First Lady Michelle Obama and Chicago’s own Common incurred the ire of Fox News, Sarah Palin and the New Jersey Police after the First Lady invited the rapper and actor to the White House to participate in a poetry reading. Yesterday, The Daily Caller posted the lyrics to the poem “A Letter to the Law” alongside Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?,” which was supposed to be read at a 2003 poetry event hosted by then First Lady Laura Bush. Bush cancelled the event after several invitees declined the offer to read, some of which joined poets from across the globe to instead read verses in protest of the war in Iraq. more ›

Jean-Claude Brizard, Mayor-elect Emanuel's choice to head Chicago Public Schools, fielded questions in Rochester, NY yesterday about his decision to leave that city's school district for the challenges of handling the nation's third-largest public school system. Brizard tried to downplay the perception in Rochester that he's an opportunist and said he's leaving because he became a "lightning rod" for criticism. more ›

Vocalo.org's Jim DeRogatis took a look at the members of Mayor-elect Emanuel's Arts and Culture transition team and banged out one of his trademark impulsive missives faulting the team for having no one on it to voice the concerns of Chicago's small music venues. While he didn't come right out and say this is the death knell for smaller venues and independent promoters, and that we should kneel before our Live Nation overlords, the sentiment was there. more ›

The cleanup from the Blizzard of 2011 continues. Lake Shore Drive, which had 239 cars still stranded on it as of 5 p.m. yesterday, is now cleared and open to traffic. Motorists who had to strand their cars on Lake Shore Drive during the height of the storm Tuesday night should call 311 to find the location of their vehicles. The city's Streets and Sanitation department towed all vehicles to parking lots near the Drive at Wells, Chicago, Belmont, Wilson, Foster and Soldier Field. The city has set up a database so motorists can find their cars. Security details have been set up at each lot to help ensure that no one's coming to jack your car. Since these towings were weather-related emergencies, motorists stranded on Lake Shore Drive will not be charged for them. more ›

Media criticism of Carol Moseley Braun over her "crack addict" statement at mayoral opponent Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins is growing as the video of from Sunday's forum at Trinity United Church of Christ is now starting to go viral (video below). Let's take a look, shall we? more ›

We were amazed at how the criticism of Jay Cutler in Sunday's NFC Title game went from "He was a pussy who couldn't gut it out" to "He's a punk-ass." TMZ caught up with Cutler and his famous-for-something-or-other girlfriend Kristin Cavallari in Los Angeles yesterday ('cause it isn't an official story until Harvey Levin and company weigh in). In between the whining of the paparazzo following the couple to get Cavallari to say something, you can see that Cutler is still favoring the right leg a bit. more ›

All that criticism about Jay Cutler's toughness might be for naught. Sun-Times Bears beat writer Sean Jensen is reporting that Cutler has an MCL tear in his knee. The severity of the injury is being determined, but surgery is likely necessary. more ›

Almost as soon as Jay Cutler was bulled from yesterday's NFC Championship game with what the Bears termed as a knee injury, criticism against the quarterback began, with fans and former players alike echoing the sentiment that Cutler should have stayed in the game. Criticism by former players was especially harsh. Yahoo Sports' Doug Farrar rounded up the opinions of Cutler's NFL contemporaries. To a man, they all seemed to agree that Cutler quit on the Bears, with the most pointed criticisms coming from Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew. Pundits such as ESPN's Michael Wilbon also saw the tweets from other players and opined that they only reinforced what players already thought of Cutler, pre-injury. more ›

We know people all over Illinois are pissed off at the severity of the state income tax hike. Still others fly off into a Pavlovian rage whenever they hear the word "tax." And we've yet to see any idea as to what spending cuts Springfield will make to further balance the budget, although getting rid of the free public transit rides for seniors so that only the neediest among them have it was a good start. So what did the architect of the free rides for seniors program think of that and the income tax hike? Rod Blagojevich wasn't happy. more ›

Saying "our fiscal house was burning," Gov. Quinn defended the state income tax hike today as a necessary evil, insisted he did not lie to voters when he campaigned for a nominal income tax increase, and justified the nearly 67 percent increase by citing experts who said the state's financial problems would only get worse in the upcoming months. Quinn also said that he'll sign the increase into law as soon as he can. more ›

Years ago (we forget when or where) we read a bit of advice from Roger Ebert about how he writes his movie reviews like casual conversations, in order for the reader to feel like he could enter the discussion at a given point. It was a point that we took to heart once we began to become serious about food writing, one that greatly helped us as we became more confident in writing reviews. posted this on his blog today. It's a discussion between him and the late Gene Siskel about how to be a film critic that was taped for an instructional video series on journalism for high school and college students. But it can also be used to be a primer of any criticism in journalism, be it art, media, or food. Ebert's comment about "political correctness being the fascism of the 90's" still rings true today. Don't you ever change, Roger. more ›

One of the complaints about Groupon, from the perspective of a business owner who takes advantage of the deal-a-day company's ability to reach a customer base, is that in the long run it winds up only netting modest profits for the businesses, or worse, they lose money. more ›

Reader editor Kiki Yablon worked her final day at the paper yesterday and Michael Miner, who has detailed the struggles and shrinking resources of the paper for years, captures his final moments in dealing with her. Miner writes that Reader publisher Alison Draper called Yablon's resignation "bittersweet" and that she expects a new editor to be named by mid-February. Miner's peeks behind the curtain at the Reader have been engaging reads, both in print and on the blog. As more staff has left the paper, we've long viewed Miner's dispatches as keeping the flame of the paper's past alive, and Miner himself as the canary in the coal mine: if he goes, all bets are off. more ›

Coming on the heels of critical statements from James Meeks and Rahm Emanuel that Daley also had a hard time brushing off, we have to ask how May Day will be reacting when we reach the election, or once he has to start packing up his things to make way for his successor. more ›

• Steve Dolinsky's top five sushi restaurants list caused a lot of discussion in the Chicagoist offices this week. Even Tankboy got involved. [Dolinsky/WBEZ]
• The Sun-Times let Neil Steinberg unleash his Thanksgiving pizza — with a stuffing crust — on the masses. [Sun-Times]
• Gourmet (remember them?) rolls out Thanksgiving recipes for the iPad. [The Stew]

21 years ago the editors of the late Spy magazine published a book of satire called The 90's: A Look Back. One of the chapters featured an essay from "Secretary of Education" Howard Hesseman, back then star of the comedy "Head of the Class," who wrote, "The only way to make kids smarter would be to make tests dumber." Read this article from the Tribune on how the Illinois State Board of Education is lowering the passing thresholds for the Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT) and, by extension, ensuring an increase in passing rates, you might view Hessman's satirical essay as prescient. more ›

Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis has apparently had his fill of criticisms and is now lashing out at those who've knocked him. With the odds of him keeping his job growing even dimmer by the day now that Mayor Daley won't seek reelection - not that they were good to begin with - and with thousands of officers planning to protest his leadership on Wednesday, Weis is lashing out at those who have taken shots at him. Weis has taken the Drew Peterson route, writing a lengthy letter to the Sun-Times in which he defends the job he's done - "I have worked hard to repair that trust." - and takes a shot at the CPD union: more ›

• President Obama will apparently never have a Commerce Secretary: Republican Sen. Judd Gregg (NH) has withdrawn his name because of a difference of opinion over the stimulus package.
• Lawmakers are considering banning future governors from emblazoning their name on signs a la Blago and the Tollway.
• That's not the only sign issue in the state: now there's a fuss over the county road markers that the Cook County Board approved earlier this week, a fight that's being led by a pair of Board commissioners.

Newly introduced CPS head Ron Huberman received a less-than-friendly welcome from the gallery when he was introduced at a Chicago Board of Education meeting today, prompting Board President Rufus Williams to admonish the crowd. The crowd criticized the Huberman choice, citing his lack of education experience while other critical comments weren't directed directly at Huberman, but rather at the CPS as a whole for the controversial decision to shut down 22 schools. more ›