The Evening Rush for November 28, 2012

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A parent involved in the lawsuit against Maine West High School addresses the press. // Sun-Times Photo

Here are some of the stories that caught our attention during the work day for November 28, 2012.

A horrible story gets even worse today as three more plaintiffs have joined the lawsuit against Maine West High School alleging sexual abuse as part of hazing. All plaintiffs are members of either the boys soccer or baseball team and rumors have persisted of more hazing on the swim team, though no one from that team is involved in the current lawsuit. Adding insult is that it appears the same coach who is mentioned with regard to the soccer team hazings is connected to the baseball team hazings as well, indicating a culture of this sort of thing if the allegations are true. [Sun-Times]

Business is a little awkward these days over at Groupon where CEO Andrew Mason is in the unique position of reading news reports about the company’s board debating whether or not to fire Mason. For his part, Mason’s playing it cool. Like Kool-Aid man cool. [Crain’s]

Mel Reynolds doesn’t think his conviction for sex with an underage girl should prevent him from serving the seat he vacated in disgrace because that was sooooo two decades ago. That’s the message he sent today when he announced his candidacy for the 2nd U.S. Congressional seat, the same seat just vacated by Jesse Jackson, Jr. because God forbid a politician from Illinois shouldn’t have some taint of criminal wrong-doing. [Sun-Times]

$4.5 million is spent on pretty flowers downtown. Because flowers are pretty, that’s why. [WBEZ]

United Airlines is going after Untied.com, a website that vents vitriol toward the airline for its alleged mistreatment of passengers. [Tribune]

Millions of Americans are spending money so they can be disappointed when they don’t win the Powerball lottery. [Sun-Times]

The Blackhawks are the fourth most valuable team in the NHL, their value doubling since 2006. This would be better news if the NHL wasn’t skidding towards yet another full season lost to a lockout. [Forbes]

Michael Jordan banned from golf course for choice of pants marking the first time Jordan has ever drawn a foul. [Chicagoist]

The whole saga over whether or not a student really put a Hinrich jersey in a toilet for game tickets is just silly. This would have never happened with Luc Longley. [Sun-Times]

BRIGHT ONE: Richard Roeper takes Gilda’s Club to task after the cancer patient support group announced they were going to change their name because younger patients don’t know who Gildna Radner was. [Sun-Times]

TO DO: Sudoku; Weather (In a word: average); Transit (in a word: uneventful)

FINALLY: NYU learns why it’s important to always use “BCC” when emailing all 39,000+ students at one time. [Buzzfeed]

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