In case you didn't notice, the Chicago skyline has been showing its Irish pride like everyone else by wearing its finest green outfits. Every few weeks a few brave individuals travel to the tops of the city to change the colors of the lights on the tops of our skyline, but how do they do it? "Magic and pixie dust," he said. Of course, Randy Stancik, building manager of the Sears Tower, was joking. It is actually a manual process, Stancik said. It takes two men about two hours to change the colors, attaching theatrical gels to the tops of the 22 spotlights that illuminate the antennae. more ›

With all the recent ruckus over President Obama's stimulus package, it's easy to forget the swell of happy and goodwill that came from the Election Night Obamapalooza rally in Grant Park back in November. And this latest bit of news surely won't help: it seems the Democratic National Committee still owes the city $1.74 million stemming from the party. Peter Scales, spokesman for the city's Office of Budget and Management, said, "The Democratic National Committee has not yet paid us. We're reaching out to them this week." A DNC spokeswoman only responded with, "We are still looking at various costs and bills.'' According to the Sun-Times: more ›

The Independent Police Review Authority is looking into accusations of police misconduct, including the pepper-spraying of children, against Obama supporters celebrating his election on Tuesday night. The incident has led to a federal lawsuit filed by the family, asking for.more than $150,000 in damages. According to the WBBM:

Christina Ballard and Cornelius Voss were driving their young niece home Tuesday night following Obama’s win when three unmarked police cars began driving alongside them, according to family attorney Gregory Kulis. more ›

There's no denying the collective energy felt throughout Chicago after Obama's win on Tuesday night. We observed that the concentrated amount of elated emotion Tuesday night was expressed with tears of joy, mass champagne consumption, and dancing and cheering in the streets. Oh, and sex. more ›

The future is now, at least over at CNN. During tomorrow night's election, the network is planning on using three-dimensional holograms to supplement those weird touch screens they've been using. They'll project holographic images of their field correspondents stationed around the country, including Chicago, onto their set using 44 cameras and 20 computers in each location to get the image rendered correctly. Holy shit. I will pay $50 to the first CNN tech who manages to slip in a glimpse of the Death Star blueprints instead of, say, Anderson Cooper. more ›

Days after Mayor Daley invited everyone in the entire world down to Grant Park for Tuesday's Obamapalooza, the City is now saying people will be turned away if things get too crowded. Ray Orozco, executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said, “If Grant Park reaches capacity, people will be turned around. This is for public safety.” According to Crain's:

On-street parking will be banned between the lake and the Kennedy Expressway, from the river south to Cermak Road (22nd Street) after Tuesday’s rush hour.

Intermittent “rolling” closures are likely on Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue, and sections of Balbo and Columbus drives will be shut as early as Saturday. Buses will not be allowed to drop off passengers on Michigan Avenue.

Anyone with a ticket to the party should enter on Congress, walk east to Columbus and then south. Anyone else will be turned north on Columbus, until the park reaches capacity.

Well, this is interesting. Even as the Obama campaign has limited the number of tickets and is focusing on security concerns, our benevolent mayor has invited any- and everyone down to Grant Park next Tuesday night, tickets be damned! more ›

The Sun-Times had a nice semi-overhead shot of the rally site in yesterday's paper, but we figured we'd go check out the rally site from locations that will look more familiar to any of the estimated million-plus people that are going to show up to Hutchinson Field in a little under a week. more ›

We're six days from Election Day and we're finally starting to get some of the details nailed down as the City Parks District released the permit application for the event. They include: more ›

Now that security has been hired, we can go about looking at some of the details about Obama's Election Night rally in Grant Park. Emails are being sent out gradually to supporters directing them to this site where they can apply for tickets (at a limit of one per applicant). more ›

Going to Sen. Barack Obama’s election night rally in Grant Park? Well, Chicago officials say Neil Sullivan’s got your back. The retired security expert is getting paid $100 an hour, with a $60,000 cap, to make sure no one raises the roof too high. Sullivan previously worked with the city by revising its emergency and evacuation plans, which hopefully weren’t the same plans used in The Dark Knight (yes, everyone exit the city on Michigan Ave. while cons are bused to Navy Pier). Sullivan was originally hired in the event that the Cubs and the Sox made it to the playoffs and possibly the World Series (HA!). Since that dream didn’t come true, city officials gave him the Obama rally. more ›

It doesn't matter that his campaign was able to wrangle a whopping $150 million in September; Barack Obama is going to make media members dig deep into their pockets to attend Obamapalooza on Election Night. While logistics as to whether or not attendees will need tickets is still being sorted out, one thing is for sure: the media will be paying high prices to attain their passes. Depending on what amenities are needed, media members will pay from $715 to $1,815 for access. In addition, the media will have to pony up another $935 just to get access to the press tent to talk to campaign officials. There will be a free access area, but the press release from the Obama campaign describes it as, "outdoors, unassigned and may have obstructed views...standing room only.” So kind of like those shitty seats way up in the first level of Wrigley where you can't even see the scoreboard. more ›

• Wal-Mart has been taking some heat for selling shirts with Nazi SS logos on them. Days after they claimed they were pulled from stores, a local blogger found some still for sale at a Schaumburg Wal-Mart.
• Mayor Daley denies being behind a Chamber of Commerce move to install pro-business alderman in city council.
• Obama's not the only one; Guiterrez is in trouble over land deal with Rezko.