On November 4, a fire destroyed a playground at the Alcott Center in Buffalo Grove's park district headquarters at 520 Bernard Dr. Last week, police arrested two 14-year-old Buffalo Grove boys and two 14-year-old girls--one from Buffalo Grove and one from Wheeling--in connection with the fire. The teenagers face charges of arson and criminal property damage in Cook County Juvenile Court. Officials have estimated that it will cost $100,000 to replace the playground. "They started the fire, they said, to keep warm," Buffalo Grove police Cmdr. Steve Husak said Friday to the Chicago Sun-Times. "The fire ended up burning the equipment." Fire department officials said at one point the fire's temperature reached 1,300 degrees--enough heat to burn four aluminum poles. more ›

• A Cook County judge today made an evidence ruling in favor of Chicago Police Officer John Ardelean, who was involved in a 2007 Thanksgiving Day accident that killed two men.
• A judge has okay'd the sale of Burr Oak Cemetery.
• A volunteer firefighter in Indiana has been charged with arson.

• Todd Stroger, still stirring up trouble.
• The men accused of starting February's fire in Cicero that killed seven both pleaded not guilty.
• Stephen Hawking tells us to avoid contact with aliens. We agree.

The landlord and building manager of the Cicero building where seven people were killed in a Valentine's Day fire will each be charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson, officials announced last night. Three fire-fighters were also hurt battling the blaze. Cicero Town President Larry Dominick said via a statement, "I'm very angry about this. The lives of seven innocent people were taken so cruelly and with clear malice. This is a heinous crime." All seven people killed were under the age of 21: Byron Reed, 20, Sallie Gist, 19, their sons Rayshawn Reed, 3, and Brian Reed, 3 days old, Sallie's twin brother and sister, Elijah Gist and Elisha Gist, both 16, and family friend Tiera Davidson, 18. more ›

• With property tax bills set to arrive in mailboxes over the next several days, it looks like they're going up by double-digits, even higher than previously expected.
• John Ambrose, a deputy U.S. Marshal accused of leaking information to mob members involved in the Family Secrets investigation, has been sentenced to four years in prison. When he was convicted in April, it was reportedly the first breach of the Witness Protection program.
• Former Chicago Bear Tank Johnson testified today in the murder trial of Michael Selvie, charged with shooting and killing Johnson's boyhood friend Willie Posey at the Ice Bar in December 2006.

• Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan filed suit today against Crestwood mayor Robert Stranczek and his father for lying to the state and their community over tainted cancer-causing water coming from a nearby well.
• The Sun-Times has the story of Mark Clements, a man convicted of four arson-related deaths from a 1981 incident, and his appeal for a new trial.
• There's trouble in Cicero where town president Larry Dominick has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by four former female employees.

• The father of the Arlington Heights family that died in a fire apparently left behind a suicide note.
• R.I.P. Koko Taylor.
• Bond was denied for the two suspects in the shooting death of Chicago Police officer Alejandro Valadez.

• Police say a fire in Arlington Heights that killed two and injured three others this morning was arson.
• The car of a missing Midlothian woman, as well as a body, have been found; police have not yet announced the identity of the body or said whether it is that of the missing woman, Irma Rodriguez.
• Mayor Daley came to the defense of indicted Ald. Ike Carothers today.

Officials in Naperville are breathing a sigh of relief that one pyro-oriented kid didn't do more damage or seriously bodily harm to anyone after setting fire to a church while 50 congregants were inside. The fire was set by a juvenile Sunday morning at Naperville Congregational Church while the congregants hung about after the morning's worship service; the fire seems to have been set from the pulpit while the congregants were in the basement. Calling it, "an apparent arson involving a juvenile," Naperville police Cmdr. Dave Hoffman wouldn't reveal details about the suspect other than that he or she was a member of the church. No one was injured by the fire - which was immediately put out - and the church sustained about $500 in damages. Police are calling it "aggravated arson." [Sun-Times] more ›

A Bridgeport church was vandalized and had two fires set nearby overnight and officials are calling at least one of the fires an arson. The incident happened at All Saints St. Anthony's Church very early this morning. One of the fires damaged a stained-glass window. In addition to the fires, the phrases "GOD IS A LIE," "RAPE," and "IT HAPPENED HERE" were displayed across the doors of the church in red duct tape. The church's pastor, Rev. John Parker, said earlier today, "We didn't receive any warnings or threats or anything of that nature...I'm trying to figure out what the message means and what it means to the person who did it." more ›

For starters, don't do like on 14-year-old Geneva student and list "arson, anarchy, vandalism and mischief" as interests on your MySpace page. The teen told police that when the night the incident happened - Dec. 20, 2008 - "he got a sudden urge to do something crazy." He got some matches and set out for Western Avenue School.

Upon his arrival, the teen set fire to a can filled with papers, which was located next to the garbage Dumpster, records state. He then walked to the back of the school, broke a window with the scraper and climbed into the building, records state. While inside, he lit pages of books on fire in one classroom, and lit papers inside desks on fire in another classroom, records state. In a third classroom, the teen lit fire to papers sitting on a teacher's desk before exiting out the window, records state.

Madison Hobley, who once sat on death row, is now allowed to collect $6.5 million stemming from a wrongful-conviction lawsuit he won against the city. Hobley was originally convicted of setting the 1987 fire that killed seven people, including his wife and son. He served 13 years in prison before Gov. George Ryan pardoned him in 2003. An extra layer of intrigue to the situation comes from the fact that Hobley's main defense was that former Police Commander Jon Burge tortured Hobley into confessing. more ›

Temple Sholom, a North Side synagogue (3480 N. Lake Shore Dr.), was hit early this morning with a Molotov cocktail and has investigators considering the incident as both arson and a hate crime. Police were notified of the incident around 2 a.m. and found the small fire on the wall of the temple in a fenced-in playground area. No injuries were reported and damage from the fire was minimal. more ›

Seven people, including four children were injured in an overnight fire on the Northwest side that officials believe may be arson. The fire broke out around 2 a.m. this morning at 5685 N. Elston Ave. The was even a dramatic rescue of one of the children who was hanging from a third floor window; the child was rescued. Fire Deputy District Chief Thomas Lynch said, "Right now, we do have reports from some civilians that live in the area, that live in the building – and through some police reports – that this fire is being looked at as highly suspicious." Furthering this suspicion is the fact that police had been at the scene a few hours before the fire to inspect another incident, though it's not known if the two were related. more ›

A 77-year old Woodlawn man was apparently doused with gasoline and set on fire by a former tenant early Tuesday morning. Police found the man after responding to a call of a fire in the 6300 block of South Ellis Avenue. The man was taken to University of Chicago Hospitals with severe burns and was last reported in critical condition. Witnesses were able to identify the suspect as a 28-year old former tenant of the man, who owns an apartment building in the neighborhood. Police are still searching for the suspect. more ›

Someone sent a scary-nasty letter to Mayor Daley as some kind of reaction to the cougar shooting, threatening to burn down Daley's summer home (which almost happened) and ranting about his family, and a source close to the investigation told the Sun-Times that the same person may have sent a threatening letter to the Brookfield Zoo in 2003. more ›

A tiny bit more information coming out today about Subhas Chander, the Oak Forest man who's been charged with murdering his daughter, grandson and son-in-law. He was ordered held without bail yesterday, and his lawyer says he's suffering from some liver problems. more ›

Subhash Chander has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of intentional homicide of an unborn child in the Oak Forest fire that killed his pregnant daughter Monika Rani, son-in-law Rajesh Kumar, and grandson Vansh. Prosecutors say Chander set the fire because he believed his son-in-law was from a lower caste than his daughter, and that he didn't approve of the marriage. The fire also destroyed a 36-unit building and has left dozens of people homeless. more ›

Lance Briggs's baby mama Brittini Tribbett says he only provides $250 per week in child support. more ›

Marcus Hampton turned himself in last night, after police charged his girlfriend and her brother in connection with the grisly hit-and-run that dismembered a 60-year-old man. more ›

Two people have been arrested and police are looking for a third in connection to the dismembered body in Matteson and Alsip. more ›

$40 million buys a nice view. The Children's Museum discourse just got even more ridiculous: Ald. Brendan Reilly said he'd consider putting the museum in a cave. Three fires, all in 7901 S. Paxton Ave.? Not surprisingly, the police suspect arson. Blagojevich and Madigan ... can those crazy kids ever work it out? The union that represents the singers, dancers, actors and production personnel at the Lyric Opera says it might strike. image by... more ›

As part of the old Brach's legacy was being blown up for Batman, intentionally causing a blaze, there have been several other fire related bits in the news as well. The police Bomb and Arson Section and Chicago Fire Department are conducting an ongoing investigation of a warehouse fire that started Thursday night in Bridgeport. Just before 10 p.m., a fire was reported at a building near Halsted and 36th Streets in the 3600 block... more ›

CSI: The Experience, a new exhibit based on the phenomenally successful crime drama, opens this weekend at the Museum of Science & Industry and is slated for seven other cities through 2010. It’s sure to be a big hit. Now that blockbuster exhibitions barely raise an eyebrow and TV shows are more complex and intellectually stimulating than ever, we’re hardly surprised that the MSI would turn to CBS for family-friendly summer fun. more ›

We know you guys aren't sitting around pining for us, nor do you really care about our personal lives, but we got caught up in some personal things, and our lives were a whirlwind for a couple of weeks. We're caught up now, and people were being pretty dumb whilst we were away. Welcome to a week (or two) in wtupid roundup. We're pretty sure this is the plot of a movie — A firefighter... more ›

Daley thinks the General Assembly should increase CTA funding. Check out the Sun-Times' new look. Some new ballistics analysis disputes accounts by Chicago cops about what happened in a 2005 shooting of an unarmed man. A dog near Prairie Isle Golf Club got bit by a rare Eastern massasauga rattlesnake. No charges will be filed in connection to the Chicago cop/DC cop bar brawl. A homeless woman has been indicted on murder and aggravated... more ›

Book burning, gay bashing, kicking a homeless woman out of a library for freeloading public resources? It sounds like the Holy Trinity of turn-ons in one of Rush Limbaugh's wet dreams, minus maybe a pharmacist handing out endless prescriptions to Oxycontin. But it turns out a fire at the John M. Merlo branch of the Chicago Public Library on 644 W. Belmont back in June was a little more pedestrian. Erica Graham, a 21-year-old homeless... more ›

If you ask Chicagoist, stupid can mean more than one thing. Stupid can be petty and a little bizarre, sometimes it’s odd and a little misguided, and sometimes it’s just plain cruel. Here, in this Monday edition of TWIS, are a few examples. more ›

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA. Here we were, all ready to post something fascinating on a subject that had to do with loving books; then we hear some butthead(s) burned some books in the Gay and Lesbian section of the Merlo Library on Belmont. No one’s using the words “hate crime”, but they are using the word “arson”. And really? We’re still reeling from Leslie Pinney’s book banning proposal in Arlington Heights. We’re finding it... more ›