CHICAGO (AP) — Winter storms at both ends of the country dumped snow and snarled air and land travel Friday, killing at least 10 people, blocking major highways and even stranding 400 train passengers in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

Nearly 7 1/2 inches of snow was reported at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before the front moved out of the area Friday. About 500 flights were canceled at O'Hare, which canceled 600 flights Thursday and housed hundreds of stranded travelers who spent the night awaiting planes from other cities also affected by the storm.

At least 12 inches of snow was reported in Springfield by Friday morning, said National Weather Service meteorologist Gino Izzi. Other parts of Illinois saw similar amounts.

"If you don't have to be out here, don't," Ty Wilson, a very wet Chicago bicycle messenger, said as he stopped along a slushy street between morning deliveries.

State Police arrest man in bicyclist’s death

LAROSE — State Police on Tuesday arrested a Cut Off man accused of leaving the scene of a fatal traffic accident Sunday night, according to a news release.

New Pima Canyon parking too tight for comfort

The idea was to revamp Pima Canyon to prevent visitors from parking on the dirt in the park and to make sure there was room for emergency vehicles to get to the trail head. But in protecting the park, the number of vehicles that could be parked was severely reduced and the newly-striped parking spaces are so small that pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles can barely fit in. "You have to be really careful when you park," said Ryan Page of Tempe, who was in the park last week preparing to hike into South Mountain Park. "The spaces are just too small and people don’t know how to park." The spaces are small because Phoenix has a double standard when it comes to parallel parking spaces: 21 feet long for a metered parking space downtown and 18 feet everywhere else, including Pima Canyon.

Jefferson Awards Nominations

The earth is their higher power and they wake up every day in fear that unless we all work together to change our dirty habits we're all going to suffer the consequences. I found a few of the responses quite frightening – even threatening. Things like “you should be fired" or “I will see to it that you never post your stupid comments ever again" came with an amount of foreboding. And therein lies the discovery of enlightenment. The man-made-global-warming-climate-change campaign is a campaign of fear. We're not becoming a lazy society – my friends, we're already there. We've grown accustomed to thinking less with our hearts and minds and more on computers and “experts". Through the years, we've allowed them to enlighten us with “a better way" than before. We've thrown common sense out the window because we've convinced ourselves reasonable judgment just doesn't work anymore.

The changing cycle

India may be the second largest producer of bicycles in the world but precious little has been done to promote the cause of cycling in the country. Shveta Pathak reports that the cycle industry is today churning out beauties that could easily make a style statement but the road ahead is rough for the two-wheeled bikes. And, the status-conscious still refuse to adopt them as a mode of transport.