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2,000 Climbers Tackle Stairs Of Sears Tower 3:08 p.m. CST November 12, 2006 Climbers huffed and puffed their way up 2,109 steps to raise money for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. "We've been around for 60 years this year, and our mission is to find young cancer researchers across the country who are committed to new answers for all types of cancer," said Lorraine Egan of the foundation. "They?ve won Nobel Prizes, they're running cancer research centers around the country and, most importantly, they've made breakthrough discoveries that have improved the treatment for cancer and are really saving lives," she said. The foundation has raised nearly $200 million since 1946. Egan said this fifth year for "Go Vertical Chicago" raised $300,000, and 100 percent of those funds go toward cancer research. "It's just amazing that there are so many people in Chicago who are willing to come out and climb the tallest building in the country for cancer," Egan said. Dave Shafron took part in the "elite athlete race" that began just after 7 a.m., and he finished with one of the fastest times. "I did pretty well," he said. "The official results aren't in, but I think I was right around the top three, possibly four, and ran right around 14:10 to 14:15 or so." It was Shafron's third stair climb. He tries to do a lot of endurance training, like biking and running hills, leading up to the event, in addition to practicing on the actual stairs. At noon, individual and team runners got their shot at the stairs. NBC 5's Carla Eboh reported from the Skydeck that paramedics were on hand but had not been needed by mid-morning. Sears Tower eateries lost $1.1 mil. in 7 months: suit Nov. 01, 2006 The restaurants closed in September. The fiasco is a costly misstep by Sears Tower's owners, a group that includes Skokie-based American Landmark Properties Ltd. and two New York real estate investors, Joseph Chetrit and Joseph Moinian. In February, they abruptly replaced Chicago-based Levy Restaurants Inc. with Sodexho as the operator of the four restaurants, which are owned by the building and are on the second floor of the 110-story tower. The group is negotiating
agreements with new operators that would "make Sears Tower a restaurant
destination for the West Loop," a spokesman says. "This is a top
priority." Under Levy, the four restaurants had been popular but never very profitable for the building. But Sears Tower's owners were rankled by what it considered the "very favorable" terms of the agreement with Levy, which was originally signed in 1990. Twice in 2005, Levy sued to recover payments due under the agreement. But under Sodexho, the ownership group found that "long delays were common," the restaurants "were not clean" and they offered "institutional quality" food at prices that were "significantly higher" than the competition, according to the complaint, filed Oct. 13 in Cook County Circuit Court. The ownership group wants to recover the operating losses and is seeking other damages. Gaithersburg, Md.-based Sodexho says in a statement that it "denies the material allegations . . . in the complaint and we expect to file a counterclaim. We were very disappointed that we were unable to resolve the contract issues in a mutually agreeable fashion." Sodexho initially predicted the restaurants would operate at a $26,000 loss during the first, transition year. In May, after a rough transition, the company apparently submitted a revised budget that forecast a loss of nearly $700,000, and then blew past that figure by more than $400,000, according to a budget document attached to the complaint. Those losses were to be borne by the ownership group, Sodexho's contract says. Federal Agents Raid Suspected Terror Cell in Miami Courtesy to PIERRE THOMAS and ABC News June 22, 2006 — Federal agents, including the FBI, launched a series of raids tonight targeting a suspected terror cell based in Miami, and federal law enforcement officials said seven people have been arrested over the past two days. Among those arrested, five were U.S. citizens, one was a permanent legal resident, and one was a Haitian who was in the United States illegally on a visa overstay, federal officials told ABC News. The group has been under surveillance for some time and was infilitrated by a government informant who allegedly led them to believe he was an Islamic radical, a Justice Department official said. The group had expressed interest and discussed bombing targets in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago, sources familiar with the investigation said. Sources say the arrests reflect the government's concern about so-called "homegrown terrorists." It's a threat FBI Director Robert Mueller discussed during a recent speech in New York. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the FBI are expected to hold a press conference about the arrests at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Washington at the Justice Department. Following the press conference, the U.S. Attorney in Miami is expected to hold a press conference as well. Sears tower raided Courtesy to Immigration News Briefs On May 22, federal authorities in Chicago confirmed that they had arrested immigrants working illegally at businesses in the 110-story Sears Tower, following an investigation allegedly motivated by security concerns. Immigration officials would not confirm the number of people arrested, their countries of origin or when the arrests were made. Gail Montenegro, a spokesperson for the Chicago office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE), claimed that immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding but are working illegally can be vulnerable to being blackmailed by terrorists. "This is really an outrageous abuse of national security rhetoric to scapegoat people who are doing nothing but working in restaurants," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "Spiderman" Alain Robert scaled Sears Tower, Chicago, this Friday August 20, 1999.
Alain Robert was greeted at the top of the 110-story, 1,454- foot building by Sears workers and Chicago police, who helped him up before arresting him. A police spokeswoman said Robert faces at least trespassing charges. "He ... had a reception party waiting for him when he reached the top," said Patrick Camden, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department. Robert attached a safety harness to the building for his ascent, which began shortly after 6 a.m. local time (5 a.m. EDT). He occasionally paused to dust his hands with chalk, and stopped once to dust a greeting on a window for office workers, who waved when he passed. Down below, about 100 people who watched the feat on their way to work in Chicago's central business district cheered when Robert, clad in red shirt and pants, reached the top in little more than one hour. "I think it's great," Holly Liss, a futures broker for Fuji Securities Inc., said. But electrician Scott Kerivan commented: "Most people are here to see if he falls." But by the time he reached the top floor clouds had rolled in, partially obscuring the view of his conquest from the street below. Robert, who has also climbed the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower, used a channel for window washing equipment to gain footholds on the building, which was the world's tallest office structure until it was eclipsed by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has also climbed the 54-story Shinjuku Tower in Tokyo, the 41-story Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, the obelisk in Paris's Place de la Concorde, the Canary Wharf building in London and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. His exploits have resulted in several other arrests and minor charges.
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