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... more ›

In the race for the Democratic nomination for County President, the bad blood between County Commissioner Forrest Claypool and current President John Stroger probably won’t be improving anytime soon. Both Claypool and Stroger appeared on NBC 5’s City Desk with Dick Kay yesterday morning. Unfortunately, Stroger is not keen on debates, so they did not appear together. Wait, maybe that’s a good thing. At this point we wouldn’t be surprised to see a meet... more ›

Yesterday US Congressman Mark Kirk held a hearing at the Shedd Aquarium to discuss the results of a study done by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, which determined Lake Michigan has more mercury pollution than all of the other Great Lakes. more ›

It's the biggest political story of the day, but Chicagoist has waited until the late afternoon because we needed to mull this over a bit. It is just too damn big, and some very important reputations are at stake. So, take a deep breath and take this story in a couple of bites. Gerald Wesolowski Jr., a top Chicago Water Department official became the sixth person to plead guilty in the U.S. Attorney's Hired... more ›

Ben Joravsky's column in the The Reader this week addresses something every property owner is thinking: Cook County's property tax assessments are wack. We briefly mentioned this fact earlier this week, but Joravsky's article picks up on an interesting study by Merlin Tripp, of Citizens for Fair Assessments and Taxes. Tripp's study uses the financial disclosures of various Chicago public officials to get a sampling of how much property tax bills have actually risen over... more ›