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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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......

Our pal Gena was at the John C. Reilly/Dewey Cox thing yesterday (where she took the picture above and a hundred others), and she tells us Reilly-as-Cox was amazing, "never breaking character and ad libbing with the best of them, sweating like a rock star and gyrating like one, too." He also busted out a cover of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab," which we want to hear so very badly. She adds, "The band was remarkably......

Is the City finally going to reach some kind of resolution with four victims of police torture victims? It look like it. Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange, Stanley Howard and Madison Hobley, all tortured by Chicago Police commander Jon Burge and his Area 2 lackeys, will divide a $20 million settlement in their suit against the city. Says 4th Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Failure to settle these cases when there was no argument anymore that there......

Remember Frank Kruesi, and how he fucked up the CTA all the time, and was BFF with Daley, but he screwed the pooch in Springfield? He just got a new job! For the City! As our chief lobbyist in DC! Wait, what the eff? Mayor Daley announced today that he has appointed Kruesi manage the City's federal legislative, regulatory and administrative agendas in Washington, DC. In the statement, Daley says Kruesi's job is "to help......

The Trib rolled out Part II of its damning investigation of Chicago police officers shooting civilians, and it's just as intensive as Part I--plus it's accompanied by a harsh, determined editorial. God, agreeing with the Trib's editorial board...this is a whole new feeling. Today's report focuses on Officer Phyllis Clinkscales, who shot and killed 17-year-old Robert Washington in June 2000, which sets up an analysis of how thoroughly police shootings are investigated. Guess what?......

Who knew "celebrity" golf tournaments could be such a flustercuck? Not Caddyshack star Cindy "Lacey Underall" Morgan. She hosted a 2006 event, which was supposed to benefit the Illinois Military Family Relief Fund, turned out to be a disaster. A giant no-money-making, friendship-ending, lawsuit-generating disaster. Morgan says only about 100 people played golf, that the Caddyshack cast members who did show (Bill Murray and Chevy Chase weren't there) left early, and now she's on the......

An 8-year-old boy was mauled by a pit bull on the far South Side today. Police say he's in very serious condition. The Stacy Peterson madness continues. Illinois state police served Drew Peterson with a new warrant so they can keep his cars and the eight guns they seized as part of the investigation for longer. And divers searched Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in Romeoville and Lockport today for any clues to Stacy's disappearance.......

"Law enforcement officials at all levels, from the detectives who investigate cases to the superintendent, as well as the state's attorney's office, have failed to properly police the police." Wow. The Trib goes all out today with a massive story about police shootings, and it's extremely critical of the CPD. According to the story, "More than 100 people have been killed in the last decade; 250 others have been injured. But only a tiny......

Hoooly balls, this Streets and Sanitation news item--is it a press release? just an announcement? either way — is a hot mess. Apparently the City is "over the moon with street sweeping mileage." We're not so over-the-moon about this hand-drawn, badly punctuated flyer. Does this make Streets and San trashy? Ho, ho.......

It wasn't your imagination. There really were extra problems on Lake Shore Drive this morning, with 20 vehicles damaged and 3 people injured. Stupid potholes. Now it's even more convenient for the City to take your money! New robot kiosks now accept payments for your parking tickets, water bills and red-light tickets. An update to this morning's story about the 4-year-old who was shot and killed: her brother has been charged, as a juvenile,......

Investigations are still ongoing in Friday's Amtrak crash, but preliminary reports indicate that the train was going 25 mph faster than it was supposed to be. (The video is a lot less exciting than we were hoping for.) The Amtrak train's engineer told investigators he realized the speed limit was 15 mph in that stretch of track but accelerated to 40 mph anyway, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt told reporters Sunday. The......

Jaylnn Hall, 4, died early yesterday morning after her 15-year-old brother shot her in the chest, apparently accidentally. Her mother, whose name hasn't been released, is a Cook County corrections officer, and the 9mm handgun used in the shooting is her "duty weapon," which corrections officers are allowed to carry outside of jail. The mom was at work at the time of the shooting, and she's been "de-deputized," which is standard procedure according to......

Two little boys, ages 2 and 3, died in a Southwest Side fire this morning, where two adults were also seriously injured. The cause of the fire is still unknown. At least 10 people were living in the 1 1/2-story single-family house on 66th Place and Kedzie, and so far the fire department can't tell if the smoke alarms in the house were operational or not. Remember: Get smoke alarms! According to the Illinois State......

Although the cover story to yesterday's Sun-Times said that diners shouldn't be alarmed, it's hard to not be after reading the sensationalized cover story which listed 21 restaurants whose ice had more bacteria than a toilet in the Sun-Times men's room. A note for downtown workers looking for lunch this afternoon: you may want to buy a bottled drink. The testing of ice cubes from 49 area restaurants found that the unlucky 21 tested for......