Inhalable chocolate, new Skittles and bacon jerky: we tried them all and brought back a full report. more ›

This weekend, Naperville plays host to the 19th annual Duckon, a yearly sci-fi convention featuring nearly everything including panels on how to pick up geeks, tips on costume making, a bird show, masquerade ball and more. Duckon is a bit different from other conventions that come through Chicago, with a heavier focus on both fandom and actual science. While events like C2E2 and Wizard World feature loads of fandom and fun, Duckcon definitely brings some more unique aspects of the culture together under one roof. While there's definitely enough interesting programming to keep anyone with a passing interest busy, some of the more exotic highlights of this three day geek extravaganza include: more ›

Awesome timelapse video by Joshua Mellin more ›

• Students involved in the Medill Innocence Project denied allegations made by prosecutors they paid witnesses for testimony relating to Anthony McKinney; the students claim to have only paid transportation costs.
• CTA President Richard Rodriguez commented on last week's miracle stroller story, calling the mother's claim "plausible" and saying the investigation will now turn to the train's operator.
• The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society is ditching Chicago in favor of Las Vegas for it's 2012 convention.

Have a safe and happy Halloween! more ›

A group of wind power companies are gathering this week at McCormick Place as the Windpower 2009 convention kicks off (blows off?) and even Governor Quinn made an appearance as Illinois makes a bid to become a major player in the wind power producing game. Josh Magee of Emerging Energy Research, though, says Illinois has a lot of catching up to due. Check out the whole story over at WBEZ. more ›

After Obama's announcement that he will give his acceptance speech at the 76,000 seat Mile High Stadium, several major news networks are saying that they may have to curtail coverage of the Democratic National Convention to cover the costs associated with the speech. more ›

There's no shortage of pageantry associated with a candidate's acceptance speech, but the Obama campaign is taking Barack's acceptance of the nomination to new level. 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 ›

The Rev. Jeffrey Lee, a moderate in the eyes of religious leaders, was elected as the 12th Bishop of Chicago at the diocese convention in Wheeling on Saturday. Lee was selected over seven other candidates, one of whom is an openly lesbian priest, the Very Rev. Tracey Lind. Theological conservatives are condemning the vote and Lee, saying it doesn’t demonstrate enough restraint in maintaining the traditional view that the scripture condemns homosexuality. And some are... 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 ›

Mayor Daley chimed in on the question of recalling Blagojevich yesterday, telling the the Sun-Times that "calling [for] a recall is unnecessary. I may have differences with the governor. But I really believe his mind is on public transportation and on infrastructure as [much as] everyone else. You can't say just because I'm upset with [him about] an issue, two issues that you're gonna have a recall. I disagree with that." In case you missed... more ›

Watch out, Chicago: Death is coming to town. Lest we sound a tad dramatic, let us clarify ourselves. Selected Independent Funeral Homes is having their 89th annual meeting this week at downtown’s Fairmont Hotel. Finally, a convention we can get excited about! Among the more interesting events to take place during the Oct. 14-17 summit are a discussion on the pros and cons of green burials (a movement that Chicagoist wholeheartedly supports), a banquet at... more ›

This is part of Chicagoist's continuing coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival. Filmmaker Brett Morgan introduced last night's screening by clarifying that his movie Chicago 10 is not a sequel to Chicago the musical. He was joking, but we could all use a little refresher on the events of August 1968, when riots turned the Loop and Lincoln Park into battle zones between the police and protesters. The chronology of the whole nightmarish week... more ›

Aurora's Planned Parenthood can open immediately. How bad do things have to get before Daley will denounce what's going on with the Chicago Police Department's Special Operations Section? Even the Associated Press is saying, "Not since club-swinging cops in baby-blue helmets chased demonstrators through clouds of pepper gas at the 1968 Democratic National Convention have Chicago police been so awash in trouble." Dayum. And yet Da Mare has given no indication that he'll disband... more ›

Oak Forest officials just realized one unseemly result of the state-wide smoking ban set to take effect January 1: throngs of angry, drunk, cold smokers loitering outside bars. In order to avoid an uprising, or at least to steer clear of unsightly smokers’ tents popping up on their well-tended streets, the local council is taking up the issue. Aldermen are looking into setting rules for would-be structures that may pop up 15 feet away from... more ›

Even though Illinois won't be inundated with presidential candidates like Iowa or New Hampshire, we will be able to boast one thing that residents of those states will not — the Green Party's national convention. The Green Party will hold its convention July 10-13 next year at the Chicago Theatre. The recently renovated (and finally re-opened) Blackstone Hotel will serve as home base for 1,500 or more participants — though we doubt there will be... more ›

Like many school-age children, Chicagoist was definitely one to doodle in our notes. We filled many a sketchbook, inviting our friends to even add their own stuff, which we have to remember to check up on, in case any of those drawrings are eBay-able these days. We even kept random notebooks just because we liked particular sketches, especially at the expense of first-period Econ. As years passed, our illustrative skillz fell by the wayside, which explains why fellow female Sarah Becan is so, so much better than we. more ›

Yesterday, we focused on the presidential candidates that made their way to the YearlyKos Convention at McCormick Place. But the event wasn't just Democratic hopefuls trying to connect with bloggers and grassroots activists from around the nation. The annual event was also an opportunity for progressives around the country to get out from behind their laptops for a few days and talk to each other, sharing tactics, experiences, pitfalls, strategies and ideas, networking with other... more ›

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts... more ›

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 ›

Tomorrow is the kick-off the YearlyKos, DailyKos's annual "unconventional" convention for grassroots Internet political activists, or "Netroots" community. This year's party will be hosted in Chicago, at the illustrious McCormick Place. 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 ›

It's summer in Chicago, so it's not rare to leave your house on a weekend and find yourself in a sea of tourists from the suburbs and beyond. With all of the street festivals, the clean (looking) beaches and all the other jazz, we really can't blame anyone who'd want to come to the city for a few days. We just didn't realize there were 44 million of them. more ›

The big event happening this weekend is the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show at McCormick Place. The event features over 2,000 exhibitors in nearly 900 product categories showcasing the latest kitchen innovations and technology, sustainability concepts, and fine cuisine. Highlights of the show this year include a celebrity bookstore (a new feature where celebrity chefs and restaurateurs will be in attendance signing books) a food fair featuring regional specialty foods from across the country,... more ›

If you thought Boss (J.) Daley's reign as mayor was long, you obviously never heard about Donald Stephens. The only mayor of Rosemont, ever, presided over the near-northwest suburb for 51 years before dying in his sleep yesterday evening after a year and a half long battle with cancer. more ›

Some of us are still recovering from last week's Four Questions, but our readers have an insatiable thirst for answers. One recently posed an interesting question to us concerning Chicago's Olympic bid and the city's flag. As all Chicagoans no doubt know, the city's flag includes three white bars, two blue bars and four six-sided stars. The three white bars signify the North, West and South sides of the city, while the blue bars... more ›

• The local film DIMENSION is screening tomorrow at the prestigious Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose. In the film, three lonely residents of a Chicago neighborhood are divinely granted a wish. But it comes with a condition: they can only change exactly three inches about themselves. The movie was shot in Chicago during the summer of 2005, and it's one of only fourteen movies in competition in the festival's Maverick Narrative Category. Let's hope a Chicago screening is on the horizon.
• On Saturday, the really cool Intuit Center concludes their ELUSIVE Evidence series of film screenings about extraterrestrials with John Carpenter's cult classic They Live. And 80's WWF wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper plays a drifter who stumbles upon a weird set of sunglasses; when he dons them he's able to see the truth: evil aliens have disguised themselves as businessmen and politicians, keeping the earth's population docile through the use of subliminal messages. This flick has always been a favorite of ours, fondly remembered from countless Saturday afternoon showings on a local low-powered UHF channel. The Intuit Gallery is at 756 N. Milwaukee Ave.; the show begins at 2 p.m., and admission is free (donation suggested).
• Saturday night at Chicago Filmmakers you can see what Dick's Staff Shot. (Get your minds out of the gutter!) "The Nixon White House Staff Super-8 Films" consists of ultrarare "home movies" from the Nixon Administration! The footage was shot by Tricky Dick's staffers between 1969 and 1974 and later confiscated from John Erlichman's office by the FBI. Included are scenes from a performance of the musical 1776; Nixon visiting a Washington Redskins football practice; and appearances by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, Indira Ghandi, Bob Hope, and Pat Boone. Admission is $8; more info at the Chicago Filmmakers site.

Think carefully. Which city is a more natural choice for an environmentally sensitive convention, Chicago or Los Angeles? OK, you can stop thinking now, because the U.S. Green Building Council has moved its annual meeting from L.A. to here. The reason? A scheduling conflict with an auto show. Greenbuild, a three-day conference that revolves around developing construction that's friendlier to the environment, took place in Denver last year and brought in 13,500 attendees. This year... more ›