(Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod says President Obama is disappointed that the International Olympic Committee eliminated Chicago's bid for the 2016 games.)
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(Should Chicago bid for the 2016 Olympic games?)
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(Four teens have been charged with first-degree murder in the brutal beating death of a Chicago high school student that was caught on videotape. NBC's Robert Stafford reports.)
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Chicago loses in bid to host 2016 Olympics
Chicago was eliminated in the first ballot of voting for the 2016 Olympics on Friday, a stunning defeat for the city that was expected to be one of the two finalists. Not even the presence of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama — nor a long list of celebrities — was enough to help the United States' third-largest city.
Chicago had seemed to pick up momentum in the last few days, with many International Olympic Committee members seemingly charmed by Mrs. Obama. But when IOC president Jacques Rogge announced the results of the first vote, Chicago was the city that fell out.
It was one of the biggest upsets in IOC voting history, and will likely have ramifications throughout the U.S. Olympic Committee. USOC chairman Larry Probst was stone-faced as he and acting CEO Stephanie Streeter walked down a hallway.
"Not right now," he said tersely. "A little later."
Asked when, Probst said, "When we've had a chance to huddle."
Probst and Streeter then headed to a staging area where the rest of the Chicago 2016 organizers were.
Back in Chicago, an audible gasp went up from the crowd at Daley Plaza when the first-round results were announced. Instead of a victory party, people slowly began filing out of the plaza.
Tokyo was voted out soon after.
The decision caps a competition among four cities — Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo — to host the Games.
Chicago had several well-known lobbyists in Copenhagen. Foremost among them was President Barack Obama, who arrived Friday morning after an overnight flight.
The U.S., Obama told Olympic leaders, "is ready and eager to assume that sacred trust" of hosting the Games.
The president and his wife, fellow Chicagoan Michelle Obama, put their capital behind an enormous campaign to win the Olympics bid. Never before had a U.S. president made such an in-person appeal.
"I urge you to choose Chicago," Obama told members of the International Olympic Committee.
"And if you do — if we walk this path together — then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud," the president said.
The four finalist cities have been making their cases to the IOC for more than a year, but many IOC members were believed to be undecided about which city they would vote for Friday. Some said they might not decide until after the cities made their final presentations in Copenhagen.
Michelle Obama, who grew up on Chicago's South Side, had two days of one-on-one meetings with IOC members, whom she assured of Chicago's sincerity to use the Olympics as inspiration for children who might not otherwise have reason to dream big.
One of the IOC members she chatted with on Thursday was former Russian swimming great Alexander Popov. After getting his picture taken with Mrs. Obama, Popov was ushered off to meet with talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
Winfrey, who ranks second only to Angelina Jolie on Forbes' Celebrity 100 list, drew lots of attention at the IOC hotel, shaking hands and posing for photos. As she made her way into the restaurant, she chatted up IOC executive board member Gerhard Heiberg and Sam Ramsamy, an IOC member from South Africa.
"Whoever's there, I'll talk to them," Winfrey said.
The bidding process to host the Games began in May 2007. The four finalist cities were named in June 2008. Not making the final cut were Baku, Azerbaijan; Doha, Qatar; and Prague, Czech Republic.
The most recent Summer Olympics to be held in the United States were the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
The 2012 Games are scheduled for London.
Teen's beating death puts pressure on officials
Cell phone footage showing a group of teens viciously kicking and striking a 16-year-old honors student with splintered railroad ties has ramped up pressure on Chicago officials to address chronic violence that has led to dozens of deaths of city teens each year.
The graphic video of the afternoon melee emerged on local news stations over the weekend, showing the fatal beating of Derrion Albert, a sophomore honor roll student at Christian Fenger Academy High School. His death was the latest addition to a rising toll: More than 30 students were killed last school year, and the city could exceed that number this year.
Prosecutors charged four teenagers Monday with fatally beating Albert, who was walking to a bus stop when he got caught up in the mob street fighting, authorities said.
The violence stemmed from a shooting early Thursday morning involving two groups of students from different neighborhoods, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor's office. When school ended, members of the groups began fighting near the Agape Community Center.
Attack captured on video
During the attack, captured in part on a bystander's cell phone video, Albert is struck on the head by one of several young men wielding wooden planks. After he falls to the ground and appears to try to get up, he is struck again and then kicked. Simonton said Albert was a bystander and not part of either group.
The Rev. Victor Grandberry told NBC Chicago that Albert "was just a nice young man that grew up in the community. Folks just bullied on him, they tried to rob him, they tried to do everything they can."
A camera attached to the Agape Community Center also captured at least part of the attack, the center's executive director, Milton Massie, told NBC Chicago.
"It was mob action, basically a bunch of kids, some coming from the east and others from the west on the street, fighting," he said.
Prosecutors charged Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, Eric Carson, 16, and Eugene Bailey, 18, with first-degree murder, Simonton said.
Shannon, Riley and Carson were ordered held without bond Monday. The Cook County Public Defender's Office, which represented the three teenagers in court, had no immediate comment. Bailey was due in bond court Tuesday, Simonton said.
Chicago police said they were looking for at least three more suspects, but would not discuss a possible motive for the attack.
Simonton said Albert was knocked unconscious when Carson struck him in the head with a board and a second person punched him in the face. Albert regained consciousness and was trying to get up when he was attacked a second time by five people, struck in the head with a board by Riley and stomped in the head by Shannon, Simonton said.
Desiyan Bacon, Bailey's aunt, said her nephew didn't have anything to do with the beating and was a friend of the victim.
"They need to stop the crime, but when they do it, they need to get the right person," Bacon said.
Escalating tension
Fenger students said Albert's death intensified tensions at the school, with arguments about him breaking out in hallways all day Monday. Several blocks away, a memorial erected on the spot where he was beaten was burned down. Police also increased patrols before and after school and in the neighborhood.
"They're still trying to retaliate," said sophomore Toni Gardner, 15. She did not elaborate.
For Chicago, a sharp rise in violent student deaths during the past three school years — most from shootings off school property — have been a tragedy and an embarrassment.
Before 2006, an average of 10-15 students were fatally shot each year. That climbed to 24 fatal shootings in the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year and 34 deaths and 290 shootings last school year.
At a Monday vigil at the school, some community members said the solution lies with parents.
"It is our problem. We have to take control of our children," said Dawn Allen, who attended the vigil where a group of residents tried to force their way into the school before being turned back by police.
Intervention program
This month, the city announced a $30 million project that targets 1,200 high school pupils identified as most at risk to become victims of gun violence, giving them full-time mentors and part-time jobs to keep them off the streets. Some money also will pay for more security guards and to provide safe passage for students forced to travel through areas with active street gangs.
Albert's family attended a news conference Monday with school district leaders and police, but did not speak. They wore T-shirts with a picture of him in a cap and gown, with the words, "Gone too soon, too young."
But Annette Holt, mother of Blair Holt, a Chicago Public Schools student who was shot on a city bus two years ago, said Albert represented "another promising future, just snuffed out because of violence."
"Someone said he (Derrion) was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. "No, he wasn't. He was in the right place. He was coming from school."
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Sources: MSNBC, Fox Chicago, Huffington Post, AP, Google Maps
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