Steve and Barry's is filing for chapter 11; is Sears going to buy the super-discount retailer? [AP]
A 12,000-word article about Steve Kazmeircak is in August's Esquire. [AP]
Jody Weis sure is having a tough week. I mean, not as tough as the people who were shot at Taste of Chicago, but tough. Now Alderman Isaac Carothers (29th) is blaming him for the gun violence at Taste of Chicago. "I want to see what his response is going to be to deal with this violence, not only at the taste, but with this unprecedented violence in this city—13 percent up murders, shootings are up, violent crime is up, every category is up—so I think he has to respond to that," Carothers said. [Trib]
The New Trier student who broke into the school's computer systems to check his class rankings was sentenced to one year of court supervision and 50 hours of community service. [S-T]
Wisconsin's supreme court ruled today that necrophilia is indeed illegal in the state. [Trib]
The City Council is talking about adopting a new law that would ban sex offenders from becoming ice cream vendors. [CBS]
More than 1,000 people have become ill in confirmed cases of the salmonella outbreak initially linked to raw tomatoes. It's now been linked to jalapeños, too. The CDC says its working as hard as it can. [AP]
An Indiana Satanist is fighting to keep partial custody of his children. [Trib]
Be Ira Glass papercraft kit. Easy peasy.

Friday Afternoon Diversion: Earth With Rings



Whole Foods must be a rat haven. The location on Ashland and School was closed down the other year for the same reason.
The only person Isaac Carothers needs to blame is his mother and his third grade teacher...... oh and his father who I belive went to jail for corruption
Spook IKEs brother is a chicago police LT. who I have been told has been promoted by MERIT twice by previous administrations in the police dept. I wonder if that had anything to do with Ike being chairman of the police committee. Jody must not be promoting carouthers brothe fast enough.
Two years ago he was a lowly sergeant who seemed to be more on light duty. I'm sure it had nothing to do with his brother. My kind of town, Chicago, Chicago