A 14-year-old Illinois girl was on a cruise off the coast of California with her family when her appendix burst. The USS Ronald Reagan was dispatched to rescue her, and they did--including a helicopter transport between the ships. [Trib] Mayor Daley says he had no idea his son Patrick had invested in a sewer company that did work for the City. Reading from a prepared statement, the Mayor said "I did not know about......

Georgette Watson, the 46-year-old principal of Brentano Math and Science Academy in Logan Square, died yesterday while she was having a root canal. According to reports, she was anesthetized, but it's not clear yet if she was under general or local anesthesia. She stopped breathing 40 minutes into the procedure, and despite efforts to revive her, she died. Her autopsy is scheduled for today, but she appears to have had a heart attack. Watson, who......

Word to the wise: try to keep from talking to yourself, sweating excessively or hyperventilating the next time you pass through security at O'Hare. [Ed. note: You might want to avoid those things, oh, all the time.] In light of this fall's news that TSA screeners had missed about 60 % of hidden bomb materials that were sneaked through security by tiger teams at O'Hare, the TSA is upgrading its strategy and employing new......

Lance Briggs's baby mama Brittini Tribbett says he only provides $250 per week in child support. Former Sun-Times publisher David Radler was sentenced to 29 months in prison today after pleading guilty. The fire that killed a 17-year-old and her baby on the South Side this morning may have been arson. File Elk Grove under "One more town where you can't buy a hand job at a massage parlor." Snowy smile by Thelou137......

Friend-of-the-site Micah spotted an unusual feathered friend over the weekend and snapped this shot. Apparently that's a Great Horned Owl, chillaxing on the 1400 block of South State Street. H00t! Turns out there are eight species of owls that live around here. Hell, our short-lived Continental League Football team was the Chicago Owls. (What's got two thumbs and loves that logo? Thiiis site. > > we're pointing to the site with our thumbs < < )......

You know that thing you never do? Now it will cost another 25 cents if you start to do it. Yes, the Tribune is increasing its newsstand price to 75 cents for Monday-Saturday editions, but the Sunday edition remains $1.79. The memo sent out from Tony Hunter, the Trib's senior vice president of circulation and operations, said: Starting Monday, December 31, Chicago Tribune will raise its Monday - Saturday newsstand price from 50 cents......

The numbers to the left tell the story. Hyde Park Co-Op shareholders voted by a wide margin in favor of a buyout by the University of Chicago and close the store by the end of January. Under terms of the proposal, which can be viewed here, Hyde Park Co-Op is absolved of the $1.2 million back rent it owes U of C on its 55th Street location, will pay a one-time payment of $1 million......

It seems like the press is finally catching on that Governor Blagojevich doesn't like to venture into the public eye very much (except for Blackhawks games), where reporters might have a chance to ask him some questions about the spate of federal investigations, the inaction of the state legislature, or the recent indictment of his former chief fundraiser. An Associated Press story from yesterday outlines several "feel good" photo ops that most politicians would......

Wow, Alderman Tom Tunney has been having an interesting couple of months. First he gets a ticket for talking on his cell phone while driving and may have received special favors from the police department, then he makes a sweet deal and moves his flagship Ann Sather's, and now it's being reported that Tunney was the victim of an attempted holdup yesterday afternoon just a block from his 44th ward office. Five teenagers, who apparently......

A United 777 arriving from Shanghai was evacuated on the tarmac yesterday. The Captain reported smoke in the cabin shortly before landing, and once the jet was on the ground at O'hare, he ordered the evacuation of 273 passengers and crew. The incident occurred just before 4 p.m. yesterday. One passenger was complaining of back pain after the evacuation; she was transported to the hospital. Everyone else appears to be safe. The evacuation was orderly,......

No one drew the winning combination for the Mega Millions last night, so the jackpot has now grown to $163 million. Folks, that’s winning “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” 163 times! Illinois is just one of twelve states where we can play the Mega Millions. Twenty-one second prizes were drawn last night, though, each person winning $250,000 for matching five of the winning numbers. Two of those tickets were sold in Illinois -- one......

Thee Erin's title and caption for her photo, above, absolutely slays us: "'When did we become a civilization that dressed for the crowd and not for the individual?' 'Speak for yourself Bob. I taped my ankles.'" Wonderful. "...a masterwork of nausea that is only matched by the breakfast burrito and whiskey sour I enjoyed to prepare for this competition." Joshua Allen provided the commentary for today's dizzying round of Layer Tennis. The CTA workers......

Another man was charged today in U of C grad student Amadou Cisse's murder. Benjamin Williams, 21, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted robbery, two counts of armed robbery, and aggravated discharge of a firearm for the string of robberies that preceeded Cisse's death. Williams was not accused of shooting Cisse, and he's the third person charged with crimes from that night. Authorities previously charged Eric Walker, 16, with Cisse's killing as well as the......

Patrick Daley may be shipping out, but not before he dabbles a little in the family business. No, not politics, silly: Patronage and scandal. Hotcha! Young Daley and his cousin Robert Vanecko invested in Municipal Sewer Services, a company the City contracted for millions of dollars of work, and they both cashed out with a profit. The Daley Administration keeping it in the family is unsavory if not exactly earth shattering, but this gets even......

Our servers drank a big glass of bitch juice this morning, but things appear to be shaping up at this point. New York Times blogger and CPS teacher Will Okun wrote today about taking his class to meet Chicago Defender photographer Worsom. Bad news for Blago: His top political fund raiser was indicted today on federal tax fraud charges. he charges against Chris Kelley have nothing to do with politics or with the Blagojevich......

Five days ago, a New Foundland dog escaped from its owner's office in River North, not having been seen since. While it's fairly common to have a pup go missing in the city, most dogs aren't quite like Johnny B. Good, who weighs in at a staggering 125 pounds and stands at over three feet tall on all fours. His owner, Chad Munger, said that the dog opened two doors himself, using his head and......

The CTA may be getting slightly greener (assuming it can get its hands on some green). Yes, our beleagured transit authority is looking to by hybrid buses for its fleet if Springfield works out a funding structure. The diesel/electric buses get an extra 2 miles per gallon, and they're priced to move because the King County Metro System in Seattle didn't exercise its option to by the articulated (read: accordion) buses, plus they'd save......

Aldermen Helen Schiller and Danny Solis introduced a measure yesterday that would make feeding pigeons illegal. And the punishment would be up to $1,000 fine and six months in jail. Their proposed legislation reads... No person shall purposely provide food -- including, but not limited to grain, seeds, greens, bread crumbs and miscellaneous food scraps -- intended for pigeon ingestion on public property or property subject to the city right-of-way. Solis says pigeons deuce......

The Mark Prior Era is over in Chicago. The Cubs finally gave up on the one-time budding superstar on Wednesday -- the deadline for offering salary arbitration to eligible players--making Prior officially a free agent. Unable to reach an incentive-laden, one-year contract or to find a trading partner, the Cubs chose to non-tender Prior rather than risk overpaying for an injured pitcher. Are we surprised? Chicagoist did predict back in April that we'd never see......

The City's settlement in the Burge case has stalled again. Again. Really cute profile of a children's television production company based right here. "Well, the shit really hit the fan last night. And it was the CEILING fan. Maybe I should find a new taqueria." Nothing to do with anything, but we just lost 20 minutes going through the entire archive, and we loved every second. Hey, ladies, don't forget to have a bunch......

Well, we didn't set out to have a fecal-theme day, but when it rains (poop), it pours (dog poop). A Gold Coast grandmother was fined $400 this week for flinging dog crap at the Latin School. Strange but true! What would prompt such an act? "I had just had it with Latin," she said. Kass works for CPS and is also minister, according to the Pioneer Local. [She says she] "just got tired of......

We thought we'd been hearing jugbands downtown recently, and now we know we have: River otters are making a comeback in Chicago waterways. According to the Chris Anchor, chief biologist for Cook County (jobs we didn't know existed: that one), "Almost all the watersheds in Cook County have otters. They're everywhere...there's definitely otters downtown." No one's sure exactly why the otters have re-emerged, but the Brookfield Zoo and Forest Preserve District will be tagging......

You know how's it kinda gross and crappy out? You didn't know? Well, it is. Guess what's sexy to dolphins? Carrying stuff around in their mouths. At least, that's what some scientists think; other ones not sure; yet others, attempting to cure cancer. Mayor Daley announced his pick for CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority: Lewis A. Jordan. Jordan ran the Rockford and Cook County housing authorities, and spent 20 years in management at Allstate......

More news today about the state's case against Reginald Potts, and the evidence is really piling up. Potts was charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend Nailah Franklin over the weekend and on Monday was denied bail. According to Assistant State's Attorney Bob Milan, Potts left a voicemail for Franklin saying he could have her "erased" after Franklin sent an e-mail to some of her friends detailing Potts's criminal past. (According to Potts's blog entry on his......

Former Chicago Police sergeant John Herman faces a minimum of 24 years in prison after he was convicted of rape this week. Herman had a bench trial rather than a jury trial, and Judge Joseph Claps not only found Herman guilty, he also had some additional harsh words for the rapist. "The defendant's testimony is unreasonable and nothing short of perjury," Claps said. Claps also didn't believe two officers who testified on Herman's behalf, saying......

We'd just like to point out that for the price of one Hannah Montana ticket, you could feed a starving indie rock band for a year. For reals. Conrad Black got a 6 1/2 year sentence today. Oddly enough, we're not feeling sorry for him. Cheryl Lavin continues to dispense awesome advice. In this case she tells a woman who is upset at only having sex 4 times a week to tell her boyfriend......

Wow, it's been hours since Al Sharpton was in the news, so here we are today with a new round of Sharpton headlines. He held a press conference outside the Mayor's office this morning demanding that the City effectively treat its police brutality issues--or Sharpton will campaign against Chicago's Olympic bid. He also urged aldermen to reject Daley's nominee for police superintendent Jody Weis's because Daley selected Weis without input from the black community. Psst,......

Unless you stayed inside all day yesterday (and that wouldn't have been a bad idea, because it was dis-gusting out there), you couldn't miss the super-slippery sidewalks all around the city. An ice storm Saturday night made traveling around the city extra-treacherous due to the thin coating of ice on sidewalks. Chicago city officials, being their normal helpful selves, urged people to salt their sidewalks and walk carefully when it's icy. And also to look......

Of all the egregious things the city can do to property owners, from jacking property taxes to the current favorite, the misuse of TIFs, none seems more unfair and ripe for abuse as eminent domain. For the uninitiated, eminent domain allows the city government to seize ownership of private property, paying the owner whatever the city deems as "market value". It's supposed to be used for the "greater public good", such as the expansion......

Reginald Potts, Jr., was charged late last night in the murder of Nailah Franklin, who went missing in September of this year and whose body was later found in a wooded area in Calumet City. Not a big surprise, as Potts has been the primary suspect all along. In fact, the police didn't have to go very far to find him -- he was already locked up in county jail on other charges of violating......