Stocks bounce after Lowe's posts a profit surprise

A surprisingly strong profit report from home improvement chain Lowe's is giving investors a reason to put money back into stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average is up more than 150 points, wiping out half of the losses it suffered last week.

Investors are again looking to the housing market for clues about how the economy is doing. Lowe's posted a 22 percent drop in its first-quarter earnings, but the results easily beat Wall Street's forecasts and the company raised its full-year profit forecast.

At midday, the Dow is up 157 to 8,425. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 16 to 899, and the Nasdaq composite index is up 24 to 1,704.

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Randall Oaks

BASICS: 37 W. 361 Binnie Road (at the corner of Randall and Binnie),Dundee. Phone: (708) 428-5661. BY THE NUMBERS: 5,379 yards from the front tees; 6,146 from theback. Par for both is 71. Course rating is 70.3 from the front(women's) tees; 67.7 from the back. Slope is 113. OWNER: Dundee Township Park District. HISTORY: This week marks its 25th anniversary. The course wasdedicated Aug. 21, 1966. Architect was William Spears of St.Charles, who also did Marengo Ridge. STAFF: Director Rick Bemm, head professional Phil Simonsen andsuperintendent Mike Sprouse. RATES: Weekdays: $17 for 18 holes, $11 for nine. Weekends: $21 for18, $11.50 for twilight (after 4 p.m.). Seniors $11.50 …

US candidate Gingrich admits $1.5 million payments

URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — U.S. presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who has been surging in the latest polls, found himself on the defensive Wednesday over huge payments he received over the past decade from the federally backed housing agency unpopular among his fellow Republicans.

Gingrich is the latest candidate to challenge Mitt Romney, the favorite of the Republican establishment, only to face revelations from his past.

Gingrich said he doesn't remember exactly how much he was paid by the agency, Freddie Mac, a federally backed mortgage lender that has become a target of anti-government sentiment because of the U.S. housing crisis.

But a former Freddie Mac official …

Family mourns as 7 die in suburban Chicago blaze

A grandfather who had been planning to spend his weekend with his family celebrating his birthday and the arrival of a new grandson instead mourned the loss of three children, two grandchildren and two friends in a suburban Chicago fire.

Elijah Grays lost his 18-year-old daughter Sally Gist, 16-year-old twins Elicia and Elijah Gist, and Sally's sons Rayshawn Gist, 3, and 3-day-old Byron Reed in the blaze that engulfed a three-story building where the family lived in Cicero early Sunday.

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Lieber might be finished with Cubs

SAN FRANCISCO--Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said Tuesday thatstarter Jon Lieber may not pitch again this season because of right-elbow problems.

"There's a possibility that he won't," Hendry said.

The bigger question, of course, is whether Lieber has pitched hisfinal game as a Cub. The team has to decide later this year whetherhe is such a health risk that it wouldn't make business sense toexercise a $6.5 million contract option the organization has onLieber for 2003.

Hendry is nowhere near being ready to answer that question. Butmore definitive news on Lieber could come as soon as today. AfterLieber visited Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., on …

Surprise Black Task Force endorsements raise tempers

Surprise Black Task Force endorsements raise tempers

When the Black Political Task Force began holding press conferences and announcing candidate endorsements in statewide elections last month, some eyebrows in the black community were raised. And some were furrowed.

The sudden invigoration of an organization that had seemingly laid dormant for years - the Task Force sat out last fall's elections altogether - surprised and angered some of the group's founding members, who say they were not invited to participate in the group's endorsing procedures.

"I'm really concerned about the whole process of how things are happening right now," said Robert Marshall, a …

Walcott looking good ahead of crucial season

He wore an Arsenal shirt with No. 14 on the back, switched positions constantly and terrorized the opposition defense with his blistering pace. Theo Walcott looked a lot like Thierry Henry on Sunday.

A day after a half-hour cameo at the end of a lackluster loss to Juventus, Walcott started Arsenal's latest preseason friendly against Spanish champions Real Madrid and showed the sort of form his manager Arsene Wenger has long hoped for.

Racing down the right wing, rather than the left that Henry regularly drifted toward during his record-breaking spell with the Gunners, Walcott found it easy to beat a defense marshaled by Argentina international Gabriel …