WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

A very special woman with more than a century of smiling under her belt celebrated another birthday this weekend. Mrs. Ethel Darden, the oldest-known woman in Illinois, had her 110th birthday party over the weekend.

In 2004, NHL players went on strike. Sports journalists wondered if anybody cared, or even noticed. The Blackhawks were practically invisible even when they were playing. The team was mediocre at best, and the club had almost no PR or community outreach. Well: Hockey. Is. Back.

Breast cancer was the struggle that Denise Milito had to fight. But she did it in an unlikely way — with a paintbrush. Milito is responsible for The Living Breast Artist Series, a project that features nude photographs of women's breasts painted by Milito.

Democratic Illinois State Representative Susana Mendoza is one of nine American women chosen to supervise the upcoming Iraqi Elections. We talked with her before she left for Baghdad. Congresswoman Mendoza says she's ready and looking forward to what she expects will be a humbling experience.

The growth of an individual neighborhood can be influenced significantly by something as simple as a grocery store. That's one of the many findings in a new report from researcher Robert Weissbourd. He joins us to explain more.