Sunday marks the start of the first Chicago Ideas Week, a brain-food buffet curated by Groupon cofounder Brad Keywell that will run Oct. 10-16. more ›

Gery Chico and Miguel del Valle took the opportunity of Bill Clinton's visit to Chicago to slam Rahm Emanuel for his “cozy relationship” with Clinton, his ties to mortgage giant Freddie Mac and the national housing crisis. Clinton was in Chicago for a private fundraiser for Emanuel. “When Rahm Emanuel had the chance to blow the whistle on corrupt activity taking place on the Freddie Mac board, he sat on his hands, looked the other way and took the cash,” Chico told CBS2. “It was a character test and Rahm Emanuel failed.” Citing a Tribune report that Emanuel was paid almost half a million dollars as a board member at Freddie Mac and was informed by board executives of a plan to mislead shareholders about profits, Chico compared Emanuel's experience to Enron, calling it “an illegal scheme to misstate profits” from risky investments “almost exactly like Enron did.” “We can’t afford a mayor who would look the other way when presented with this kind of corruption," Chico said. more ›

Even though Rahm Emanuel probably didn't need Bill Clinton's endorsement for his mayoral campaign, he got it all the same today. When you have an ace in your hand, you play the ace. more ›

Yes, the rumors are true - former president Bill Clinton will be stopping by the Chicago Cultural Center on Tuesday, January 18th to rally for Rahm Emanuel. But as some may have expected, Clinton's visit to Chicago isn't necessarily a visit that everyone is excited about. more ›

Yesterday it was Congressman Danny Davis who offered a stern warning for former President Bill Clinton against campaigning for Rahm Emanuel. Today it's former Senator Carol Moseley Braun who says Clinton runs the risk of alienating African Americans if he decides to interject himself into the mayoral campaign. more ›

Congressman Danny Davis must be looking to burnish his credentials as the "consensus Black candidate" for mayor if he's warning Bill Clinton from campaigning for Rahm Emanuel more ›

Rahm Emanuel will bring some big guns from Washington to support his mayoral campaign in January. The Tribune reports that former President Bill Clinton will headline an event that is expected to highlight Emanuel's role in the passing of the 1994 Crime Bill during his tenure as Senior Adviser for Policy and Strategy. The bill put 100,000 more police officers on the streets nationally and has been what some call a “policy template” for Emanuel. more ›

• With police reiterating that their investigation is still early and ongoing, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office officially ruled the death of CPS Board of Education president Michael Scott a suicide.
• The aftershocks of the beating death of Derrion Albert continue to be felt as today a federal judge gave the okay for students at Fenger High to transfer if they felt unsafe.
• An young Aurora man with Autism was found safe this morning after he went missing from his home late yesterday; he was found safe but in Crest Hill which is 20 miles from Aurora.

Last night Eyewitness News Chicagoist went to the House of Blues to hear Bill Clinton talk about the Millennium Network: an effort to involve folks under 45 in the public service work undertaken by his William J. Clinton Foundation. In addition to remarks by the OG President Hopey (Arkansas, represent), the fancy fund-raising event included a performance by Common and platters of spring rolls served with a delightful sauce. more ›

On a damp, chilly afternoon in Skokie, an estimated 12,000 people packed a tent on the grounds of the new Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center for the new museum's official opening. The first of its kind in the Midwest, Illinois' Holocaust museum is also likely the last built with the input of Holocaust survivors. The day included performances by hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari and Soul Children of Chicago, as well as speeches from numerous people involved with the creation of the museum, including Holocaust survivor and museum president Samuel R. Harris, Skokie mayor George Van Dusen and Executive Director Richard Hirschhaut. J.B. Pritzker, the museum's capital campaign chairman, served as MC for the afternoon. more ›

Hey kids, gather round -- it's time for our obligatory Sunday morning SNL clip filler post! This week, we could have gone with the shooting fish in a barrel opening sketch of the Palin/Couric interview, or the rather predictable presidential debate sketch, but our favorite moment of the night (well, until we bailed out at 11:15) was Bill Clinton on "Weekend Update" giving a rousing "endorsement" of our own Barack Obama: more ›

It seems like everybody in town knows Tony Rezko's name. And why not? Besides being under federal indictment, he's a big player in Illinois politics. He's also gotten some national attention, with Former Gov. Jim Edgar musing that Rezko isn't really Obama's problem, and a photo of him with former President Bill Clinton surfacing on the Today show. more ›

At the risk of feeding the hype machine, we still have to offer a congratulations to Mr. Kanye West for pulling in some Grammy gold last night. While we still don't buy the Grammys as an accurate barometer of the music industry and what's actually, you know, good in music these days, it's still the industry's main award show so there's something to be said for coming away with multiple trophies. While the night's big winner was Amy Winehouse, Kanye still managed to pull in four awards, as well as one of the night's most memorable acceptance speeches (surprise!) when he gave producers the verbal smack-down for trying to run him off in the middle of a tribute to his mother. more ›

Bill will chill has been answered with the announcement of the former president's campaign itinerary. Next stop on the legacy-tarnishing express: Edwardsville, IL. Hillary's more controversial half will be campaigning in the small town near St. Louis tomorrow morning, hosting a "Solutions for America" rally at Southern Illinois University at 7:45 a.m. more ›

We know, you're a little disappointed that your short-lived run for the presidency never included any debates. If you've been waiting for the right time to speak up in public on your views, tonight Glenn Hurowitz discusses his new book, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party. more ›

Barack Obama took the first step in cooling off the war of words between his campaign and Hillary Clinton's. "I've been a little concerned about the tenor of the campaign," Obama said in a press conference called yesterday evening in Nevada. "We've got too much at stake at this time in our history to be engaging in this kind of silliness," Obama said. "I suspect that other candidates may feel the same way." more ›

If you've ever wandered past the ever-under-construction mass of steel and concrete at the corner of State & Kinzie, that's the Museum of Broadcast History, the same group that put out the list of Top 125 American Political Broadcast Moments earlier this week. And, being as that lists are made to be pulled apart, dissected, shredded and argued over, who are we to get in the way of such rich tradition? There are some entries... more ›

Made in Chicago's taken a short hiatus, but now we're back, full of turkey and thankful for the artists and artisans in our town. Dolan Geiman grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia on his family's Christmas tree farm. Dolan started making things from an early age and exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains near his home. His work reminds us of traipsing around old barns and making tree forts back in Tennessee. Dolan and... more ›

The Greenbuild Expo started this morning at McCormick Place with a keynote by none other than Al Gore's president, Bill Clinton. Greenbuild 2007 brings 18,000 building professionals together for education sessions, lectures, tours of Chicago's greenest buildings, and a huge number of booths featuring new products and technology. Greenbuild says they chose Chicago because of the city's legacy of great architecture and Mayor Daley's dedication to all things green. (During his reign, the city has... more ›

Bill Clinton was in town today to sign books at Borders on North Michigan. A woman arrested for battery of an off-duty police officer claims that the arresting officer offered the cop filing the complaint a "free shot" while she was cuffed in the squad car. She also claims that the next day she was pulled over as a joke and let go. What is he smoking? Cook County Board President Todd Stroger says... more ›

One person is dead and three others are injured after a collision between a car and a Chicago Transit Authority bus. The car hit the bus at a high rate of speed after midnight. Our second favorite ex-President, Bill Clinton went on the Oprah show (aired on Tuesday) and downplayed his role in the presidential campaign of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. We'd be happy to have him as a first hubby. Walgreen... more ›

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the... more ›

In the ludicrous horse race that the 2008 presidential campaign has devolved into, much of the charisma and ideas that pushed Barack Obama to become a candidate in the first place have been lost in the "reporting" of the money and power-grabbing of this most early of seasons. At this early juncture, handicapping and speculation are a fool's game, although that hasn't stopped many from trying. Along the way, we've been treated to such spectacles... more ›

One of our fellow employees, a lifelong Chicagoan, brought a book to work one day. Unaware that taking in external knowledge was allowed at our office, we took a gander. It was a pictorial book about the Cows on Parade exhibits from 1999, before we ourselves became a permanent fixture in the city. While we thought the cows themselves kind of cheesy (no pun intended), we enjoyed the idea of public art on such a... more ›

Having a troubled family member is a classic story in politics. We all remember Roger Clinton, failed rock musician, alcoholic and convicted cocaine user, who's legacy lurked in the shadow Bill Clinton's presidency. And who could forget Billy Carter, Jimmy's good ol' boy brother, who endorsed Billy Beer and registered as a foreign agent with Libya in exchange for nearly a quarter million dollars? Rod Blagojevich should be so lucky to have a relative as... more ›

As much as Chicagoist loves to rail against the corruption and graft that plagues our fair city, occasionally our obsession with back-room deals and hereditary peerage takes a back seat to more mundane fascinations. With this in mind, today we bring you this interesting tidbit: Barack Obama is a smoker! We stumbled across Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Michael Currie Schaffer's meditation on what makes a candidate more real, a person more than a media hack's... more ›

On Tuesday, the American -ists will be celebrating democracy and hitting the polls, letting politicians know what they really think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? Londonist votes for better skincare, alternative spaces for art, cute little birds and the men who keep them, and concrete. Lots of concrete. Shanghaiist votes for one of the Bee Gees and Air Supply (it's a double-ticket),... more ›

Well, it's been quite a week, and it's only Wednesday! Let's jump into the Way Back Machine and have a look at some of the vitriol and invective that has plagued this fine city's political scene in the last three days: • The big news on Monday was that Barack Obama was going to run for president. Sort of. If you watch the clip, he didn't really commit to anything. Chicagoist thinks that he's playing... more ›

It's not official, but speculation has turned to expectation that 15-term northwest suburban Congressman Henry Hyde will announce in April that this is his last term in Congress. The staunch conservative will be 82 when term ends in 2006, and due to House of Representative rules, he is no longer eligible to keep his chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Committee. As a result, this is probably the perfect time for him to end a long,... more ›