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• CHICAGO (AP) -- The public teachers strike that has halted classwork and upset family routines across the country's third largest city ground into a third day Wednesday with some movement reported by union and school board negotiators but no sign of an imminent deal.
• Union leaders said they will meet Wednesday morning to review a new, comprehensive proposal from school board negotiators that addresses all the issues still on the table. The board has requested either a written response or a comprehensive counterproposal from the union.
• But the teachers Tuesday were lowering expectations for an agreement, buoyed by energetic rallies in which even parents inconvenienced by the strike were waving placards in support. Other unions were joining in, with school custodian representatives saying their members will walk off the job this week as well.
• Board President David Vitale, the lead schools negotiator, said early in the day that a deal could be reached, but union President Karen Lewis and her colleagues emerged from the talks accusing the board of having dug in its heels with its new proposal. Among the biggest remaining issues are a new teacher evaluation system and a process for deciding which laid-off teachers can be rehired.
• "There's been -- let's put it this way -- centimeters (of progress) and we're still kilometers apart," said Lewis, who earlier stated it was "lunacy" to think the issues could be wrapped up quickly.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama goes airborne in a doozy of a bear hug with a pizza guy in Florida. Joe Biden cozies up with a biker chick in Ohio. Paul Ryan encircles a campaign supporter in North Carolina in a double-armed embrace. Even the more reserved Mitt Romney seems to be loosening up some with people he meets on the campaign trail.
• Kissing babies and slapping backs are so yesterday.
• The 2012 candidates are putting their all into the campaign cliche of pressing the flesh.

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