In the wake of the recent uptick in violence, including last week's Taste of Chicago shootings, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis is being called to face the music by Alderman (29th) and Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers. "He's inexperienced, and it's his first Taste," Carothers said. "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......

City Council this afternoon voted 33-16 in favor of the plan to put the Children's Museum in a hole in Grant Park. What now? Alderman Brendan Reilly says he's going to court. Reilly promised a flurry of lawsuits -- and an attempt to seek a temporary restraining order blocking construction. Museum attorney Ted Novak said he does not believe the opposition will be able to meet the high legal standard needed to obtain a......

Aldermen are breaking local and state laws with astonishing regularity, according to a new report from The Beachwood Reporter and Chicago Talks. No one keeps written records, and not enough aldermen are present for votes or meetings. The investigation found that nearly half of the 21 committee meetings investigators documented did not have enough members present to vote under their own rules, yet they did. For instance, the traffic committee meeting that violated Illinois law......

Just confirmed with Gene Schulter's office: The proposed ordinance that would force promoters to be licensed and insured has been tabled. Crisis averted.......

Well, that anti-promoter ordinance the City's kicking around sounds worse with every passing second. The vague language means it may limit live comedy in Chicago, too. You can hear Alderman Eugene Schulter try to defend the ordinance on 848 from this morning, but we'll warn you that it'll just make you grumpy. Call your alderman, or plan on going to the City Council meeting tomorrow at 10am. update: Some folks are trying to rally 100......

Mayor Daley sure is busy. Or at least chatty. Yesterday Mayor Daley said he asked the Cook County Board of Review to reopen the appeals process for a special two-week period, March 17-31, for homeowners who feel that their property tax has been assessed too high as a result of the downturn in the housing market. The City has given the board of review data about which areas have seen declining home values, and it......

Photo by Andy Sternberg/LAist A posthumous tribute wall dedicated to singer/songwriter Elliot Smith sat defaced by graffiti for months on end -- LAist said enough, so did the fans and city council.SFist was surprised to learn that chronic presidential candidate Ralph Nader picked former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez as his running mate.Phillyist explored the possibilities of green cleaning.In the latest edition of Reel Toronto, a bi-weekly feature looking at films shot in Toronto......

While the City Council was following up on the General Assembly's plan to "save" the CTA last week, 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett was advocating for minority businesses. Burnett abstained from last week's vote, citing a conflict of interest. As a "registered security agent" for D.J. Mosier Financial Services, Burnett was concerned that voting on the transfer tax might be unethical. That didn't stop him from grilling CTA leadership on minority contracts, though. Before the......

It’s coming, folks. The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial in 2009. You won’t be able to eat your Wheaties in the morning without reading something about Lincoln, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. And while we still have more than 10 months to go before 2009 arrives, the celebration kicks off next Tuesday in Hodgenville, Kentucky, at the Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site with the Lincoln Bicentennial Inaugural Ceremony. First Lady Laura Bush will deliver remarks......

Photo by SFMoe After the Trib ran a story about Wheeling's Amante Enad roasting pigs in his back yard in traditional Filipino fashion, the village issued him a citation barring the practice and asking him to fork over (hay-oh!) his roasting equipment. [Trib] Moto-X at Soldier Field? Hell yes. The Chicago Park District is accepting proposals for events at Soldier Field. [S-T] Adding another odd twist to our city's transit saga, the City Council......

Pantagrapher has it in the bag Surprise, surprise: Chicago will not be banning retail stores from distributing plastic bags anytime soon, but steps are being taken to institute a plastic bag recycling program. According to the Sun-Times, Alderman Ed Burke from the 14th Ward proposed a "San Francisco-style ban on non-compostable plastic bags" last May, but he was ultimately forced to compromise. Now, Burke is joining Economic Development Committee Chairman Marge Laurino from the......

The Cook County State's Attorney race has been contentious, with Democratic candidates taking plenty of shots at each other in a televised debate and myriad endorsements. [Ed note: I love when there's a usage note in the dictionary.] Now Jesse Jackson's candidate Larry Suffredin is under renewed scrutiny for his work as a corporate lobbyist. According to the Sun Times, Suffredin, a Cook County commissioner from Evanston lobbied on behalf of Kankakee Regional Landfill LLC.......

Former Chicago mayor Eugene Sawyer has died, following a long illness. Sawyer was 73 years old. Sawyer was elected alderman of the 6th ward on the south side in 1971, and continued to serve in that position for 17 years. But of course what Sawyer is most known for is as the successor to Harold Washington following Washington's death, as well as being the last mayor to serve before the eternal reign of Richard M.......

In the continuing soap opera that is our state's budget crisis, Governor Rod Blagojevich made a visit to Rev. James Meeks's south side mega-church, House of Hope Sunday to drum up support for his proposal of free rides for seniors on the region's mass transit system. Besides being pastor of the church, Meeks is also an Illinois State Senator, and is often allied with the governor. In remarks to the congregation of about 8,000, Blagojevich......

It's official for Jody Weis: He's the new superintendent of police as of today, now that the City Council has approved him. 3rd Ward Alderman Pat Dowell cast the lone dissenting vote, saying she thought Weis's answers to the Council's questions were too general. First one Weis's agenda? Picking his next-in-command, and then cleaning up the department and its internal investigation branch. He told the Trib, People usually come out of the academy very excited......

A new ordinance kicking around City Council says disabled people with city-designated parking spots in front of their homes would no longer have to display a permit sign on their windshield. Apparently people often forget put the sign on their dashboard when they park, and they get tickets--and then they complain to their aldermen. 31st Ward Alderman Ray Suarez is pushing for the ordinance, saying it's unfair how often legit parkers get ticketed, joking "You......

The Illinois Beverage Association is really, really not psyched about the 5-cent tax on bottled water effective January 1. They're teaming with the American Beverage Association, the International Bottled Water Association, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the Illinois Food Retailers Association to sue the City once the law goes into effect. Oh, and they've sent out a press release every day for the last week to remind us all how unhappy they are about......

The crowd at Bernice's Tavern was separated into smaller groups. They were huddled together, studying a board containing ten photographs of church steeples and facades. The goal was to correctly identify each church from a corresponding list at the side of the board. We were with fellow Chicagoist-o Kevin Robinson and his significant other, who were of little help in this round, since these churches were all located in Bridgeport. As much as we walk......

The Chicago City Council held off on voting on a controversial ban on urban chickens yesterday. Since urban chickens are all the rage, it seems like a perfect time to ban them, right? Southwest Side Alderman Lona Lane (18th), who proposed the ban, said she didn't know why the vote on the ban was held up. Maybe it is, as the Sun-TImes suggests, because Mayor Daley has a thing for urban poultry: "Let's be realistic,"......

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......

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......

Mayor Daley has finally announced his pick for new police superintendent: J.P. “Jody” Weis, an FBI agent who was most recently the head of the Philadelphia field office. The City Council still has to approve the appointment, but given that Ald. Isaac Carothers, chairman of the City Council's police committee, says "maybe going to the outside might bring a fresh look — a guy who knows no one and owes no one,” is anyone worried?......

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the death of Harold Washington. The Chicago of 1983 was very different from the Chicago of 2007: factories were shutting down, and white middle-class homeowners were leaving the city in droves, taking their property taxes and urban stability with them. An alarming upswing in crime and drugs, coupled with escalating racial tensions left many Chicagoans nervous about the future. Richard J. Daley had been dead for seven years, and......

It was twenty years ago today that Mayor Harold Washington collapsed at his desk in City Hall. He died of a massive heart attack. In 1983, Washington surprised Chicago by winning the Democratic Primary for Mayor. He won with 36% of the vote, beating out incumbent Mayor Jane M. Byrne and Richard M. Daley. In the April 1983 general election, Washington received 52% of the vote to become Chicago’s first black mayor, trumping Bernard Epton......

Happy 80th birthday, Alderman Bernie Stone! All the other aldermen threw him a surprise party today. Squee, cutest city council meeting ever. Police are looking for a silver or white four-door car with a red door on the drivers side because it may be linked to Amadou Cisse's murder. John McDonaugh has quit his gig as president of the Cubs and was named president of the Blackhawks today. According to the press release, McDonaugh will......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

The City Council passed Mayor Daley's insane budget with a vote of 36-14. Only in Chicago is that "a departure from the overwhelming victories" of years past. The tax package was a closer call, but still passed 29-21. The approved plans include doubling the phoneline surcharge to $2.50 per month to support the city's 911 centers, raising the tax on wine and beer, a 5-cent tax on bottled water, higher parking tickets, and dozens of......

Tuesday we gave you the rundown of who is running for a Green Party nomination in Illinois, but among the candidates, one in particular stands out. Richard B. Mayers, a white supremacist connected with Matt Hale's Creativity Movement is running against Jerome "Jerry" Pohlen in the 3rd Congressional District. This isn't the first time Mayers has run for office. In 2002 he was removed from the ballot in the 9th Congressional District, leaving Jan Schakowsky......

If you're in Greektown this morning and see a bunch of people milling about at the Halsted/UIC Blue Line station, just go about your normal business. Those folks are from the Think Outside the Bottle campaign staging a protest demanding that Coca-Cola reveal the sources it uses for its Dasani brand bottled water. Bottled water has come under intense scrutiny lately, from a proposed tax on bottled water by City Council being considered to bridge......

A freshman at Corliss High School on the South Side says his school's security guards assualted him--and a student has the incident on tape. According to the Sun-Times, the tape shows an officer wrapping his arm around the student's neck and pining him to the floor. RIP, Betsy the harbor seal. The 36-year-old resident of the Lincoln Park Zoo was quite old for a harbor seal. The City Council's finance committee approved the Mayor's......