this is the same guy in each of these stories..
Loop Disruption Ends Peacefully
By Jeremy Gorner and Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
Tribune staff reporters
February 28, 2007, 11:40 AM CST
A man who threatened to jump off a high-rise construction crane in the Loop during the morning rush hour did so to draw attention to a lawsuit that he recently lost, Chicago police said.
The man, who is known to authorities from at least one similar incident earlier, climbed down from the crane after a nearly three-hour standoff.
"We oddly had the same negotiators who dealt with him in prior incidents," said Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond. "He's a repeat offender."
The man is in police custody and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Bond could not immediately provide details about the man's lawsuit, nor could she elaborate about his prior dealings with police.
Police closed off State Street between Lake and Randolph Streets sometime after 7 a.m. after the man got inside the construction crane and threatened to jump.
Numerous fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles converged on the scene, and hundreds of people were standing on the west-side sidewalk, across the street from the Chicago Theatre, at 175 N. State St., gazing up at the crane.
Six CTA bus routes were rerouted in both directions during the standoff, said Wanda Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Transit Authority.
The negotiators talked him down shortly before 10 a.m., Bond said. She said no construction workers were at the site, which had been secured by police.
No charges had been filed against the man as of late this morning.
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Taylor Homes filmmaker says stars stole his ideas
Natasha Korecki (From May, 2004)
A Chicago filmmaker documented life in the Robert Taylor Homes, then turned it over to Oprah Winfrey, hoping for his big break.
Now he says he was ripped off.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, filmmaker Daryl Murphy said actor Eddie Murphy, director Ron Howard, Fox Broadcasting Co. and a host of other defendants stole his ideas and plugged them into the animated series "The PJs."
Winfrey is not named in the lawsuit.
The series ran on the Fox network for more than two years, then ran on the Warner Brothers network. Daryl Murphy claims it's a copyright infringement, and he wants $10 million plus attorney fees and court costs.
Daryl Murphy, who runs Keep it Real Movie Productions in Chicago, said he sent a copy of his documentary to Winfrey with a letter asking her to air it on the show and pass it on to the likes of Spike Lee, Quincy Jones or Ron Howard, according to the suit. Daryl Murphy said he lived in the projects for more than 20 years and wanted the outside world to see the good and bad.
"You see, there is so much history in the projects ... as well as hidden talent," Daryl Murphy wrote in his 1998 letter to Winfrey. "I've seen so much laughter that it should be documented for history."
Nine months later, Daryl Murphy claims he saw similar ideas, sayings and characters in "The PJs." In the series, Eddie Murphy is the voice for the character Thurgood Stubbs, a janitor.
Daryl Murphy says he's taunted by friends for "selling out his neighborhood" when he hasn't made a dime. He claims the number of coincidences are "too personal to be mere coincidence."
In one case, the show used a character named Sanchez who is really someone filmed in the documentary. That person uses a voice box to speak, as does the cartoon character, according to the lawsuit.
Efforts to reach Murphy's attorneys for comment were unsuccessful.
_________________ Joe Orr Road Rod wrote: It's more fun to be a victim Caller Bob wrote: There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.
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