If you're going to be out and about driving this morning, be careful as heavy rains that continued (and continued and continued) overnight have left us with some treacherous driving conditions this morning. There's been flooding reported at numerous viaducts around the city and the Eisenhower Expressway between Mannheim Road and 25th Avenue has been closed due to standing water. There are also delays being reported due to water on both the Kennedy and the Dan Ryan. Additionally, ComEd was reporting around 41,000 still without power across the Chicagoland area as of 7 a.m. this morning. And the rain's not over yet. So, we're under some flood watches and warnings in the area. Use extreme caution when driving today and keep an eye out for standing water. more ›

Speaking of pet adoptions, there's good news for Ike, the dog that stopped traffic on the Eisenhower a few times earlier this year. WBBM 780 AM reports that Ike has finally been placed in a new home, with an empty nest couple in the suburbs. But there was even more good to come from Ike's adoption than just a new home for that pup. Steve Zorn of Precious Pets Almost Home told WBBM, "Ike directly found homes for about another seven or eight animals, just in the time that I had Ike. Other people that were interested in him and then they ended up adopting another dog from me. We also had some cats that got adopted because of Ike." Ike suffered some injuries, including one sustained when he was clipped by a car on his Eisenhower, but Zorn says he's recovered well and is settling in well with his new family. more ›

• In his testimony today, former police officer Michael McDermott downplayed his earlier claims of witnessing Jon Burge torture a suspect in 1985.
• The Tribune delves into the reverse commute.
• A man who jumped off an Eisenhower Expressway overpass as he tried to flee police earned himself a slew of charges and a broken ankle.

The expected traffic snarl on the Eisenhower that was to begin this morning and last until October didn't happen as expected, but commuters be warned: it's still coming. The resurfacing of 27 miles of the Eisenhower from Thorndale to the Loop - and the repair of 37 bridges - was delayed because a contractor is still finishing work on Interstate Highway 355. So instead of kicking off this morning, the resurfacing project will instead begin after 8 p.m. tonight. more ›

Many commuters are wondering why three construction projects affecting downtown traffic are all happening at the same time. Illinois Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marisa Kollias told the Sun-Times that the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago planned the projects together to minimize long-term effects on commuters. Starting Thursday, the three-year Wacker Drive project begins with the closing of ramps to and from Congress and repairs begin on the Congress bridge leading in and out of downtown. Lower Wacker will go to one lane in each direction. One the same day, the resurfacing of 27 miles of the Eisenhower from Thorndale to the Loop begins and construction continues on the inbound Kennedy Expressway in the Loop. The resurfacing is expected to last until October. Said Kollias, "It’s really an unprecedented effort to build better roads in the downtown area and heading out to the western suburbs. We're working as one team. The idea is to disrupt the public as little as possible. Even though it's a disruption, we'd rather do it all at once and be done. If we were to do it separately, it would take 10 years or more." more ›

A body in a lane of the Eisenhower Expressway has led to the shutting down of all outbound lanes of the highway between Kostner and Laramie this morning. A CTA worker reported the body on the highway around 7 a.m. this morning. [Tribune] more ›

• Drivers have a few months to prepare for the next prolonged traffic snarl: resurfacing of the Eisenhower (I-290) will begin in April 2010.
• Prosecutors have alleged Tahawwur Rana, one of the men arrested last month for allegedly plotting overseas terror attacks, was in possession of a pair of al Qaida videotapes.
• The Gold Coast building that used to serve as a home to the Three Arts Club could soon be the home of the ashes of 15,000 deceased Chicagoans.

We were going to complain about our morning commute, but then we saw what happened to ABC 7's Judy Hsu and decided we actually had it pretty good. A pregnant Hsu was driving to the hospital when she actually wound up giving birth in the front seat of her car along the Eisenhower Expressway. Not much else is known but according to ABC 7's Facebook status (no, really), both Hsu and her new son, Alexander James, are doing just fine. more ›

Appropriate in the wake of this morning's look at the Guardian Angels-graffiti video, it seems some graffiti'ers managed to tag some highway signs at the Eisenhower Expressway and Congress Parkway over the weekend. The Sun-Times says that police haven't commented on any leads on the case. more ›