Property purchase near McCormick gets OK

Convention officials on Tuesday took a step toward acquiring properties north of McCormick Place for the potential development of hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority board approved the purchase of a parcel at 2101 S. Indiana Ave. for $5.1 million, with closing expected by year-end. A two-story building on the 23,126-square-foot property is now leased to operators of a methadone clinic.

The property is on the same block as a contested 1.23-acre parcel at 230 E. Cermak Rd., owned since 2005 by Olde Prairie Block Owner LLC. The company, led by developers Pamela Gleichman, Karl Norberg and Gunnar Falk, is fighting in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to retain that parcel as well as the entire block immediately to the east, at 330 E. Cermak, which it has owned since 1998 and hopes to develop as a convention hotel, a smaller boutique hotel and restaurants.

If Olde Prairie fails to show its plan is financially plausible at a hearing Dec. 27, Judge Jack Schmetterer has said he will dismiss it, opening the door for lender CenterPoint Properties Trust to take over the parcels and put them up for auction. Olde Prairie has been in default since early 2009.

Jim Reilly, CEO of the authority, the state-city agency that owns McCormick Place, declined to comment on whether the authority would pursue the Olde Prairie Block properties if they become available.

The authority, commonly known as McPier, has been in talks with DePaul University about the possibility of building an arena for men's basketball near McCormick Place, but Reilly said the purchase of the South Indiana parcel is an independent move aimed at ensuring the authority has room to develop such add-ons as more hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues. DePaul, whose Blue Demons play at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, also has been in talks with the owners of the United Center.

Meanwhile, speculation has resurfaced about building a casino near McCormick Place, with questions about whether the Olde Prairie blocks would be considered. Reilly said he thinks they are too close to the exhibit halls. Convention officials have said a casino on the convention campus or its immediate vicinity could pull trade show attendees away from the show floor.

McPier's latest acquisition will add to a nearby parcel it already owns at 2100 S. Prairie Ave.

"Ultimately, our goal is to develop a more vibrant and interesting neighborhood for McCormick Place," Reilly said.

McPier will purchase the parcel on South Indiana from RZR Equities LLC, Noah LLC and Hinsdale 111 LLC.

A financial restructuring approved by the Illinois General Assembly in 2010 gave the authority additional borrowing capacity for expansion projects. McPier will use proceeds from expansion bonds to fund the purchase.

kbergen@tribune.com

Twitter @kathy_bergen

Read More..

22 face charges in NIU student's fraternity hazing death

Nearly two dozen members of a Northern Illinois University fraternity were charged with hazing crimes Monday after a student died following excessive drinking at a party last month.

On the night before his death, freshman David Bogenberger went from room to room in the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, answering a series of questions in exchange for vodka and other liquor over a two-hour period, authorities said.

It was a part of an annual ritual known as "parents' night," an alcohol-infused party in which senior members of the fraternity and associated sororities are assigned as mentors to new members. Bogenberger, a 19-year-old finance major from Palatine, had recently pledged the house in an effort to make friends at his father's alma mater.

"He wanted to be liked. He wanted to be accepted," said Peter R. Coladarci, the Bogenberger family attorney. "It's a classic case of a kid who just wants to fit in with the group."

Bogenberger's efforts to fit in proved fatal, as he was found dead in a fraternity house bed the next morning. Subsequent tests found his blood alcohol content was about five times the legal limit for driving of 0.08 percent at the time of his death, authorities said.

NIU regularly approves parents' night parties, but police say fraternity leaders intentionally kept the event a secret from campus officials so they could serve liquor without oversight. Registered gatherings typically include inspections to ensure that university rules are being followed.

The alleged deceit led to criminal charges against 22 members of the fraternity, which ceased operation shortly after Bogenberger's Nov. 2 death.

DeKalb County authorities have charged five fraternity leaders with felony hazing in connection with the incident, authorities said. Seventeen others face misdemeanor charges.

"They knowingly planned this event and did not seek to register it because of the kind of event they were going to provide, because of the amount of alcohol that was to be consumed," DeKalb Police Department Lt. Jason Leverton said.

Charged with felony hazing are the fraternity's president, Alexander M. Jandick, 21, of Naperville; its vice president, James P. Harvey, 21, of DeKalb; pledge adviser Omar Salameh, 21, of DeKalb; secretary Patrick W. Merrill, 19, of DeKalb; and event planner Steven A. Libert, 20, of Naperville, authorities said.

Felony hazing carries a possible prison sentence of one to three years, though probation is an option. The misdemeanor hazing charge carries a penalty of up to 364 days in jail, with probation as an option.

In a statement released through DeKalb authorities, Bogenberger's family it still was grappling with his death and a future without him. The family also acknowledged concern for the families of those charged Monday.

"We have no desire for revenge. Rather, we hope that some significant change will come from David's death," the statement read. "Alcohol poisoning claims far too many young, healthy lives. We must realize that young people can and do die in hazing rituals. Alcohol-involved hazing and initiation must end."

One of the fraternity officers called the Bogenberger family in Florida over the weekend to express his regret, Coladarci said. The student -- who Coladarci believes was among those charged -- gave his account of the evening and acknowledged errors in judgment, the attorney said.

The family believes the charges were necessary to prevent future hazing incidents, Coladarci said. He declined to discuss possible punishments, only saying the family is not seeking "an eye for an eye" and does not want to see any "harm" done to those charged.

"These kind of hazing incidents are commonplace on college campuses, and I think these kids don't understand that you can die from it," he said. "This is a national health epidemic, which must be addressed."

A spokesman for the Pi Kappa Alpha headquarters in Memphis, Tenn., did not respond to requests for comment.

NIU has placed temporary sanctions against the fraternity, meaning that it cannot operate as a student organization, NIU spokesman Paul Palian said. The fraternity faces disciplinary charges that could lead to permanent sanctions.

NIU also announced disciplinary charges Monday against 31 fraternity members. The charges stem from violations of the student code of conduct regarding hazing and alcohol consumption.

Read More..

Judge rejects Apple injunction bid vs. Samsung

(Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday denied Apple Inc‘s request for a permanent injunction against Samsung Electronics‘ smartphones, depriving the iPhone maker of key leverage in the mobile patent wars.

Apple had been awarded $ 1.05 billion in damages in August after a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. The Samsung products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.

Apple and Samsung are going toe-to-toe in a patents dispute that mirrors the struggle for industry supremacy between the two companies, which control more than half of worldwide smartphone sales.

For most of the year, Apple had been successful in its U.S. litigation campaign against Samsung. Apple convinced U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California to impose two pretrial sales bans against Samsung — one against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the other against the Galaxy Nexus phone.

Apple then sought to keep up the pressure after its sweeping jury win. It asked Koh to impose a permanent sales ban against 26 mostly older Samsung phones, though any injunction could potentially have been extended to Samsung’s newer Galaxy products.

Yet the jury exonerated Samsung on the patent used to ban Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales, and Koh rescinded that injunction. Then, in October, a federal appeals court reversed Koh’s ban against the Nexus phone.

In her order late on Monday, Koh cited that appellate ruling as binding legal precedent, ruling that Apple had not presented enough evidence that its patented features drove consumer demand for the entire iPhone.

“The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,” Koh wrote.

“Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple,” she continued, “it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions.”

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on Koh’s ruling, and a Samsung representative could not immediately be reached.

In a separate order on Monday, Koh rejected a bid by Samsung for a new trial based on an allegation that the jury foreman was improperly biased in favor of Apple.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

(Reporting by Dan Levine in Oakland, California; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Judge rejects Apple injunction bid vs. Samsung
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Participant Media plans cable TV network targeting millenials

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Entertainment company Participant Media, one of the backers of the hit historical drama “Lincoln”, will launch a cable TV network next summer with programming that focuses on social issues of interest to the millenials generation of teens and young adults.

The channel’s original programming, films and documentaries will be aimed at viewers age 18 to 34 in the large demographic group known as millenials, Participant Media CEO Jim Berk said in an interview on Monday.

Millenials are particularly interested in the type of content that Participant produces about social issues, Berk said. The studio’s credits include the current release “Lincoln”, about President Abraham Lincoln‘s push to ban slavery, last year’s civil rights drama “The Help” and Al Gore climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Participant Media is creating the new network by purchasing two existing cable channels, The Documentary Channel and Halogen TV. After those networks are combined and rebranded, the new channel will reach an estimated 40 million of the more than 100 million U.S. pay-TV subscribers.

The company, founded by billionaire and former eBay Inc President Jeff Skoll with the aim of producing entertaining content that inspires social change, interacts regularly with more than 2.5 million people through social media, local movie screenings and its Takepart.com website, Berk said.

The challenge for Participant will be to sign up additional pay-TV distributors and win viewership in a crowded media landscape. The company is privately held and is not part of a large media conglomerate.

“We have the funding necessary to take a very long-term view, and to spend what we need to spend in terms of programming,” Berk said.

The mainstay of the network’s lineup will be original programming from a variety of genres, said Evan Shapiro, a Participant executive who will run the new network.

The company is developing programming with established Hollywood names including former MTV President Brian Graden, “Inconvenient Truth” director Davis Guggenheim and documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.

Participant also hopes to work with pay-TV distributors to make the channel’s content available on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, to meet the viewing patterns of younger audiences, Shapiro said.

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Participant Media plans cable TV network targeting millenials
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

World Briefing | Science and Health: Lack of Funds Could Weaken Malaria Fight, Report Says

The world has made great progress against malaria in the last decade, but the fight is stalling for lack of funds, the World Health Organization’s annual report on malaria concluded on Monday. The amount spent on the disease by all countries rose to $1.8 billion last year, compared with $100 million in 2000, and, as a result, about one million children’s lives were probably spared over that time, the report said. But it would take $5 billion a year to get nets, insecticide spraying, diagnostic kits, effective drugs and hospital treatment to everyone needing them, and donor contributions, especially to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, have been nearly flat since 2010. Last year, the number of new nets purchased fell sharply, to 66 million from 145 million two years ago. Since nets wear out in three years and children are always being born, large numbers of infants and toddlers will soon be unprotected if more money does not come in, the report warned. The W.H.O. estimated that there were 219 million malaria cases in the world in 2010, with 660,00 deaths.

Read More..

McDonald's urging franchisees to open on Christmas

McDonald's Corp. is urging U.S. restaurant owners to take the unusual step of opening on Christmas Day to deliver the world's biggest hamburger chain with the gift of higher December sales, AdvertisingAge reported Monday.

The request -- which comes as McDonald's tangles with resurgent rivals such as Wendy's, Burger King and Yum Brands' Taco Bell chain -- would be a break from company tradition of closing on major holidays.

"Starting with Thanksgiving, ensure your restaurants are open throughout the holidays," Jim Johannesen, chief operations officer for McDonald's USA, wrote in a Nov. 8 memo to franchisees -- one of two obtained by AdvertisingAge.

"Our largest holiday opportunity as a system is Christmas Day. Last year, (company-operated) restaurants that opened on Christmas averaged $5,500 in sales," Johannesen said.

"The decision to open our restaurants on Christmas is in the hands of our owner/operators," McDonald's spokeswoman Heather Oldani told Reuters.

Don Thompson took over as chief executive at McDonald's in July and has the difficult task of growing sales from last year's strong results in a significantly more competitive environment.

McDonald's monthly global sales at established restaurants fell for the first time in nine years in October, but unexpectedly rebounded in November.

The November surprise was partly due to a 2.5 percent rise in sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months.

"Our November results were driven, in part, by our Thanksgiving Day performance," Johannesen wrote in a Dec. 12 memo to franchisees.

Oldani said 1,200 more McDonald's restaurants were open on Thanksgiving this year versus last year -- not 6,000 more as AdvertisingAge reported.

Still, the company has a high hurdle when it comes to posting an increase in restaurant sales this month because its U.S. same-restaurant sales jumped 9.8 percent in December 2011.

"It's an act of desperation. The franchisees are not happy," said Richard Adams, a former McDonald's franchisee who now advises the chain's owner/operators.

The push to open on the holidays goes against McDonald's cultural history, said Adams. In his first published operations manual, McDonald's Corp. founder Ray Kroc said the company would close on Thanksgiving and Christmas to give employees time with their families, Adams said.

"We opened for breakfast on Thanksgiving the last couple years I was a franchisee. It was easy to get kids to work on Thanksgiving because they want to get away from their family, but not on Christmas," Adams said.

Read More..

President Obama: 'We will have to change' to keep our children safe

President Barack Obama is offering the Connecticut town grappling with the aftermath of a deadly school shooting "the love and prayers of a nation." (Dec. 16)

NEWTOWN, Conn.—

He spoke for a nation in sorrow, but the slaughter of all those little boys and girls turned the commander in chief into another parent in grief, searching for answers. Alone on a spare stage after the worst day of his tenure, President Barack Obama declared Sunday he will use “whatever power” he has to prevent shootings like the Connecticut school massacre.

“What choice do we have?” Obama said at an evening vigil in the shattered community of Newtown, Conn. “Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?”

For Obama, that was an unmistakable sign that he would at least attempt to take on the explosive issue of gun control. He made clear that the deaths compelled the nation to act, and that he was the leader of a nation that was failing to keep its children safe. He spoke of a broader effort, never outlining exactly what he would push for, but outraged by another shooting rampage.

“Surely we can do better than this,” he said. “We have an obligation to try.”

The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday elicited horror around the world, soul-searching in the United States, fresh political debate and questions about the incomprehensible — what drove the 20-year-old suspect to kill his mother and then unleash gunfire on children.

A total of 6 adults and 20 boys and girls ages 6 and 7 were slaughtered.

Obama read the names of the adults near the top his remarks. He finished by reading the first names of the kids, slowly, in the most wrenching moment of the night.

Cries and sobs filled the room.

“That's when it really hit home,” said Jose Sabillon, who attended the interfaith memorial with his son, Nick, a fourth-grader who survived the shooting unharmed.

Said Obama of the girls and boys who died: “God has called them all home. For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on and make our country worthy of their memory.”

Inside the room, children held stuffed teddy bears and dogs. The smallest kids sat on their parents' laps.

There were tears and hugs, but also smiles and squeezed arms. Mixed with disbelief was a sense of a community reacquainting itself all at once.

One man said it was less mournful, more familial. Some kids chatted easily with their friends. The adults embraced each other in support.

“We're halfway between grief and hope,” said Curt Brantl, whose daughter was in the library of the elementary school when the shootings occurred. She was not harmed.

The president first met privately with families of the victims and with the emergency personnel who responded to the shootings. The gathering happened at Newtown High School, the site of Sunday night's interfaith vigil, about a mile and a half from where the shootings took place.

Police and firefighters got hugs and standing ovations when they entered. So did Obama.

“We needed this,” said the Rev. Matt Crebbin, senior minister of the Newtown Congregational Church. “We needed to be together to show that we are together and united.”

Obama told Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy that Friday was the most difficult day of his presidency. The president has two daughters, Malia and Sasha, who are 14 and 11, respectively.

“Can we say that we're truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose? I've been reflecting on this the last few days,” the president said, somber and steady in his voice. “And if we're honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We're not doing enough and we will have to change.”

He promised in the coming weeks to talk with law enforcement, mental health professionals, parents and educators on an effort to prevent mass shootings.

The shootings have restarted a debate in Washington about what politicians can to do help — gun control or otherwise. Obama has called for “meaningful action” to prevent killings.

Police say the gunman, Adam Lanza, was carrying an arsenal of ammunition big enough to kill just about every student in the school if given enough time. He shot himself in the head just as he heard police drawing near, authorities said.

A Connecticut official said the gunman's mother was found dead in her pajamas in bed, shot four times in the head with a.22-caliber rifle. The killer then went to the school with guns he took from his mother and began blasting his way through the building.

“There is no blame to be laid on us but there is a great burden and a great challenge that we emerge whole,” First Select Woman Patricia Llodra said. “It is a defining moment for our town, but it does not define us.”

Obama said his words of comfort would not be enough, but he brought them anyway, on behalf of parents everywhere now holding their children tighter.

“I can only hope that it helps for you to know,” he said, “that you are not alone in your grief.”

Read More..

Springsteen, Gaga join Stones; Newtown noted

NEW YORK (AP) — Only at a Rolling Stones concert could appearances by Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga seem almost like afterthoughts.

Those superstars and other top acts including the Black Keys and John Mayer jammed with the Stones on Saturday night, winding down a series of concerts celebrating the 50th year of rock’s most enduring band (the occasion was also marked by a pay-per-view special).

The Boss rocked out with the band on out “Tumbling Dice”; Gaga matched Mick Jagger shimmy-for-shimmy on “Gimme Shelter”; the Black Keys joined on “Who Do You Love,” and John Mayer and Gary Clark Jr. showed their considerable guitar chops alongside Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on “Goin’ Down.”

But the Stones would not be upstaged. While the sold-out crowd roared with each special guest, it was the aging but dynamic foursome that generated the most excitement of the night, as they put new energy into their decades-old catalog of hits, including “It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll (But I Like It),” ”Start Me Up,” ”Brown Sugar,” ”Sympathy for the Devil” and more.

The band took a moment to acknowledge the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school Friday in Newtown, Conn. “We just wanted to send our love and condolences to all the people who lost loved ones in the tragedy in Connecticut,” Jagger early on in the concert as the audience applauded. Jagger noted the entire world was feeling the pain of the stunned nation.

But it was the only somber moment in an a frenetic show that showed why the Stones are considered by many to be the greatest rock band, and belied the much-discussed advanced age of the group’s lineup (their ages range between 65 and 71).

Jagger himself poked fun at the senior citizen status of the band and their fans; speaking of the pay-per-view crowd at home, he joked: “Some of you have got your grandchildren watching you.”

But few acts in their so-called prime would have been able to match the energy the Stones radiated onstage. The group had the crowd on its feet for the entire show as Jagger gyrated across the stage, his voice in top form. Both Wood and Richards dazzled on guitar (Richards got a raucous, sustained ovation as he took over vocals on two songs). And Charlie Watts kept the beat strong on the drums.

Before performing in London together late last month for the first of the concerts, the Stones hadn’t performed in concert together since 2007. Going into these shows, there was some speculation that Saturday’s concert, held at the Prudential Center, might be their last.

Earlier in the evening, Jagger teased that the concert might signal the end: “This could be the last time; I don’t know,” he said. But by the end of the evening, it seemed clear that the question was not when the Stones would return, but when.

“This is the last show of our anniversary tour, and we hope to see you all again soon,” Jagger said.

Perhaps the night’s most special guest was Mick Taylor, the former Stones guitarist who was part of some of their biggest moments from 1969 to 1975, when he left the group. He rejoined his band mates (and the man who replaced him, Wood) onstage for a powerful performance of “Midnight Rambler”.

At the concert’s end, while other special guests gave their final bows and left the stage, Jagger motioned for Taylor to stay, and the five took their final bow together.

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP’s Global Entertainment & Lifestyles Editor. Follow her at http://twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Springsteen, Gaga join Stones; Newtown noted
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Experts Say Thimerosal Ban Would Imperil Global Health Efforts

A group of prominent doctors and public health experts warns in articles to be published Monday in the journal Pediatrics that banning thimerosal, a mercury compound used as a preservative in vaccines, would devastate public health efforts in developing countries.

Representatives from governments around the world will meet in Geneva next month in a session convened by the United Nations Environmental Program to prepare a global treaty to reduce health hazards by banning certain products and processes that release mercury into the environment.

But a proposal that the ban include thimerosal, which has been used since the 1930s to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination in multidose vials of vaccines, has drawn strong criticism from pediatricians.

They say that the ethyl-mercury compound is critical for vaccine use in the developing world, where multidose vials are a mainstay.

Banning it would require switching to single-dose vials for vaccines, which would cost far more and require new networks of cold storage facilities and additional capacity for waste disposal, the authors of the articles said.

“The result would be millions of people, predominantly in low- and middle-income countries, with significantly restricted access to lifesaving vaccines for many years,” they wrote.

In the United States, thimerosal has not been used in children’s vaccines since the early 2000s after the Food and Drug Administration and public health groups came under pressure from advocacy groups that believed there was an association between the compound and autism in children.

At the time, few, if any, studies had evaluated the compound’s safety, so the American Academy of Pediatrics called for its elimination in children’s vaccines, a recommendation that the authors argued was made under the principle of “do no harm.”

Since then, however, there has been a lot of research, and the evidence is overwhelming that thimerosal is not harmful, the authors said. Louis Z. Cooper, a former president of the academy and one of the authors, said that if the members had known then what they know now, they never would have recommended against using it. “Science clearly documented that we can’t find hazards from thimerosal in vaccines,” he said. “The preservative plays a critical role in distribution of vaccine to the global community. It was a no-brainer what our position needed to be.”

Advocacy groups have lobbied to include the substance in the ban, and some global health experts worry that because the government representatives due to vote next month are for the most part ministers of environment, not health, they may not appreciate the consequences of banning thimerosal in vaccines. The Pediatrics articles are timed to raise a warning before the meeting.

“If you don’t know about this, and you’re a minister of environment who doesn’t usually deal with health, it’s confusing,” said Heidi Larson, senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who runs the Vaccine Confidence Project.

In an open letter to the United Nations Environmental Program and the World Health Organization this year, the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs, a nonprofit group that supports the ban, disputed the assertion that scientific studies had offered proof that thimerosal is safe, and urged member states to include it in the ban.

That it is being used in developing countries, but not developed countries, is an “injustice,” the letter said.

The World Health Organization has also weighed in. In April, a group of experts on immunization wrote in a report that they were “gravely concerned that current global discussions may threaten access to thimerosal-containing vaccines without scientific justification.”

Dr. Larson said she believed that the efforts of pediatricians and global health experts, including the W.H.O., would influence the negotiations in Geneva and that the compound would most likely be left out of the final ban.

“You can’t just pull the plug on something without having a plan for an alternative,” she said.

Read More..

Reyes joins growing craft beer market with Windy City deal

Independent breweries are still a niche category in the marketplace, but interest in them continues to grow.

Reyes Beverage Group, a division of global food and beer distributor Reyes Holdings of Rosemont, said Sunday it has reached an agreement to purchase Windy City Distribution, a well-regarded distributor of craft beers.

Brothers Jim and Jason Ebel founded Windy City in 1999. The firm operates as a distributor across eight northern Illinois counties for more than 40 craft breweries, such as Tyranena, Lagunitas and Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales. The Ebels also are the brewers behind Warrenville-based Two Brothers beer.

The deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, is yet another sign of the coming-of-age of the craft beer scene, which is now much more part of the mainstream beer industry. In 2012, 442 craft breweries opened, according to the Beer Institute. The Brewers Association, a trade association, said sales of craft brews increased 14 percent in the first half of 2012 and volume jumped 12 percent.

While the beer industry overall has shown limited growth, the explosive interest in craft beer is enticing giants such as Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser, and MillerCoors, both of which have struggled to enter the craft market on their own. Since acquiring Chicago's Goose Island in 2011, Anheuser-Busch has aggressively expanded that well-known label. Earlier this year, it revealed plans to increase Goose Island's distribution to all 50 states, making it one of the few craft brands with a true national footprint.

Reyes' Chicago Beverage Systems and Windy City will not integrate their operations. Windy City's president, Bob Collins, and his management team will join Reyes. Chicago Beverage Systems distributes Miller, Coors and Heineken brands, among others.

"Windy City Distributing will be a new entity in our network focused solely on the craft beer market," said Ray Guerin, chief operating officer of Reyes Beverage Group. "I look forward to working with Windy City to learn more about servicing the craft beer industry while providing Reyes Beverage Group's expertise to help Windy City expand."

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Both companies are privately held.

mmharris@tribune.com

Twitter @chiconfidential

Read More..