The way folks in Chicago like to tell it, Thomas Ricketts bleeds Cubbie blue.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new, improved Apple iPhone today, with prices starting at $199 for the 8GB phone - less than half the price of the original model.

The entertainment industry is banding together to combat cancer. The Stand up to Cancer campaign launched this week, with a celebrity filled event at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills.

For years, Chuck Knoblauch has been the answer to this trivia question:

“What Yankee second baseman hit Keith Olbermann’s mom with a wild throw?”

But now, Knoblauch, 39, has become the answer to another trivia question. On baseball blogs, people are asking, in one way or another:

Connections can be good, but they can also become conflicts of interest.

Former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell released his report Thursday on the illegal use of steroids and other performances enhancing substances by Major League Baseball players.

Mitchell, 74, is widely respected, the sort of statesman who’s called in to fix problems others can’t solve. But he also has past and current links to baseball, including his role as director of the Boston Red Sox.

Baseball has been very good to Joe Torre, but would he have been better off managing another sport?

A look at the numbers suggests that Torre, who yesterday signed a $13.5 million contract to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers for three years, might have done better on another sideline.

Granted $4.5 million a year isn’t bad, even if it’s a drop from the $7.5 million a year he got from the Yankees for 2007.