Chicagoans: Alive, but sniffling

For fellow Chicagoans, some good news:

"Chicago, which had the unwanted distinction of having more homicides than any other city in the nation a year ago, seems in a single year to have undergone a remarkable turnaround, with killings in 2004 at their lowest tally since 1965."

Now that the law has shown its might, Illinois is focusing on the details, issues that were set aside in the bad old days of 2003. The Chicago Tribune reports that there's "a new state law that says consumers can purchase only two packages of many cold medications in one transaction."