Chicago breweries made an excellent showing at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver this weekend. more ›

One of the more surprising developments that came from the brewing of Sai-Shan-Tea was the decision of Goose Island to showcase it at the annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver. The festival has grown by leaps and bounds over the past five years — this year's version sold out five weeks in advance — with an estimated 49,000 attendees. more ›

A few years ago, Denver's FOX affiliate had the brilliant idea to give commentary of their St. Patrick's Day coverage over to a reveler. And when we say "brilliant" we're not being snarky. The result was classic and makes us wonder why our local television news outlets don't do the same. more ›

As expected, upon further investigation, it looks like Tharin Gartell, accused of conspiring to make an assassination attempt on Barack Obama, was not actually up to the challenge. Wait: a meth-head isn't up to fooling dozens of Secret Service agents and infiltrating what is sure to be one of the most secure and heavily guarded sites in the country this year? No way! In the wake of the story breaking, U.S. Attorney Troy Eid told the Associated Press, "We're absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado." Still, federal and local officials will be holding a press conference later to address the story. more ›

CBS's Denver affiliate is reporting on a plot to assassinate Barack Obama during his acceptance speech later this week in Denver.

KCNC-TV Investigator Brian Maass reported one of the suspects told authorities they were "going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a ... rifle … sighted at 750 yards." more ›

In honor of our unofficial national holiday of drinking, St. Patrick's Day, we thought we'd peruse Men'sHealth Magazine's recent list of America's Drunkest Cities. Top of the list? Denver, followed by Anchorage, Colorado Springs, Omaha and Fargo. Our neighbors to the north in Milwaukee come in at #10. Our fair city comes in at 39th overall, 13th in binge drinking, and 17th in DUI arrests. At least, we think so, as their method of ranking seems kind of convoluted. The magazine provides their methods of figuring out the rankings, though there's no mention of how the performance of a city's professional sports teams affect the rankings. more ›

The city's License Committee added Alderman Brandon Reilly's 42nd Ward, which includes the Loop, River North and the Gold Coast to the list of wards where private businesses will have the legal authority to boot cars parked on private property. "It seemed like an interesting concept. I figured we’d give it a try,” Reilly told the Sun-Times, pointing out that illegal parkers wouldn't have to travel to remote lots to spring their towed vehicles, and that a private attendant would be on duty to remove the boot once the fine had been paid. more ›

Obama's landslide victories in the "Significant Saturday" contests - including Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington and the Virgin Islands, and his Sunday win in the Maine caucuses, could break the deadlock over pledged delegates for the Democratic nomination. Obama is hoping that these wins will generate the momentum that he needs to carry Ohio and Texas on March 4. Rhode Island and Vermont hold their primaries that day, too. Obama's wins this weekend were bad news for Hillary Clinton, who tried to inject a ray of optimism by announcing that her campaign had raised $10 million from over 10,000 donors. Obama's campaign quickly announced that over 350,000 donors had already contributed this year. more ›

With this year's presidential primaries perhaps the most exciting in recent memory, the media, and the nation, have paid very little attention to today's Democratic primary in Florida. Unlike the Republicans, who will let half of the state's delegates vote at the convention, the Democrats stripped Florida of its delegates to the August convention for holding a primary earlier than party rules allowed. As part of the party's castigation of the state, Democrats have agreed not to campaign in Florida, an agreement that has been honored until now. more ›

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Chicagoist almost turned off the TV when the Denver Broncos scored to go up 34-20 on the Bears on Sunday, and we're willing to bet a fair share of the Bears fans at Soldier Field fled the cold rain about then as well. Fortunately, we decided to stick it out and saw a most improbable win, as the Bears scored two late touchdowns to tie the game and Robbie Gould kicked a field goal in... more ›

To the five people checking the site today, specifically my father: Please enjoy the above video of John Denver and the Muppets singing "Where The River Meets the Sea" from Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. Can you watch this without choking up? We cannot. Anyway! It's been so stupid-cold the last few days we've barely left our warmth cocoon on the couch (tip: the fuzzy robe makes a huge difference), but if you haven't... more ›

Yeah, people knew how to fly the friendly skies on November 21st, 1965, when the menu above was served on a United Airlines flight from Denver to San Francisco. This and 380 other menus from airlines, ocean liners, and railroad lines are available for perusal online at the Transportation Library archives of Northwestern University. The archives hark back to a time when multiple course meals were de rigueur not only for first class passengers,... more ›

Chemicals — what would we do without them? Twinkies wouldn't have a shelf life of a decade. Diet Coke wouldn't be diet. And microwave popcorn wouldn't cause some weird lung disease. We just read today that diacetyl, one of the main substances used to flavor microwave popcorn*, isn't so good for the lungs. Truthfully, when we read the first article about the first consumer that is likely to have "popcorn lung" (bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, or... more ›

More on Parking Meters more ›

White Rabbits are doing something right, because the Brooklyn sextet has gone from a band we checked out at SXSW because they are friends with a friend of ours to one of the buzziest bands in the blogosphere. No surprise, really – these kids can bring the good times rocknroll, and an 8.1 album rating from Pitchfork didn’t hurt either. more ›

Lacrosse Fans should head out to Toyota Park this Saturday to catch some Illinois High School Lacrosse action in addition to checking out the professionals of the Chicago Machine. The first game on the docket Saturday is a match-up of Grayslake and Fenwick at 2pm in the Lacrosse Cup Final, featuring finalists from the Illinois Class B tournament. Directly after that match at 4pm will be the Class A Illinois State Championship game. Since 2002... more ›

It's now (sort of) official: Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas has signed a lease to open an eight-screen theater on the site of the former Fannie May candy factory in the West Loop. The last time we reported on this story was way back in 2005. But as anyone waiting for a Dominick's to reopen in lakeview can tell you, real estate development often moves about as quickly as a glacier. (Tangental rhetorical question: whatever happened... more ›

Saturday night, the Chicago Fire won their first season opener in five years. The game time temperature was a frigid 31 degrees but that did not deter nearly 15,000 fans from coming out to Toyota Park to cheer on the Fire. The fans were barely in their seats before the Fire netted the game winner. In the fourth minute midfielder Justin Mapp(right) drove down the sideline and crossed a ball to Logan Pause who flicked... more ›

The Chicago Fire officially announced that goalkeeper Zach Thornton has been traded to the Colorado Rapids for a conditional draft pick in the 2008 supplemental draft. A trade for Thornton comes as no surprise as the Fire had not renewed his contract. Fire President John Guppy commented, "Zach Thornton played an integral role in helping the Fire build a winning tradition during the club's first nine years, and the atmosphere here will be different as... more ›

While that descriptor didn't come from a typical suit, that's apparently the consensus in corporate board rooms. The Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area was the recipient of more corporate investment than any other metro area in the US, according to Site Selection magazine. more ›

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 ›

Yesterday we gave you a preview of who might be running for president in the Democratic camp. Today we turn our focus to the right, looking at the Republican side of the primaries. Since Dick Cheney isn't going to seek the presidency this time around, the field is wide open for any Republican to join the fray, hoping that his agenda is the one that will resonate most with conservative voters. And not unlike the... more ›

Plans for the Olympic stadium and village have been unveiled. Illinois is one of a bunch of states that have reached an $8 million settlement with Bayer, who they say didn't properly warn people about the risks of taking the drug. Local tech company Itellext is teaming up with AOL to make a free customized version of their search tool Watson available for K-12 students. The CTA is putting a new northbound platform and... more ›

If we believed any of the movies we've seen about the end of the world — and there've been a couple — we'd be hiding in a bunker right now. First, we have a brown Christmas, while Denver and Oklahoma yuck it up. Then, just as the retail outlets get ready to bring out their spring lines, we have "the longest sub-freezing spell in 3" effing "years"? This is dumb. more ›

Whether you like the freakish warm weather we've had or have been desperately wishing you were stranded in Denver for the last few weeks, it can often be a challenge to keep up one's fitness regimes in cold weather. You know, you're tired, or your bike isn't suited for the ice, or you're lazy ... whatever. We just wanted to let you know the Chicago Park District is apparently there for you. The park district... more ›

If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones we used to know, chances are you won’t be finding it in Illinois this year. Although The Weather Channel is noting possible flurries, with temperatures above freezing for the entire week, anything sticking around is highly doubtful. With the exception of the snowfall we saw on the first of the month, the 6.5’’ snow tally at O’Hare is half of the 12’’ that had... more ›

In a perplexing marketing move, some of the cast of The Real World Denver will be at Crobar on Friday for a “Premiere and Holiday Party.” Now, we’re not here to make fun of the higher-ups at MTV for having a premiere party three weeks after the actual premiere. We’re not even here to poke fun at Colie for making out with Alex and thinking they were actually going “steady.” And we’re still not here... more ›

Although iPods have been hot commodities for years, moving from the hands of in-the-know hipsters to soccer moms, they continue to be as popular as ever, making their way onto gift lists…and thieves’ shopping carts. more ›

It's that time of year when the 'Hawks and Bulls are evicted from the United Center by the tigers and elephants, along with the clowns and the rest of the Ringling Bros. Circus. more ›