Illinois

If you think Bluetooth is a rare dental condition and an app is what you eat before the entree, you might not be a candidate for today's high-tech, whiz-bang smart phones. Instead, you might be happier with a mobile phone geared toward seniors. Those phones typically don't have Web-surfing capability, GPS maps and video games. Instead they have large buttons, oversized digital readouts and hearing-aid compatibility, along with a relatively simple calling plan. Although senior-friendly phones aren't new, their lower prices and variety are. A recent price skirmish among wireless companies means seniors can get an easy-to-use cellphone and cheap service to go with it, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the independent and nonprofit Alliance for Generational Equity.

No. 30 San Francisco 49ers: WR A.J. Jenkins, Illinois -- Jenkins will provide the 49ers with an athletic playmaker willing to go over the middle. Although many scouts thought he was a second-round pick, his ability to create separation with cornerbacks also makes his a deep threat. Comment: Another target for Alex Smith, Jenkins caught 90 balls for 1,276 yards and eight touchdowns for Illinois last season. MORE Photos: 2012 NFL draft picks First round of draft is a rush to judgment NFL considers suspending Pro Bowl after 2013     NFL draft: 49ers choose WR A.J. Jenkins of Illinois at No. 30  

Teas from across the globe are becoming more and more popular in the U.S. One relative newcomer, yerba mate, is attracting fans for its allegedly jitter-free caffeine boost and high antioxidant content. Lab research suggests some potential health benefits from drinking yerba mate, but studies of lifelong yerba mate drinkers in the tea's native South America suggest the brew increases the risk of some cancers -- a fact most marketing campaigns omit.

No. 26 Houston Texans: DE Whitney Mercilus, Illinois - - Mercilus led the nation last season with 16 sacks and nine forced fumbles. The son of Haitian immigrants who held down multiple jobs to feed the family, Mercilus is deeply appreciative of the opportunity he has. When he signs his NFL contract, he plans to buy his parents a home in Florida. Comment: The Texans needed to replace some of the productivity lost when Mario Williams bolted to Buffalo. Mercilus had 16 sacks in 2011.

Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas were sitting next to each other at a recent racing function when Baffert said to Lukas, "Everyone used to hate you. Now they hate me." It's as clear as a giant flowered hat, and just as ugly. At rowdy Churchill Downs today, the only thing more quietly despised than Bob Baffert will be a Breathalyzer. The 128th Kentucky Derby will feature 19 horses, 150,000 fans, and one villain. Baffert will saddle longshot War Emblem.

The Hispanic population in the United States grew by 43% in the last decade, surpassing 50 million and accounting for about 1 out of 6 Americans, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. Analysts seized on data showing that the growth was propelled by a surge in births in the U.S., rather than immigration, pointing to a growing generational shift in which Hispanics continue to gain political clout and, by 2050, could make up a third of the U.S. population. "In the adult population, many immigrants helped the increase, but the child population is increasingly more Hispanic," said D'Vera Cohn, a senior writer at the Pew Research Center.

Many Americans have come to think of pork as "the other white meat," thanks to a long-running pork industry campaign. But a recent study linking red meat consumption to an overall increased risk of death lumped pork in with red meat. So what is pork -- red meat or white? Does it matter? Since 1934, the unabridged version of Webster's dictionary includes under "white meat" the phrase, "a meat (as veal or pork), light in color, esp.

The X-Flight coaster coming in May to Six Flags Great America will take riders seated in a winged formation through a near-miss keyhole fly-through that serves as the new ride's signature element. PHOTOS: X-Flight wing coaster at Six Flags Great America Themed to look like a stealth fighter jet, the new wing coaster at the Chicago-area amusement park will feature trains with seats that straddle the track, giving riders the sensation of having nothing above or below them.

The family, spread across Illinois, picked a convenient location for a Sunday lunch to celebrate Kathy Sondgeroth's 59th birthday. Turns out, it was convenient for Mitt Romney too. When they found out Romney was campaigning at the restaurant, they held on to their table, which was right in front of a fake barn and also the photo-perfect backdrop for the Republican presidential front-runner. Romney, noticing they were celebrating a birthday, led the restaurant in singing. And when he left, he hoisted 7-month-old Stryder.

There's something about Mitt Romney that, to use her words, creeps LaDonna Talbert out. She doesn't trust the Republican presidential hopeful and isn't convinced by his jeans and open-collar shirts that Romney relates to the people of small-town and rural America. Her dismissive advice: "Just go back to the suit, dude. " On Tuesday, Talbert plans to vote for Rick Santorum in the Illinois primary, even though she knows it will be tough for him to overtake Romney and wrestle the nomination away.

In what is claimed to be the first operation of its kind, surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago have removed a transplanted kidney from its original recipient and implanted it in a second recipient. The kidney was failing in the first patient, but began fluorishing in the second and is now healthy. The first recipient of the kidney was Ray Fearing, a 27-year-old Arlington Heights, Ill., resident who suffers from focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), in which scar tissue develops on the kidney and prevents the organ from filtering waste from the bloodstream.

A husband and wife from an Illinois farming town have staked their claim to a $218-million share of the record Mega Millions jackpot that recently riveted the nation. Merle and Pat Butler spent just $3 on lottery tickets (using the quick-pick method) to get in on last month's record $656-million jackpot. The Butlers are the last of the three winning ticket-holders to step forward. Merle Butler, 65, attended a news conference Wednesday and told the media that when he first checked his numbers after the March 30 drawing, he couldn't believe he'd won. Pat Butler couldn't believe it at first, either.

CHICAGO — Swans have a seemingly placid demeanor, and their monogamous mating habits have made them a symbol of lasting love. But the creatures — generally white, with long graceful necks and a black "mask" around their eyes — are territorial and can be quite aggressive. That makes them good at driving off geese, but can also lead to disaster. Anthony Hensley, 37, encountered the uglier side of their personality last weekend in a horrific way. He tended swans that helped keep geese away from a condominium's pond near Des Plaines, Ill. Witnesses told police that a nesting swan circled Hensley's kayak early Saturday, then attacked him, toppling the kayak and tossing him into the water.

Swans have a seemingly placid demeanor, and their monogamous mating habits have long made them a symbol of lasting love. But the creatures -- generally snowy white, with long graceful necks and a black "mask" around their eyes -- are territorial and can be quite aggressive when threatened. This aggression makes them good at driving off geese; it can also lead to tragedy. Anthony Hensley was a 37-year-old married father of two who worked for a company that uses dogs and swans to shoo pesky geese from properties in the area. Hensley had taken to a kayak Sunday morning to check on the swans in a Des Plaines-area pond when one of the larger birds turned on him, the Chicago Sun-Times reported . Cook County sheriff's investigators believe Hensley either got too close to the swan or the swan's nesting area, the Sun-Times said.

The X-Flight coaster coming in May to Six Flags Great America will take riders seated in a winged formation through a near-miss keyhole fly-through that serves as the new ride's signature element. PHOTOS: X-Flight wing coaster at Six Flags Great America Themed to look like a stealth fighter jet, the new wing coaster at the Chicago-area amusement park will feature trains with seats that straddle the track, giving riders the sensation of having nothing above or below them.

Inside Wayne Lensing's auto museum, down a remote road from a body shop, visitors can see Elvis Presley's 1972 Lincoln, the Mayberry squad car from "The Andy Griffith Show" and three Batmobiles. A few steps from a Cadillac that has been covered in 120,000 coins, the curious also can view a decidedly different artifact: Lee Harvey Oswald's tombstone. That's right. The 130-pound gray granite slab that marked the final resting place of one of U.S. history's more notorious figures is about 90 miles northwest of Chicago, on the outskirts of Roscoe, Ill., best known perhaps as the hometown of race car driver Danica Patrick.

Six times in the last 36 years the Illinois primary has settled a presidential nominating fight. It is too soon to declare this year's turbulent GOP contest over. But the end may be visible from the top of Chicago's John Hancock Tower. Mitt Romney's commanding win in the Illinois primary stamps him -- once and for all -- as the overwhelming, indisputable and probably uncatchable favorite to lead Republicans into the fall campaign against President Obama. There are two tracks to the GOP race, now in its third month of balloting, and the former Massachusetts governor is winning both.

This city has been named among America's fattest, most miserable and most dangerous in the course of the last year, and Rick Santorum started his last day of primary campaigning in Illinois pledging to make things better. The Republican presidential candidate said Monday he could improve the country by uniting it, and then proceeded to attack his main GOP opponent as "uniquely disqualified" to beat President Obama.   In a full day that is scheduled to include 19 TV, radio and public appearances in an effort to capture a primary that seems to be slipping away, Santorum stayed close to his main talking points, which include repealing the president's healthcare law, getting more aggressive on Iran and focusing more closely on the Constitution, a promise that got especially loud applause from the audience in the Venetian Club, an Italian American meeting hall here.

Mitt Romney's big win in the Illinois primary didn't end the fight for the Republican presidential nomination. But it may all but guarantee that after repeated slips and stumbles, including a fresh one hours after his victory, the former Massachusetts governor will lead the GOP into the fall contest against President Obama. Rick Santorum, Romney's chief antagonist, is not going away any time soon. He is almost certain to notch a few more victories, perhaps as early as Saturday in Louisiana, the kind of heavily rural, religious and deeply conservative state that has repeatedly backed the former Pennsylvania senator.

Six times in the last 36 years the Illinois primary has settled a presidential nominating fight. It is too soon to declare this year's turbulent GOP contest over. But the end may be visible from the top of Chicago's John Hancock Tower. Mitt Romney's commanding win in the Illinois primary stamps him -- once and for all -- as the overwhelming, indisputable and probably uncatchable favorite to lead Republicans into the fall campaign against President Obama. There are two tracks to the GOP race, now in its third month of balloting, and the former Massachusetts governor is winning both.