Photo credit: sniderscion Torontoist spent its week uncovering who was behind mysterious ads for a drug called "Obay" that popped up across the country (Scientology? Frank Shepard Fairey?), first tracing them to an advocacy group called Colleges Ontario and then confirming their suspicions a few days later.Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show – it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovers that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates......

If you need further evidence that cultural awareness is increasingly non-existent among the general populace, look no further than college blog Campus Squeeze. Following on the heels of its list of the 20 most beautiful college campuses, the site recently weighed in on what they deemed the 20 ugliest campuses in the country. While the prison-style buildings of Drexel University and the utilitarian blocks at Rochester Institute of Technology certainly didn't look appealing, we......

Drew Peterson is saying his wife, missing Bolingbrook woman Stacy Peterson, left him. The Post Office lost a bunch of state unemployment checks. D'oh! A luxury movie theater will be going in a Block 37. Earl Hughes, 24, was shot and killed early Tuesday morning on the 5300 block of West Wabansia. Hughes's younger brother Robert is a running back for Notre Dame. Have a happy, safe, fun Halloween night, everybody! Holiday wishes from......

Northwestern is among forty North American colleges and universities in the running for PETA's most vegetarian-friendly campus, to be awarded next month (if you're so inclined, you may vote for Northwestern or any of the other nominees here). The nominees were compiled by students throughout the US and Canada and tallied by PETA2, the animal-rights organizations youth activism arm. Northwestern was cited for its extensive vegetarian and vegan-friendly options in dining halls throughout the campus.......

One of Chicagoist’s things to do before we die is to gamble in a casino. A lofty goal, we know. Our one previous attempt at a Quad Cities riverboat ended in a DQ, as we weren’t old enough and our mother had left her driver’s license at the hotel. We know it’s way less glamorous than movies would have us think, but damn if we don’t want to feel the chips in our fingers and......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

While most of the city was partying down at Lollapalooza this weekend, a different type of party was going on just a few blocks south of Grant Park: YearlyKos, the annual convention hosted by DailyKos, the netroots weblog started by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, and filled with content, news and views by a motley crew of bloggers from around the nation (including Dick Durbin!). Saturday was a big day for the bloggers by the lake, with......

Nobody ever questioned the determination of Michael Jordan. The guy who didn't make his high school basketball team worked hard came back to win a spot the next year... then went on to a standout college career, won six titles with the Bulls and was named athlete of the century by ESPN. We guess that resolve rubbed off on his children, because son Jeff Jordan made a bold decision on Friday concerning his choice of......

Chicagoist: Peeking into the minds of the mad, the dangerous and the just plain stupid. On Thursday we told you about a woman finding the body of a teenage boy while walking her dog. Turns out the body belongs to 16=year-old Nathan Gregory of Chicago Heights. Gregory allegedly said some unkind words about a gang member's friend's mother. Arnaldo Cruz-Ortiz, 20, took so much indirect umbrage over the remark that he ended up shooting Gregory......

It's a perpetual high jump folks, and Chicago just asked for a few more inches on the bar. Apologies for the lackluster play on words, but every other possible pun has been used. Today at 3 p.m. the United States Olympic Committee will finally announce their choice. We will provide an update when the announcement takes place, but the USOC heard Chicago's final bid this morning and there were a couple of surprises. The major......

Mrs. Gov. Blago was involved in some lucrative real estate deals with a woman whose company has a no-bid state contract. Fishy? Some guy followed a woman off the Red Line, threatened to "slash her throat" if she made any noise, stole her money and her iPod, and sexually assaulted her. There was a witness, so there's a good sketch of him here. People are pissed because holiday trees are up in some suburbs......

Reminiscent of the great weekly series, This Week in Stupid, "STOP! Police" is a new podcast from InsideChicago.tv. "STOP!Police" reporters' use weird, funny and silly stories from the streets and brings them to you via podcast. Michael Holm, the producer of the show, told the Columbia Chronicle that he intends to produce the show like an old-time radio show. “There was a different type of sensationalism back then, and newscasters created excitement when delivering the......

You might not have noticed it, what with you having to be at work and all, but today is a holiday. That means that you won't be getting mail, and you don't have to go to court -- city, state, or federal (we're looking at you, Patrick Fitzgerald). Beside the Post Office and government offices, public and most private elementary, middle, and high schools are closed today as well, but not the colleges and universities......

College football season kicks off this weekend, and that means that across the city, fans will be flocking to countless bars to watch their favorite teams. Chicago is second to none when it comes to its school pride, as nearly every sports bar and neighborhood tap affiliates itself with some college team -- at least in Lincoln Park and Lakeview. If you're trying to find the hideout for a particular school, keep your eyes peeled......

As if 130 bands, overpriced food, kids’ shows, an art exhibit, and people watching weren’t enough, Lollapalooza 2006 will serve up afternoons of interactive entertainment on the Mindfield Stage. Good to see three local comedy offerings on the bill but, with all due respect, they’re pretty much the opening act everyone’s sitting through to get to the headliner. To any of our readers coughing up $60 or more just to see Chicago comedy in Grant......

In another stunning display of his leadership skills, the Rod signed another bill to ensure the welfare and safety of our children yesterday. Well, our college-age children. When he's not keeping them safe from wacked out video games and making sure we all don't fall victim to fake war heroes, he's going to make sure they're not getting the cancer, either. It seems that the Illinois legislature is cranking out the bills lately, and the......

The days of keeping that big state university as a "safety school" while holding out for the Ivy League or that pretty campus on the beach (oooh, Pepperdine) may be over for Illinois students, at least in the short-term. Admission to the University of Illinois was harder than ever this year, as the school received a record number of applications for its colleges. U of I received 22,300 total applications this year, a 12 percent......

While reading the news this morning, Chicagoist saw one more reminder of why we’re glad we went to a state school. The Tribune and Sun-Times are reporting Julita Groszko, 31. was “charged with two counts of aggravated arson, three counts of attempted aggravated arson and felony criminal damage to property” after allegedly setting fires on the University of Chicago’s campus. Upon questioning, she revealed to police that she set the fires because the work at......

The show must go on. Or at least Econ 101 classes. For 15 students whose lives were turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina, Columbia College has opened its doors to them by offering free tuition, room and board. The number, according to Columbia officials, is expected to grow. Chicagoist tends to be a cynical, big ol' meanie but we have to say that it warms our cold, bitter hearts to hear that the relief efforts......

Yes, yes, yes. We're on the bandwagon. U.S. Senator Barack Obama is a wonderful man. Illinois citizens are lucky to have such a great senator, so smart, so good looking, so many prospects for solving our nation's ills. And we genuinely mean this. Really. But dangit, we're really sick and tired of the constant fawning press coverage. It continued today with announcement of his very first piece of federal legislation, a bill calling for increasing......

A study has of colleges and universities in the Loop was released today and it's revealed that with 52,000 students attending classes at more than 41 separate locations and nearly 7.5 million total gross square feet of Loop real estate, the Loop is "the largest college town in Illinois." Of course, having so many students in the Loop is having an impact on the area's retail, restaurant, real estate and construction industries. It's also changing......

True, people that have property, and actually pay property taxes aren't really Chicagoist's demographic (or we assume, we're not doing much market research these days). But as a public service, we thought we'd remind you of those taxes you gotta pay by 5:00 pm today. Cook County residents should hustle down to the County Treasurer's office in person by 5:00 pm, or pay on-line by 11:59 pm. For obvious reasons, property taxes are immensely unpopular......

Amidst all the hoopla leading to U.S. Senator-elect Barack Obama's coronation -- er swearing-in -- some other interesting Chicago political doings happened this past weekend: Obama's successor for the State Senate was selected and sworn in on Saturday. Chicago City Colleges senior attorney, Kwame Raoul, 40, was selected to fill out the remaining two-year term of the South Chicago lakefront 12th State Senate District. Because the seat was held by a Democrat, Obama's replacement was......

Last night the Cook County College Teachers Union broke off talks and 750 full-time faculty members and staff at Chicago's City Colleges will go on strike today. Both sides actually agreed on healthcare and salaries, but what they can't agree on is how much each teacher should teach. The union rejected a proposal that would require each professor to teach 15 hours per semester, 3 hours more than their currently required. Both sides say they......

A recent article in Business 2.0 announced the opening of a Cerality: Cereal Bar & Cafe in Chicago this month. At this restaurant we'll be able to mix and match more than 30 brand-name cereals, more than 30 toppings, and different flavors of milk. Pajama-wearing "Cereologists" will then make the concoction and serve it up in a 32-ounce leak-proof container filled with 2 cups of cereal, the topping and the milk. All for under......

Alert reader Prashanth tells us that there's a meeting tonight to discuss the Wilson Yard project. Monday's Tribune column said opposition to the project had "a classist or even racist ring," so expect some people from the Uptown Neighborhood Council to be pretty pissed off. Remember when we said a "loud, angry public hearing almost seems guaranteed"? It looks like that's tonight. According to the Uptown Chicago Commission website, "Alderman Helen Shiller, the Holsten Development......

Crain's released its Who's Who of Chicago business today, and it's going to take us a long time to plow through all those names and come up with jokes/information. The list does actually appear to be a who's who, so it's mostly obvious people, at least in the categories we're remotely familiar with. For example, the education category has the presidents/head honchos of most Chicago colleges and universities, plus Arne Duncan and David J. Vitale......

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign got slammed yesterday in a report from its accrediting agency, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The report says that the continued use of mascot Chief Illiniwek and the tremendous controversy around that use had started to erode the academic integrity of the institution. �The rate and amount of damage to the institution will continue to accelerate if the issue is not addressed decisively and soon,� the......

It might take a federal court to get President Bush�s name on Illinois ballots this November because the Illinois legislature hasn�t ironed out a wee little problem. In our fine state, to qualify for the November 2 ballot, the state elections board must certify presidential candidates by August 30. But the Republican National Convention runs August 30-September 2 this year, so Bush won�t be the official nominee for the Republican Party until after the deadline.......