McDonald's sales rebound in November

McDonald’s took Wall Street by surprise Monday morning, with a November same store sales report that beat expectations and showed particular strength in the U.S. business.

The news follows a weak performance in October that had some investors speculating about the future of the world’s largest restaurant company.

The Oak Brook-based burger giant reported U.S. same store sales up 2.5 percent on the strength of its breakfast business, value offerings, beverages and limited-time offers like the cheddar bacon onion sandwich. In Europe, same store sales grew 1.4 percent, and 0.6 percent in the chain’s Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa division.

Overall, same store sales increased 2.4 percent, beating expectations of a roughly flat performance. Company stock rose nearly 1 percent in early morning trading, to $89.35.

"We are strengthening our focus on the global priorities that are most impactful to our customers -- optimizing our menu, modernizing the customer experience and broadening accessibility to our brand to move our business forward," McDonald's CEO Don Thompson said in a statement.

While the sales report is likely to be a boon for the burger giant, investors don’t expect company performance to return to normal levels until early 2013. Winter is typically the slow period for fast food chains, with summer typically being the busiest season.

Baird analyst David Tarantino raised his fourth quarter earnings estimate by a penny Monday morning following the sales announcement. He wrote that while company performance "could remain soft" through the first quarter of 2013, "the November sales report supports our thesis that McDonald's can achieve better performance in 2013 as a whole, with results aided by planned initiatives (including increased emphasis on value plus premium offerings across markets), fewer cost pressures, and less negative currency translation."

The chain has taken a tough stance on slipping U.S. sales. The company’s October sales, which slipped 2.2 percent, marked the first decline in more than nine years. Days later, McDonald’s said U.S. president Jan Fields had resigned and would be replaced by Jeff Stratton.

eyork@tribune.com | Twitter: @emilyyork

MCD data by YCharts

MCD data by YCharts

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City on verge of 'snowless' record

No snow is in the forecast for the Chicago area, and if that proves correct, we'll tie the 1994 record of 280 days between measurable snowfalls today.

If Monday closes without snow, 2012 will break the record.

The key factor is the word "measurable," said state climatologist Jim Angel. Measurable snow is defined as one-tenth of an inch or more — any less is considered "trace," he said, such as the snow measured at O'Hare on Nov. 23.

There has been some snow in other north and northwest suburban areas. ChicagoWeatherCenter.com reports that Lake Geneva, Wis., got .4 inches Friday night into Sunday morning, and Roscoe, Wonder Lake and Harvard all got .1 inch.

Northern Illinois, including Rockford and counties farther west, is expected to see some accumulation today, according to the National Weather Service, and a stronger storm crossing northern Wisconsin and Michigan could leave up to 10 inches of snow on the ground today, according to ChicagoWeatherCenter.com.

In Chicago, though, we're expected to see nothing but unseasonably warm temperatures in the 40s and a light rain that will taper off as the day goes along. Monday's forecast, which includes slightly cooler temperatures, is similar, with some "scattered snow flurries and snow showers," according to the National Weather Service.

The timing of this year's first snow has stumped Angel, who said the average number of days between last and first snowfalls recorded at O'Hare, Chicago's official weather recording station, is 224.

"I've already lost in the office pool for the first measurable snow this year," Angel said. "My pick was Nov. 27."

WGN-TV meteorologist Steve Kahn said the drought has much to do with this year's record-breaking weather. Last winter's snowfall measured only 19.8 inches — a little more than half of the 36.7 inches marked as the average at O'Hare.

"We had an early end to the snow season — last year was notable particularly for its warm March," Kahn said. "That's why we have this record on the table now."

Angel said the drought, coupled with a dry November, are to thank for the lack of snowfall. November measured 0.95 inch of precipitation at O'Hare — less than half of normal rainfall, he said.

The lack of snow so far doesn't mean much for overall snowfall this winter. On average, about 90 percent of Chicago's average seasonal snowfall typically comes after Dec. 9, Kahn said.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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British TV astronomer Patrick Moore dies

LONDON (Reuters) – British astronomer Patrick Moore, who helped map the moon and inspired generations of star gazers with decades of television broadcasts, died on Sunday aged 89.

Moore presented BBC television‘s landmark “The Sky at Night” program for more than 50 years, making him the longest-running presenter of a single show in broadcasting history.

His old-fashioned appearance and rapid-fire delivery endeared him to television viewers and captured the imagination of future astronomers who paid tribute to the presenter and prolific author.

“Patrick would just sit in front of the camera for a whole episode … and just tell you about a constellation, about the stars, their names, their history,” British astronomer David Whitehouse told Sky News.

“It was captivating and the best example of communication and an expert sharing his enthusiasm that I have ever experienced.”

A space enthusiast from his early childhood, Moore’s television career coincided with the start of the space race between Russia and the United States.

“He was broadcasting before we actually went into space and he saw a change in our understanding of the universe,” British space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock told the BBC.

Moore, rarely seen without his trademark monocle, was also an enthusiastic musician and xylophone player and once accompanied a violin-playing Albert Einstein on the piano.

He never studied for a degree, building up his expertise through his own, single-minded enthusiasm, constructing an observatory in the garden of his southern England home.

His television show marked many astronomical landmarks, and he was broadcasting live when the first picture of the far side of the moon were returned by a Russian satellite.

Television schedulers were not always sympathetic to the significance of developments in space.

During the NASA Apollo 8 mission, Moore told viewers they were about to hear the voices of first men round the Moon in “one of the greatest moments in human history,” only to be interrupted by BBC switching the broadcast to a daily children’s show.

(Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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A Breakthrough Against Leukemia Using Altered T-Cells

PHILIPSBURG, Pa. — Emma Whitehead has been bounding around the house lately, practicing somersaults and rugby-style tumbles that make her parents wince.

It is hard to believe, but last spring Emma, then 6, was near death from leukemia. She had relapsed twice after chemotherapy, and doctors had run out of options.

Desperate to save her, her parents sought an experimental treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one that had never before been tried in a child, or in anyone with the type of leukemia Emma had. The experiment, in April, used a disabled form of the AIDS virus to reprogram Emma’s immune system genetically to kill cancer cells.

The treatment very nearly killed her. But she emerged from it cancer-free, and seven months later is still in complete remission. She is the first child and one of the first humans ever in whom new techniques have achieved a long-sought goal — giving a patient’s own immune system the lasting ability to fight cancer.

Emma had been ill with acute lymphoblastic leukemia since 2010, when she was 5, her parents, Kari and Tom, said. She is their only child.

She is among just a dozen patients with advanced leukemia to have received the experimental treatment, which was developed at the University of Pennsylvania. Similar approaches are also being tried at other centers, including the National Cancer Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

“Our goal is to have a cure, but we can’t say that word,” said Dr. Carl June, who leads the research team at the University of Pennsylvania. He hopes the new treatment will eventually replace bone-marrow transplantation, an even more arduous, risky and expensive procedure that is now the last hope when other treatments fail in leukemia and related diseases.

Three adults with chronic leukemia treated at the University of Pennsylvania have also had complete remissions, with no signs of disease; two of them have been well for more than two years, said Dr. David Porter. Four adults improved but did not have full remissions, and one was treated too recently to evaluate. A child improved and then relapsed. In two adults, the treatment did not work at all. The Pennsylvania researchers are presenting their results on Sunday and Monday in Atlanta at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Despite the mixed results, cancer experts not involved with the research say it has tremendous promise, because even in this early phase of testing it has worked in seemingly hopeless cases.

“I think this is a major breakthrough,” said Dr. Ivan Borrello, a cancer expert and associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. John Wagner, director of pediatric blood and marrow transplantation at the University of Minnesota, called the Pennsylvania results “phenomenal,” and said they were “what we’ve all been working and hoping for but not seeing to this extent.”

A major drug company, Novartis, is betting on the Penn team, and has committed $20 million to building a research center on the Penn campus to bring the treatment to market.

Hervé Hoppenot, president of Novartis Oncology, called the research “fantastic” and said it had the potential — if the early results hold up — to revolutionize the treatment of leukemia and related blood cancers. Researchers say the same approach, reprogramming the patient’s immune system, may also be used eventually against tumors like breast and prostate cancer.

To perform the treatment, doctors remove millions of the patient’s T-cells — a type of white blood cell — and insert new genes that enable the T-cells to kill cancer cells. The new genes program the T-cells to attack B-cells, a normal part of the immune system that turns malignant in leukemia.

The altered T-cells — called chimeric antigen receptor cells — are then dripped back into the patient’s veins, and if all goes well they multiply like crazy and start destroying the cancer.

The T-cells home in on a protein called CD-19 that is found on the surface of most B-cells, whether they are healthy or malignant.

A sign that the treatment is working is that the patient becomes terribly ill, with raging fevers and chills — a reaction that oncologists call “shake and bake,” Dr. June said. Its medical name is cytokine-release syndrome, or cytokine storm, referring to the natural chemicals that pour out of cells in the immune system as they are being activated, causing fevers and other symptoms. The storm can also flood the lungs and cause perilous drops in blood pressure — effects that nearly killed Emma.

Steroids sometimes ease the reaction, but did not help Emma. Her temperature hit 105. She wound up on a ventilator, unconscious and swollen almost beyond recognition, surrounded by friends and family who had come to say goodbye.

But at the eleventh hour, a battery of blood tests gave the researchers a clue as to what might help save Emma: Her level of one of the cytokines, interleukin-6 or IL-6, had shot up a thousandfold. Doctors had never seen such a spike before and thought it might be what was making her so sick. Dr. June knew that a drug could lower IL-6 — his daughter takes it, for rheumatoid arthritis. It had never been used for a crisis like Emma’s, but there was little to lose. Her oncologist, Dr. Stephan A. Grupp, ordered the drug. The response, he said, was “amazing.”

Within hours, Emma began to stabilize. She woke up a week later, on May 2, the day she turned 7; the intensive-care staff sang “Happy Birthday.”

Since then, the research team has used the same drug, tocilizumab, in several other patients.

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WGN America may be channel of change for Tribune Co.

On Sunday night, WGN-Ch. 9 will air "Bozo's Circus: The Lost Tape," a 1971 episode that an alert archivist discovered after four decades of gathering dust.

At the same time, WGN America, the station's national cable counterpart, will beam reruns of the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" to its 75 million subscribers across the country.

Part of Tribune Co.'s future may rest with programming decisions like that.

Poised to emerge from its lengthy bankruptcy, the Chicago-based media company is expected to enter the new year with its holdings intact, a clean balance sheet and a plan to sell everything eventually.

The expected decision to name television executive Peter Liguori as Tribune Co.'s chief executive — he was the architect of basic cable powerhouse FX's first-run success — points to unlocking the value of the 34-year-old superstation as integral to a profitable exit strategy for the new owners of Tribune Co.

A source close to the situation told the Tribune that Liguori sees WGN America as an undervalued cable network with tremendous potential, if it gets the programming investment required. Developing the channel will "absolutely be a focus" after Liguori joins the company, which could happen within weeks.

"I'm sure that's the plan," said Derek Baine, a senior media analyst with SNL Kagan. "It all comes down to how much money you're investing in programming to get the viewers."

The new owners, senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase, have made it clear that monetizing Tribune Co.'s publishing, broadcasting and other holdings after a four-year slog through Chapter 11 is a matter of time. The process will likely challenge the maxim that the whole of Tribune Co. — estimated to be worth $4.5 billion post-emergence — is more than the sum of its parts. That's especially true when one of those parts is national cable channel WGN America, a low-rated repository of Cubs games and reruns, whose upside potential may dwarf all of the other assets combined.

Broadcasting assets, including 23 television stations, WGN-AM 720, CLTV and WGN America, represent the core profit center and account for $2.85 billion of Tribune Co.'s value, according to financial adviser Lazard. Tribune's eight daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, are worth $623 million, and other strategic assets, such as stakes in CareerBuilder and Food Network, are valued at $2.26 billion, according to a 2012 report by Lazard.

The value of the TV stations, including KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and WPIX-TV in New York, should benefit from an improving appetite for acquisitions, according to analysts. But WGN America, with the help of a few hit shows and some rebranding, could be the sleeping giant on the books. Turner Broadcasting's TBS, for example, has five times the audience and seven times the cash flow of WGN America and carries a distinct brand. It is worth more than twice that of the entire Tribune Co.

Liguori's success at FX Networks could well be the blueprint. After joining what was a small basic cable channel in 1998, Liguori was elevated to CEO in 2001 and transformed the network by offering original programming such as "The Shield," "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me," building ratings and revenues in the process.

"You just need a couple of hit shows and then you can start building a schedule around them," Baine said. "A lot of these cable networks, you take one hit show and get people hooked on it and then you can stick another one in the time slot right behind it and start building on that."

Last year, FX had a cash flow of nearly $553 million on net revenue of more than $1 billion, making the network worth nearly $8 billion, Baine said.

WGN America is often compared with TBS to illustrate the upside, and the divergent paths the two original superstations have taken as the cable network model — a dual revenue stream of affiliate fees and advertising dollars — has evolved over the last two decades.

Both WGN and WTBS were uploaded to satellite in the late '70s, filling the programming void for distant cable systems with local baseball and "Andy Griffith" reruns. TBS became a division of Time Warner in 1996 and transformed into a full-fledged cable network, shelving old reruns for off-network sitcoms, benching the Atlanta Braves for national MLB coverage and rolling out first-run programming featuring everything from Tyler Perry to Conan O'Brien. The network dropped "superstation" and rebranded itself with slogans such as "very funny."

One advantage FX, which is part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., and TBS have enjoyed is the connection to a media empire with programming prowess and deep pockets.

Meanwhile, WGN has clung to the vestiges of its lower-cost superstation model, meaning cable and satellite systems can't insert local commercials and must pay copyright fees for the programming to the government. Content shifts between local and national, with Cubs baseball and Chicago news still broadcast across the country. There is a dearth of first-run programming, and the schedule is dotted with such fillers as "In the Heat of the Night" and "Walker: Texas Ranger." Even Andy Griffith remains in the mix with "Matlock," part of a block of programming to cover the "WGN Morning News," which is not broadcast nationally.

Not surprisingly, WGN America lags TBS and FX in ratings, revenue and distribution.

TBS is ranked 11th, FX is 13th and WGN America 40th in average viewership among cable networks through November, according to Nielsen.

Of the more than 114 million homes receiving cable in the U.S., TBS reaches 99.7 million, FX 97.9 million and WGN America 75 million, according to Nielsen. One of the biggest holes in WGN's coverage area is New York City, where the station has never quite found its way into the cable lineup. Nationally, TBS and FX are included in the basic packages for Dish Network and DirecTV, while WGN America is relegated to the second or third tier.

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Police seek witnesses to Schaumburg teen's death

Schaumburg police are asking for witnesses who might have seen whether a Schaumburg High School senior was struck by a hit-and-run driver early today, causing the teen's death.

Mikias Tibebu, 18, was declared dead on the scene near Schaumburg and Branchwood roads at 1 a.m. after being hit by car, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. That's about two miles from his home in the 800 block of Westfield Lane in the northwest suburb. Information that he lived on Field Lane in Schaumburg was incorrect.

Tibebu died from head and neck injuries suffered when he was struck by a motor vehicle, the medical examiner's office determined today.

Police were called to the scene at 12:38 a.m. when someone reported a body lying in the road, police said in a news release. When officers arrived, they found bystanders attempting to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and the first officer who arrived also did so until paramedics arrived soon after, said Schaumburg Police Sgt. John Nebl.

None of those who were at the crash site when police arrived, however, were witnesses to what caused Tibebu to end up lying in the road, Nebl said.

Although "it may wind up being a hit-and-run," police have not yet eliminated other possibilities, and Schaumburg investigators are working with the Cook County state's attorney's office, Nebl said.

Police and Tibebu's family are asking anyone who might have seen what happened or was driving in the area just west of Roselle Road on Schaumburg Road between 12:15 a.m. and 12:45 a.m. to contact police at (847) 882-3534.

Tibebu's family told WGN-TV that Tibebu, known to family and friends as Mickey, was a track-and-field and cross country athlete who excelled in his studies. He was the eldest of three children and had come to the United States from Ethiopia at age 1.

Tibebu was a finalist for a full academic scholarship to Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., his family told WGN.

Friday night, Tibebu had gone out with friends to see a movie before he was found dead, his family said.

An autopsy was scheduled for today.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Are Online Degrees as Valuable as Traditional College Diplomas?

Millennials are the first generation to grow up with constant technology and personal computers. That might explain why they see such a value in online education.

A recent poll by Northeastern University showed that 18 to 29 year olds had a more negative view about attending college because of the high cost, and a more positive opinion about online classes than their older counterparts. The survey also showed more than half of the millennials had taken an online course.

Online education is attracting hundreds of thousands of students a year. Perhaps this is why more brick-and-mortar universities are searching for an online identity.

This week Wellesley College announced that it will offer free online classes to anyone with an Internet connection as part of the nonprofit project edX. Earlier this year, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology teamed up to fund and launch the online platform.

More: Harvard and MIT Want to Educate You for Free

Online education was even the talk in Washington this week when a group of panelists convened to discuss Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), which is an open source network like edX. These courses are very much like correspondence classes in the early 20th century.

But there are still those universities that only exist in a virtual world and students pay to attend. Are they as beneficial to students as attending a two- or four-year college?

“It depends at what level and what subject,” says Isabelle Frank, dean of Fordham College of Liberal Studies. “In general, fully online degrees are not valued as highly as degrees from brick-and-mortar institutions. This is because online-only universities do not have the faculty quality and interaction that occurs with full-time faculty and secure positions.”

She says that Fordham has online master programs and some online courses, but the model is “that of a small seminar style class with a lot of faculty feedback and involvement.”

Just like a physical college, a quality online education depends on the institution.

For example, students at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business take online classes and communicate with other students around the world—something students 25 years ago couldn’t have dreamed of doing.

“This affords the opportunity to learn leadership, team-building and managerial skills by solving problems and coordinating efforts for projects through the process of establishing real-time meetings, coordinating time zones and dealing with potential language issues,” Sher Downing, executive director of online academic services at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, said. “This value cannot be mirrored as easily in a traditional classroom, and for many companies with offices located around the world, this is a valuable skill, when the workforce is required to handle these types of situations.”

Downing said that students can save money by taking online classes because they no longer have to commute, live on or near a campus or relocate.

The millennials surveyed by Northeastern University are keen to take online courses. In fact, nine in 10 said online classes should be used as a tool and mixed with other teaching methods. The poll also found that students want flex­i­bility, which is exactly what online colleges offer.

Employers may not yet see an online degree in the same light as a traditional university but that is likely to change in the near future. It may just be that millennials, who don’t want to go in debt for an education like some of their parents did, are just a bit ahead of educators and employers.

Related Stories on TakePart:

• Top Universities Want You to Take Free Online Classes in Your Pajamas

• Military Gives ‘F’ to Online Diplomas

• 2012 List: The Most Expensive Colleges in America

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Suzi Parker is an Arkansas-based political and cultural journalist whose work frequently appears in The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor. She is the author of two books. @SuziParker | TakePart.com 

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TNT’s “Leverage” could end this month, producer warns

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – This could end up being a very un-merry Christmas for “Leverage” fans.

Dean Devlin, executive producer of the TNT drama, penned an open letter to the show’s viewers on Thursday, telling them that he and fellow “Leverage” executive producer John Rogers crafted the show’s Season 5 finale – airing December 25 – as a series finale, because it just might be.

TNT has not yet decided whether it will renew the series, which stars Timothy Hutton as the leader of a squad of shady characters who use their skills to right corporate and government injustices. And judging from the tone of Devlin’s letter, he’s not terribly confident that they will.

“As of the writing of this letter, we still do not know if there will be a season six of our show. Just as we didn’t know when we created the last three episodes which are about to air,” Devlin wrote. “Because of this uncertainty, John Rogers and I decided to end this season with the episode we had planned to make to end the series, way back when we shot the pilot. So, the episode that will air on Christmas is, in fact, the series finale we had always envisioned.”

Of course, should “Leverage” get the go-ahead for a sixth season, Devlin notes, “Everyone involved with the show, from the cast, the crew, the writers and producers, would like nothing more than to continue telling these stories. But, in case we do not get that opportunity we felt that, creatively, after 77 episodes, we owed it to you, our fans, to end the show properly.”

The December 25 episode, according to Devlin, is “the most powerful episode we’ve ever done.”

So far this season, “Leverage” has averaged 3.5 million total viewers, down 11 percent from last season’s average, with 1.3 million in the 18-49 demographic most important to advertisers, an 18 percent decline from last season.

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Integrys Energy Services tapped to supply Chicago's electricity

The same company that heats homes in Chicago has been picked to provide the electricity that powers them.

Integrys Energy Services, a sister company to Peoples Gas, on Friday was named the city's choice to supply electricity to about 1 million Chicagoans. It's the largest such deal negotiated by a city on behalf of its residents.

The City Council is to vote on the contract Wednesday after a Monday public hearing.

Chicagoans should see discounts of 20 to 25 percent from March through June. Afterward, savings are expected to drop. Overall, the average household is expected to save $130 to $150 through May 2015, when the contract ends, according to the mayor's office.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Friday the deal "will put money back into the pockets of Chicago families and small businesses."

The contract calls for the elimination of power produced from coal, the largest source of greenhouse gases. About 40 percent of Chicago's electricity is from coal.

"That's a giant step toward healthier air and clean, renewable energy that supports good paying jobs in the technologies of tomorrow," said Jack Darin, executive director of the Sierra Club's Illinois chapter and a member of the advisory committee that worked on the deal.

However, the no-coal provision is largely symbolic since there is no way to know the precise origin of electricity flowing into Chicago homes.

Integrys Energy Services, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Integrys Energy Group, was chosen from eight bidders and was the only company other than Exelon-owned Constellation NewEnergy that made it to the final round.

Integrys Energy Group's board includes William Brodsky, head of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and a member of World Business Chicago, which Emanuel chairs.

The Integrys unit won the electrical aggregation contract despite Emanuel's connection to Constellation through its parent company, Exelon, which also owns Commonwealth Edison. While working at investment banking firm Wasserstein Perella & Co. after leaving the Clinton White House in 1998, Emanuel helped set up the merger that created Exelon.

Price was the determining factor, the mayor's office said.

Bidding documents, including pricing and how the contract would be structured, were not made public Friday.

In picking a price, Integrys must account for a large number of customers that will come and go. If electricity prices rise, Integrys risks losing money. Still, Integrys stands to become a dominant player in the retail electricity business and gain about $300 million in yearly revenue.

"Scale is important in this business," said Travis Miller, a utilities analyst with Chicago-based Morningstar. "The winner is immediately going to gain a huge scale advantage within the retail market."

ComEd still will be responsible for delivering electricity and fixing outages. ComEd makes its money delivering electricity, not supplying it. Customers' new bills will look like the old bills, except that the portion titled "electricity supply services" will have a new rate and include the new supplier's name.

Chicagoans can opt out and stick with ComEd or choose their own supplier like thousands of people already have.

Tribune reporter John Byrne contributed.

jwernau@tribune.com

Twitter @littlewern

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Ex-Dixon official's home: Pool, chandelier with pistols

Rita Crundwell spared no expense when she built and furnished her sprawling home with custom touches like a chandelier made of old revolvers and spurs, an in-ground pool and a baby grand piano in the wood-beamed living room.

Her massive master bedroom — with a fireplace and seating area furnished with top-of-the-line leather and cowhide couches, a 62-inch television and a loft office — is almost as large as some of the more modest homes in this northern Illinois farming town.

She built a second custom home south of town that she never lived in but rented to relatives. She paid for a top-notch horse-breeding and training facility where she ran a nationally renowned quarter horse operation.

And she did it all, Crundwell has admitted, by stealing $53 million from the people of Dixon, embezzling the money over two decades while serving as comptroller in the city that was Ronald Reagan's boyhood home. The 59-year-old pleaded guilty last month and will be sentenced Feb. 14. She was allowed to remain free until then and still faces 60 separate state felony charges for theft in Lee County. She has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

The spoils of Crundwell's looting are on the auction block, being sold for pennies on the dollar by the U.S. Marshals Service. Authorities gave what could be the last public glimpse of Crundwell's largesse Friday as they took prospective property buyers and the media on a tour of her former Dixon holdings.

"This is not the way a lot of people live around here," said Jason Wojdylo, a chief inspector with the Marshals Service's asset forfeiture division. "It was a lavish lifestyle ... (and) while the city of Dixon was closing its (public) pools because it couldn't afford to operate them, the defendant built a pool complete with sauna ... money was not spared."

An online auction of personal property ends on Saturday, and includes everything from custom furniture to fur coats to appliances. Authorities already have raised $7.4 million by selling her horses, vehicles and a custom motor home. Her jewelry, valued at about a half-million dollars, will be auctioned sometime next year.

The Marshals Service also is selling the two Dixon homes and ranch, 80 acres of farmland and a house in Englewood, Fla.

During Friday's open house — of sorts — prospective buyers and the media toured the Illinois homes, where items were catalogued and described with white tags. Wojdylo stood by to answer any questions. A few locals showed up, though neither they nor Crundwell's neighbors wanted to comment.

The main house was a tribute to everything western, with rustic wood furniture, mirrors with bull horns, cowhide rugs and even western-themed knick-knacks. Most, like the chandelier, were custom and unlike anything you'd find in a store, Wojdylo said.

He said the agency does not reveal how much the property is worth to ensure it is sold at the highest possible price. And even though Crundwell's plea agreement requires her to pay full restitution, he admits that the sales likely will never recoup the city's losses.

Still, liquidating Crundwell's assets into cash will bring authorities "closer to easing our responsibility."

The very idea that Crundwell could rip off the community that her family has lived in for more than 100 years — much less hide that fact for so long — disgusts Dennis Considine, Dixon's public health and safety commissioner. He said $53 million could have done a lot of good for a lot more people.

"It could have paid for city hall, it could have paid for the police and fire, it could have paid for our water and sewer treatment plant, we could have had better roads and possibly our citizens' taxes could have been lower," said Considine, who briefly stopped by her home Friday.

Crundwell had worked for the city about 100 miles west of Chicago since she was 17 and started to oversee public finances in the 1980s. She started stealing in 1990 to support an extravagant lifestyle and her horse-breeding operation, which produced 52 world champions.

Most residents in Dixon are lower-middle class and work on farms or in factories. And

they're moving on from the betrayal, even if they can't forgive Crundwell, Considine said.

"In spite of all the evil, criminal behavior, the city of Dixon has achieved a lot of things," he said.

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