As several commenters pointed out, Second City Cop has been on the CTA identity theft case for a few days--and the story there is that a reverend who's on the CTA board attempted to keep the arrest quiet. The only reverend on the CTA's board of directors is Charles E Robinson. Our call to the Board's main office was not immediately returned. Jeanette Sliwinski's psychiatrist testified today that she "didn't see any psychotic symptoms"......

Chicagoist commenters now have avatars! If you have a profile (and if you don't yet, why not register?), just go to "Edit Profile" and upload a 100 x 100 pixel image. Then try commenting (on this post!), and bask in the glory of our ever-improving commenting system. For now, the default icon for registered users across the Gothamist network is a panda, which is a nod to Executive Editor and Gothamist Co-Founder Jen Chung's well-documented......

More on Parking Meters...

Everyone knows the Internet can be a nasty place. From bloggers who bore their readers and wage war on grammar to commenters who spend their entire day viciously tearing others to shreds under pseudonyms, most of the opinions being touted aren’t always taken seriously. But how will this lovably effed up relationship evolve if the legal stakes are raised? We’re interested to see what will happen with the suit brought against an anonymous blogger in......

Having attended the Printers Ball in the past, we knew that the free-to-all-comers event would attract more than its fair share of people. We also hoped that having Bridgeport's Zhou B Center host this year's model would allow for more accommodation of guests. We had intended to show up as the Zhou B Center is practically in our backyard, but decided to first pay our respects to the recently departed. Unfortunately, as we were making......

By now you know that we've rolled out a new comments system here at Chicagoist. After a week, it's working pretty well for us, we have to say. Now, one of the things you might be noticing is "guest" comments are posting in a lighter font that those of registered commenters (James, our copy editor, says this is the correct spelling, but we're gonna have to dust off a couple dictionaries to be certain). This......

By now you know that we've rolled out a new comments system here at Chicagoist. After a week, it's working pretty well for us, we have to say. Now, one of the things you might be noticing is "guest" comments are posting in a lighter font that those of registered commenters (James, our copy editor, says this is the correct spelling, but we're gonna have to dust off a couple dictionaries to be certain). This......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

Hey everyone -- you may have noticed that we've made a few small changes to our commenting and feedback systems: 1. Commenters now have profile pages with a bit of information about them, and links to their recent comments, along with comments other people have left in response. If the commenter is also a Chicagoist author, the page will include a list of their recent posts. Here's mine. You can register here -- it's fast......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

Okay, so last night after a rousing episode of “Lost” (oooh, it’s getting so good again), we sat down to watch “Thank God You’re Here”. The show originally aired in Australia where it was the most successful new show in 2006. Parts of it were painful to watch and parts of it – well – parts of it weren’t so bad. We thought Chelsea Handler was okay, taking the easy way out sometimes with her......

While some people are busy wondering if Barack Obama is in fact the Messiah, two of the Chicago Tribune's columnists/bloggers have been attending to some of the would-be next President's more immediate concerns. Eric Zorn has been polling readers all week as to what Obama's campaign theme song should be after mixed reviews of the music selection from his early campaign rallies. His choices so far have been a mix of classic but overplayed R&B......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

On Monday when we discussed the city's plans to step up efforts to protect pedestrians, a few commenters replied by saying that often, pedestrians are just as much to blame as vehicles for creating dangerous situations at intersections. They're right too; Chicagoist has witnessed many walkers blithely wandering into the street against no-walk signs, and let's not even start on the herds of people on Michigan Avenue who apparently skipped street safety day in grade......

Chicago? Tall buildings. A lake. A river. Stadiums. Sports bars. 'L' tracks. All the elements, in the minds of producers, needed to make our city look like somewhere else. Earlier this week it was announced that the new TBS show "My Boys," which is set in not-really-Chicago, has been picked up for nine additional episodes. When we posted about it earlier, we opined that it's really not so successful with capturing the spirit of Chicago,......

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Londonist wants you to know where to......

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they're designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we'd say that they're doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you......

The fire at the Dexter Wirt building will continue to indirectly mess things up for Orange and Green Line CTA riders, Columbia College students, the homeless and anyone trying to get a drink at George's. CTA officials want to make sure the rail structure is safe before allowing train service to resume between Roosevelt and the Loop. In addition, the burnt structure now needs to be torn down so that pieces of the formerly historic......

Last week, we recommended catching this weekend’s Cold War Kids show at Hideout. You listened, because the show is sold out. But we’ve got our hands on a pair of tickets to the show and we’re giving them away to you!. As one of our commenters pointed out, Cold War Kids was on tour with The Futureheads with a stop at Metro planned for this Saturday before that tour was cancelled due to an injured......

The cover story of today's Sun-Times' "Weekend Plus" section is a comparison of tiramisu from ten different Chicago restaurants. On a four fork scale - one being "skip dessert" and four meaning "tiramisu heaven" - only three restaurants scored four forks on their tiramisu: Maggiano's, Rosebud on Rush, and Trattoria 31, which we reviewed back in May. In just a few short months, Paco Ruiz and his staff at Trattoria 31 have earned a good......

As we sat down to write this week's Best of the -ists post, a car blaring "21 Questions'" passed by our house. And that started us thinking about how some of the best -ist posts out there have at their hearts questions, some of which are answered, and some of which are left open. Check out the Best of the -ists from this week, and see if you agree. Londonist answers the questions "How much......

It’s been a quiet month since we last heard an update about Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times film critic and co-host of “Ebert and Roeper.” Back then, we posted some suggestions for putting out some good vibes to speed along the man’s recovery. But the best suggestion came from one of our commenters, FernLaPlante: “I think we should all take Polaroids of ourselves flashing the Thumbs Up sign and mail them to Ebert and/or ABC-7.......

Breaking the law, breaking the law We -ist folks love us some crime, and no misdemeanor is too petty for a post on any of our sites. This week, join us for a rogues' gallery of miscreants major, minor, and alleged. Gothamist gets us started with "Law & Order", muppet style. Oh, you know what isn't a crime? Taking pictures on the MTA. So, why are cops stopping photographers? In other Gotham crime, a......

God, we're so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this weeks' Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate on......

Ask and ye shall receive, commenters; today is the day that you requested. Today we push aside big book fairs and corporations and their easy-to-buy books. Today we shun the traffickers of false memoirs and mammoth book advances. Today we say, WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ BORDERS! We'll begin with the Reader Book Swap. Tonight, at the Hideout, from 5:30PM-8:30PM, you can bring as many as 15 used books, and exchange them for 15 other......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-weidling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.......

SFist commeters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines. Houstonist announces their new Cops spinoff "World's Funniest Tazer Videos" and the possible cancellation of their pervs' "World's Grossest Bathroom Videos" and PBS trains cams on cows at, uhg, Mootube. Also,......

Back in January we pointed out a story about how bedbug infestations are worse now than they have been in years, especially in hotels. The pests seem to be thriving in linens and mattresses because people travel so much more now, carrying the little stowaways with them, and because restrictions on pesticides keep exterminators from really dropping the hammer. Based on our in-depth research at the always 100% accurate Wikipedia, we mistakenly implied that bedbugs......

CTA Tattler posted some fun pictures yesterday that a reader snapped at the revamped Jackson subway station. An information screen went rogue, revealing the software running beneath. From the looks of it, the monitor was just playing a PowerPoint presentation on Windows XP, but someone forgot to lock things down. Riders even got to see a helpful security popup letting them know that the computer wasn't running a firewall. Neat! This is red meat for......