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Even though nothing has been approved for a third airport in Chicago, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. had an unofficial, and symbolic ground breaking ceremony in south suburban Peotone.

"Together we can and we will strengthen our common economic destiny," Jackson said to ABC 7 News Chicago.

The event also had about 200 protesters.

"To run the AG economy out of here for no reason just doesn't make sense," said farmer Robert Ogalla to ABC 7 News Chicago.

The project is supported by Governor Pat Quinn. Both United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek and Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emmanuel say there is no demand for a third airport in Chicago. This project would hurt the growth at O'Hare, they said to ABC 7 News Chicago.

According to ABC 7 News Chicago, Jackson says the airport would be funded privately by Canadian developer SNC-Lavalin. SNC-Lavalin has been under fire after being in connection with Moammar Gadhafi's son.



Humber Throws Perfect Game for White Sox

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Philip Humber threw the 21st perfect game in MLB history.

Humber is 29 years of age and had 29 MLB starts before this game. Last year he had a 9-9 record for the White Sox. Humber had 11 wins in the big leagues before his perfect game.

Humber threw 96 pitches in his first win of the season. He had 9 strikeouts in the Sox road win. The White Sox won 4-0 over the Seattle Mariners.

Humber is the seventh pitcher to throw a perfect game on the road.

"He was aggressive in the strike zone," said ESPN analyst Aaron Boone.

"He came to the ballpark just trying to win his first game of the season to keep this team over .500," said ESPN analyst Rick Sutcliffe. "Something like this could not only change the career of this guy but all of a sudden now the White Sox feel pretty good about their ball club."

Humber has been through a lot in his major league career. He was the third overall pick in 2004 by the New York Mets. He was traded to the Minnesota Twins in the Johan Santana deal. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2005, according to NBC 5 Chicago.

"This is awesome," said Humber, according to NBC 5 Chicago. "I'm so thankful."

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A Local Barber Relies on Regulars on Campus

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One-chair barbershops are uncommon for a lot of places but on campus on University Avenue Southeast this is quite normal.

At Pete Lebak Barber Stylist, Pete Lebak has haircuts for the flat rate of $12. He has been running this barber shop for 32 years.

Because of the Light Rail Construction, his business has declined with fewer of his regulars and no walk-ins.

"The light rail is killing all of us," Lebak said in an article for the Minnesota Daily. "It is beating us to death."

The barber keeps a red notebook of all his customers, according to the Minnesota Daily.

The barbershop doesn't have a cash register or a computer, according to the Minnesota Daily. The shop is filled with deer heads, old chairs and plants instead.

Lebak's shop hasn't really seen many changes since he first opened it. The newest additions include a collage of customer photos, and a collection of artifacts from Norway, which decorate the walls.

For Lebak, this isn't a job. He is a barber, but he also is a friend to all his customers.

"I really love the people; they're great," Lebak said to the Minnesota Daily. "You get to come here, talk to all your friends all day, they pay you, and you go home. [Friendship is] what this is all about."

This barber has customers from all over. One of them lives in Alexandria, Minn. and another lives in Wisconsin, according to the Minnesota Daily.

Lebak knows everything about his customers, including the names of their children, their childhoods and their jobs. According to the Minnesota Daily, he has known some for almost four decades.

He doesn't plan on going anywhere, even though business has declined with the construction of the Light Rail.

"I have gotten so much encouragement, I'm going to hang in here until they drag me out feet first or I get kicked out," said Lebak to the MInnesota Daily.

The Voice of the Gophers has collected a huge amount of sports memorabilia in his career with sports.

Dick Jonckowski calls himself the voice of the Gophers. He has been the public address announcer for men's basketball for the past 26 years and it is his 24th year with the baseball team. He has also spent 10 years as the PA announcer for Gophers football.

His passion for sports, according to the Minnesota Daily, can be seen in his basement. His basement has so much memorabilia that it could be described as a museum.

Nearly every square inch of his Shakopee house is covered with memorabilia. There is only one corner that doesn't match the pattern.

"He gives me credit and tells me the washer and dryer and the sewing machine are mine," said Arlene Jonckowski, Dick's wife of 46 years in a Minnesota Daily Article.

Besides that, the rest of the basement has bats, bobblehead dolls, jerseys, game programs, photos, banners, figurines, helmets, hockey sticks, and more memorabilia, according to the Minnesota Daily.

There is so much memorabilia, that their grown son's room has been converted to an extension of this museum. According to the Minnesota Daily, colorful pennants are on the ceiling, hundreds of bobble head dolls line the walls and the ceiling fan has sports logos as well.

For Jonckowski's 60th birthday, his wife and son gave him a bust of his head. Mrs. Jonckowski believes it took 10 months to complete.

"He loves himself so much that I figured what better way to keep yourself than to be able to look at yourself and to see the likeness of yourself, every day, day after day, and be overcome with it," she said to the Minnesota Daily.


FrozBroz Gives out Free Unique Ice Creams

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FrozBroz only makes two pints of ice cream per week and they give them away for free thanks to the internet.

Erik Powers and Ben Solberg still use the same ice cream machines that they played with a few years ago when they started making ice cream, according to the Minnesota Daily.

FrozBroz is known for their outrageous flavors. They have ritz cracker and bacon & egg ice cream, according to the Minnesota Daily Article. They are like Mesa Pizza with ice cream.

The duo met in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where they both were in Cub scouts. They then both came to Minneapolis and that is where the friendship truly took off.

Powers and Solberg meet ever Wednesday to talk about new flavors that they plan to try to make. They also talk about how they will increase their business. According to the Minnesota Daily, if they don't raise more money then they will have to continue giving their ice cream away for free.

The duo is currently raising money on the website Indiegogo.

FrozBroz plans to continue to stick to being as organic as possible with their ice cream.

"We make everything that goes in to the ice cream, and if we don't make it, it's something like a herb or a fruit that we try to source locally," said Solberg in an interview with the Minnesota Daily.

Minnesota Loses to Stanford in NIT Final

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The Minnesota Gophers lost to Stanford in the NIT Championship Thursday Night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Stanford won the contest 75-51. This win is Stanford's first NIT Title since 1991 according to The New York Times.

For the Gophers, it is a second place finish in the second biggest college basketball tournament during the month of March besides the NCAA Tournament. The team made it to the finals as the 6th seed, according to the Minnesota Daily.

According to The New York Times, freshmen Chasson Randle scored 15 points for the Stanford Cardinals and his teammate sophomore Aaron Bright added 13 more points from the bench.

Bright was named the tournament's most valuable player, according to The New York Times.

Minnesota ends the season with a 23-15 record after winning last six of their last seven games to make an impressive run at the N.I.T. title.


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According to a study released by the Chronicle of Higher Education about one in every five Division I basketball teams have seen a 20 percent decrease in attendance over the past four years.

The Minnesota Gophers', according to the Minnesota Daily, fans filled Williams Arena in 2010-2011 enough to rank 24th nationally for Gophers basketball.

From 2008-2010, according to the Minnesota Daily, Minnesota was ranked 23rd.

According to Gary Bowman in the Minnesota Daily, the athletics spokesman, attendance numbers have improved since Orlando Tubby Smith has been here.

According to the Minnesota Daily, the Gophers' average 13,241 fans per home game. This ranked seventh in the Big Ten this season. Last season the team averaged 13,453, which also ranked seventh.

Prior to the acquisition of Smith, the Gophers averaged fewer then 11,000 fans per game during the 2006-2007 season.

Out of all of the conferences in Division I basketball, the Big Ten has led for the past 35 years.

Graduate Student Workers Reject Union

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On Monday the votes were counted and graduate workers at the University of Minnesota have rejected the union.

According to the Pioneer Press, this is the fourth time since 1990 that graduate students voted down a union.

Of the 4,400 eligible graduate student workers to vote, only 68 percent cast votes in the election, according to the Minnesota Daily.

According to the Minnesota Daily, about 62 percent of the voters decided against forming the union.

The most recent election to form a union in 2005, received 58 percent of the voters voting against the construction of a union, according to the Pioneer Press.

Also according to the Pioneer Press, $13,300 is the average pay at the University of Minnesota. This amount is above the average at Big 10 universities.

Nate Condon, a sophomore forward, is a member of the third line on the Minnesota Golden Gophers Hockey team with Captain Taylor Matson.

He is the third Wisconsin native in school history on the team after Phil Kessel (2005-06) and Sam Lofquist (2008-09) according to The Central Wisconsin Hub.

Condon has 10 goals and 26 points this season for the MacNaughton Cup Champion Gophers. He is tied for first in the WCHA with five points on the penalty kill during the season.

Being from Wisconsin, he says that is by far the biggest game for him.

"The biggest game of the (regular) season for me is playing against Wisconsin," said Condon in The Central Wisconsin Hub article. "I grew up watching them and there's eight to 10 guys I played with growing up that are on their team. It always feels a little bit better when I come back to Wausau knowing that we beat (Wisconsin) so I don't have to listen to everyone around town talk about how we lost to the Badgers."

Condon joined the Gophers Hockey team after two years in the United States Hockey League with the Fargo Force. On the Force he played in 150 games over the two year stint in the league. Last year, as a freshmen he had 17 points in 35 games with the Gophers.

Condon and the Gophers will play in the Frozen Four on April 5 and if they win they will play for the National Championship on April 7.

Kaitlyn Richardson is a difference maker for Golden Gopher Softball.

She currently sits tied for first in the Big Ten Conference with home runs and runs batted in. She also has a .420 batting average which is tied for sixth in the conference.

Last weekend she was awarded Big Ten Freshman of the Week batting 6-for-12 in five games, scored six runs, had four runs batted in and two home runs.

The Gophers also had success like Richardson over the weekend with a record of 4-1. Overall the Gophers are 14-4.

This year Richardson has made the transition from second base to the corner of third base.

"She took the extra time to learn the position," said Assistant Coach Jessica Merchant in a Minnesota Daily article. "She's more confident now. Things happen naturally now that maybe in the fall it took her a second [because] she had to think about [things] instead of just reacting."

Richardson has only committed one error at the new position.

She is from Phoenix where she played softball at Sandra Day O'Connor High School. There she was a two-time all-state selection and all-region selection three times.

Richardson was also recruited by other schools that included Stanford and Alabama.

"I think [she] wasn't afraid to go somewhere different and help build a program," said Head Coach Jessica Allister in a Minnesota Daily Article.

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