In spite of temptation to run for a bigger office, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is staying put and running for reelection. He even posted a new status update on his Facebook page that reads, "Tom Dart loves having a job that I truly enjoy and which allows me to see my family each night. Hoping voters will elect me to another term as Cook County Sheriff in 2010. More to come later today, but thanks for all of your words of encouragement as I've made this decision!" Does he have a Twitter account, too?
God Bless The Onion. Especially for giving us this pretty brilliant take on parents and social media, which, now that parents are having to pay for kids to study Twitter, is only going to get worse.
Today is a bummer of a day for 90,000 students across Chicago: the school year has begun. 132 schools across the Chicago Public School System are on the system's Track E schedule which is a year-round calendar. The students on Track E still have the same number of school days of other students but instead of the typical 10-week summer vacation, they'll have shorter breaks several times throughout the year. Chi-Town Daily News has more on the evolution to the year-round schedule.
According to the Kane County Chronicle:
The first 100 days of a presidency has been a measuring stick since Franklin Roosevelt took office. We’re not going to bother running down all of the other analysis out there, and we'll let others opine about Obama’s successes and stumbles along the way. But we will direct you to this journalistic score, found on Slate.
WGN's Pat Tomasulo is cranky and by God, he's not gonna take it anymore. Normally, we're wary of mainstream media's take on social media, but Pat...actually makes us laugh with this video about Facebook etiquette, especially when he shouts his "status updates" to random people on the street. While not quite as cantankerous as Andy Rooney, Pat does remind us of Chicagoist's own curmudgeon, Tankboy. Plus, this video reminded us of another take on Facebook, a classic bonus video you can check out after the jump.
Sometimes, life can get you down and you just get so frustrated you don't know how else to channel your rage. One way you shouldn't, however, is to go on your Facebook profile and threaten to pull a Columbine on your school. Kyle P. Tulley, 17, of Joliet Catholic Academy, learned that the hard way this week. Tulley was arrested on Thursday after a few other students at his school noticed threats he had posted on his Facebook page. Tulley's been charged with disorderly conduct and harassment through electronic communications for threatening to punch Jeffery Budz, the school's principal. But Tulley didn't stop there. Per WBBM:
Where's Chris Hansen when you need him? Michael Macalindong, 25, was sentenced to 35 years in prison and supervision for the rest of his life upon release for using Facebook to lure teens for sex. Facebook claims it's the first time such a thing has happened at their site. The encounters began in August 2006:
...Macalindong posed as a girl online and told the 15-year-old Evanston victim "she" would have sex with him [the teen] if the boy first had sex with a male friend of "hers." Macalindong then posed as that friend and videotaped the encounter.The encounters continued when Macalindong used nude photos of the teen to blackmail him into continuing the encounters. He was finally arrested in January 2007 after blackmailing the victim again, this time by threatening to post videos on the internet. In June, he pleaded guilty to eight counts of producing child porn, possession of child porn and attempted child enticement.
The Sun-Times takes a look at "elimination communication," a technique some parents are using to toilet train their very young children. Perhaps you read about it. In the New York Times. In 2005. [S-T, NYT.]
Did the president of Medill use made-up quotes in a newsletter? We...barely care. What really bugs us is journalists citing the existence of Facebook group as some kind of indicator of anything--"students and alumni joined the new 'Save Journalism at Medill' group on Facebook. On Tuesday afternoon, there were nearly 90 members ...." There are 650 fulltime students at Medill. Fewer than 90 of them . Agh, not news. [Trib]
We're celebrating by making you a list of things that are awesome.
The United States isn't the only country that is having federal elections this year. In March a by-election will be held in Toronto's Toronto Centre Riding. And our sister site, Torontoist has been posting a semi-regular column by their Environment Editor, Chris Tindal, who is running for parliament as the Green Party candidate.
"You've got to be willing to get a cut in your face to get rewarded at the end of the night. If you don't want to do it, you're not going to win the Stanley Cup." -- Blackhawks coach Denis Savard after last night's 1-0 loss to the Blue Jackets.
With all the bad news out of newsrooms recently--and new Tribune owner Sam Zell not making any friends this week (unlike a few weeks ago)--we got a kick out of this email he sent to Tribune employees today:
So the giant mouse thing from Boing Boing was pretty awesome, especially when the last paragraph of that story casually says "'Our work suggests that 4 million years ago in South America, 'mice' that were larger than bulls lived with terror birds'"--bascuse me? ROUS, we can deal with. But terror birds are new for us. .
Bad behavior cranks up on the weekends, so here's a quick heads-up on all the horrible, terrible no-good things going on in our little world.
KISS-FM's "Radio Boy" Michael Wawrzyniak has been charged with indecent solicitation of a child for allegedly trying to arrange a meeting for with a 13-year-old in Carol Stream. It wasn't a 13-year-old, though. It was a cop.
No Pants 2K8, a no-slacks spectacle that was started by the New York-based performance comedy group, Improv Everywhere, is upon us, and you know what that means: Drop trou, pronto!
Police announced today that they believe Anu Solanki is alive and with a male companion. Investigators used her cell phone records to connect her to 23-year-old Karan Jani of California. Solanki, who hasn't been heard from since Monday, was in contact with Jani several times the day she disappeared, and police say they think the two are in a rental car. If you see Solanki or Jani, give the Cook County Sheriff's office a jingle (847-294-4733)--she's still a missing person. And if you have a USC log-in, please let us know what Jani's Facebook profile says.
About 40 local Red Cross volunteers are in California helping evacuees.
We got the privilege of attending last weekend's Blogher conference, and in an ironic twist of fate, our two computers went on the fritz. However, it was an experience we still wanted to share with you. Blogher is a conference geared directly toward women bloggers. It was filled with lots of interesting and useful sessions aimed at helping women in the blogosphere. Whether you hadn't yet started a blog or you were looking to really...
While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a...
Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried...
Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the...
That new TV show, "Armed & Famous," where they train Z-list celebs to be cops ... it's in Indiana. Figures! Some racist assholes with a pro-Chief Illiniwek page on Facebook made threats against a Native American University of Illinois student. Suggested one person, "I say we throw a tomahawk into her face." A lady from Florida is suing Kraft because Capri Sun says "All Natural" on the label. When did she figure out that...
No. 6 is "His options were quickly running out" by p2wy.
We’ve always considered the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana a trusted source for some good, old-fashioned college partying fun. However, CollegeHumor.com seems to disagree. A new “power ranking” issued yesterday by the site, popular with largely male undergrads, provided an index of the 50 most “fun” universities across the nation. U. of I. managed to pull in a semi-disappointing 18th place, apparently upsetting some students. As quoted in the Sun-Times, Jason Webber, a vice president of...
Jay-Z Announces 2010 Tour Dates. Chicago Not On List.
"Batman" Headline Is a Stretch, But Prison Escape Story Could Be Its Own Movie
Chili Cook-Off Countdown
Extra, Extra
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