Chicago

Asthma sufferers have long relied on inhalers for relief from wheezing or coughing attacks. But as of Dec. 31, Primatene Mist -- the only available over-the-counter asthma inhaler -- was taken off shelves because of its adverse effect on the environment. Other inhalers are available, but these require a doctor's prescription. Some people with asthma aren't happy about the change, but lung doctors and asthma specialists agree that Primatene Mist wasn't the best option for patients anyway.

A new biographical stage production about the late rapper Tupac Shakur is expected to premiere in January at the Black Ensemble Theater in Chicago. The show, written by Lyle Miller, is titled "Amaru (The History of Tupac Amaru Shakur)." A spokeswoman for the theater company said the show is still in the works and that casting hasn't been announced. She said the production will most likely be a play with sequences featuring Shakur's music.

Times are tough enough for Californians; they're even tougher for Californians' teeth. "One-quarter of all adults and 28% of children in California have untreated dental caries [cavities]," says Len Finocchio, a senior program officer at the California Healthcare Foundation, a health advocacy group. "Our research tells us that many people in California have been avoiding routine care that might have cost about $100 for a checkup and cleaning, and then find themselves in the emergency room, where they get only an antibiotic, a bill that can average over $600 and instructions to see a dentist."

Facebook shares fell flat on their Nasdaq debut, but another trading venue for the stock will open later this month. The Chicago Board Options Exchange will start listing option contracts on the Menlo Park company May 29, according to specialist firm Susquehanna Investment Group. This is sooner than normal for a company going public. The exchange typically waits a month or more before offering these options, but investor interest in the social media giant accelerated that timetable.

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

The PSA test should be abandoned as a prostate cancer screening tool, a government advisory panel has concluded after determining that the side effects from needless biopsies and treatments hurt many more men than are potentially helped by early detection of cancers. At best, one life will be saved for every 1,000 men screened over a 10-year period, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. But 100 to 120 men will have suspicious results when there is no cancer, triggering biopsies that can carry complications such as pain, fever, bleeding, infection and hospitalization.

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

As warehouses go, there are few like Skechers USA Inc.'s new 1.82-million-square-foot distribution center. This warehouse is so big that it takes half a minute to drive from one end to the other at 60 miles per hour. The setup is so advanced that human hands will hardly touch the cargo as it is unpacked, categorized, stacked and prepared for delivery. The building is so green that it uses prevailing winds for ventilation instead of air conditioning. For its new North American operations warehouse, the nation's No. 2 footwear company chose the Inland Empire's Moreno Valley.

A small wooden cabinet went up for auction on EBay. Inside were two locks of hair, one granite slab, one dried rosebud, one goblet, two wheat pennies, one candlestick and, allegedly, one "dibbuk," a kind of spirit popular in Yiddish folklore. The seller, a Missouri college student named Iosif Nietzke, described the container as a "haunted Jewish wine cabinet box" that had plagued several owners with rotten luck and a spate of bizarre paranormal stunts.

Hollywood High School keeps its doors open 12 months a year to ease overcrowding. The year-round schedule allows the campus to run hundreds more students through its cramped classrooms. It also chips away at their education. Teachers skip pages of material, assign less homework and give fewer tests because their school year has been slashed by 17 days. Hundreds of pupils take the Stanford 9 exam shortly after returning from an eight-week vacation.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta heads to this weekend's NATO summit prepared to confront Pakistan over what he considers price-gouging for transport of supplies to Afghanistan and hoping for a "consensus" among allies over the war effort. In an interview before his arrival in Chicago, where the summit is scheduled to begin Sunday, Panetta all but ruled out paying Pakistan $5,000 for each truck carrying supplies across its territory for NATO troops waging the Afghanistan war. Pakistani officials have demanded that amount as a condition for reopening supply routes that have been closed to the alliance since fall.

WASHINGTON - "Super PACs," the free-ranging groups formed to exploit a new era of unbridled campaign spending, have dominated the 2012 presidential race, buoying a succession of Republican candidates and helping propel Mitt Romney to the party's nomination. But the bombs-away mentality threatened to blow up on Romney on Thursday when plans surfaced for an ad blitz reminding voters of President Obama's past ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his controversial former Chicago pastor.

Angels General Manager Jerry Dipoto said his decision to fire hitting coach Mickey Hatcher and replace him with Jim Eppard could be "a spark. " Something, perhaps, like those fireworks that erupted Wednesday beyond Angel Stadium's center-field wall, where Albert Pujols deposited his second home run as an Angel in a 7-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Dipoto said he thought "long and hard" before deciding a hitting coach switch had...

NBC evidently believes laughter is the best medicine: The struggling network will have a strong dose of comedy on four nights in its fall lineup plus the Season 3 return of"The Voice. " Keeping its Thursday sitcom block essentially intact with existing series, NBC will push the low-rated comedies"Community"and"Whitney"to Fridays and open up Tuesdays and Wednesdays for new sitcoms such as "Go On," "Animal Practice" and "Guys With Kids. " Nearly one-quarter of NBC's fall prime-time schedule will consist of sitcoms; last fall, the figure was just 14%. Also on the schedule: the Monday one-hour series "Revolution," the new sci-fi drama from producer J.J. Abrams, and, for Wednesday, "Chicago Fire," from "Law & Order" mastermind Dick Wolf.

When the 2012 London Olympics begin less than three months from now, it will mark an anniversary that Americans might not want to celebrate. Ten years have passed since the Games last took place on U.S. soil. And with the bidding process extended years in advance, this country's next opportunity will not come around until 2022. "That's a problem," said Anita DeFrantz, an International Olympic Committee member from Los Angeles. "We like hosting this event. It's important to the psyche of our people.

Supermodel Christie Brinkley makes her L.A. stage debut, reprising her Broadway turn as Roxie Hart in "Chicago: The Musical," at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood from Tuesday through May 27. You made your stage debut on Broadway as Roxie Hart a year ago. How did that come about? I was going over job offers with my agent and he sort of breezed over - "and then there's 'Chicago' wondering if you want to be Roxie or Velma, and there's da-da-da…. " And I said, "Are you sure that was for me?"

Lamar Odom is done playing for the Dallas Mavericks. Will any other NBA team take a chance on the enigmatic 6-foot-10 forward who is less than a year removed from winning the league's sixth man of the year award? Or perhaps the better question is, should someone give him another shot? Odom was known for his inconsistency during his seven seasons with the Lakers. But, by definition, that means there were good and bad times on the court for Odom in L.A. And particularly in the last few years, there seemed to be more good than bad, with Odom appearing to pull it all together last season by being named the league's best player off the bench.

Facebook Inc. is certain to make a dramatic entrance to the stock market Friday with its hotly awaited initial public offering. What's less certain is whether you should buy the stock. Enthusiasts have salivated for months over the prospect of buying into Facebook's surging growth rate and untapped advertising potential. They hope Facebook can mimic the stratospheric rise of Google Inc. in its early years, when its shares ballooned from $85 at its 2004 IPO to nearly $750 barely three years later.

- Clayton Kershaw is the acknowledged ace of the Dodgers' pitching staff but another left-hander in the rotation, Chris Capuano, is holding his own, thank you. A free agent signed over the off-season, Capuano kept the Chicago Cubs scoreless through seven innings Saturday to lead the Dodgers to a 5-1 win on another cold, windy afternoon at Wrigley Field. Capuano (4-0) became the first Dodgers starter to earn his fourth win this season, and the 33-year-old now has pitched 182/3 consecutive innings without giving up a run, lowering his earned-run average to 2.21.

CHICAGO — Reliever Ronald Belisario said he did not have butterflies when he took the mound Saturday at Wrigley Field for his first big league appearance since Oct. 1, 2010. "I was thinking about coming in, throwing strikes and letting them hit the ball," said Belisario, who retired the side in the eighth inning in the Dodgers' 5-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. The Venezuelan missed last season because he was denied entry into the United States after testing positive for cocaine, and he had to serve a 25-game suspension at the start of this season in accordance with baseball's drug policy.