital's Medical IntensiveCare Unit, where he was assigned, were at particular risk because ofthe use of defective …