Jennifer Hudson will sing a tribute to Whitney Houston at tonight's Grammy Awards, a person was killed after crashing head-on into a CTA bus, and other news. more ›

A Naperville stabbing left a teacher dead and two seriously injured, new theaters are coming to Chicago, and other news. more ›

The Texas parks and Wildlife Department has released this short video of wildfire spreading rapidly though a small section of a Texas state park. more ›

Calling it "over the counter napalm," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has started a campaign to have all gel fuels banned. 37 people nationwide have been burned by gel fuel, and 4 of them were in Illinois, leading Madigan to demand their recall. We're sure that caterers everywhere cried at the news - gel fuels are most commonly used for keeping chafing dishes hot during service. more ›

At least six people were killed and about a dozen more were injured in an apartment fire that broke out in Aurora Sunday morning at 4:06 a.m. at a small apartment complex that housed 25 to 30 residents on 760 Claim Street. The fire broke out on the first floor of the building and then moved upwards to the floors above, but no cause of the fire has been determined. more ›

An elderly man who suffered second and third degree burns and a person in their 20s who suffered minor smoke inhalation were both injured in a fire at the Patrick Sullivan Apartments, a Chicago Housing Authority senior citizens building, at 1633 W. Madison St. early Sunday morning. According to Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford via the Chicago Sun-Times, an EMS Plan I alarm and a still-and-box alarm were both called around 1 a.m., sending at least five ambulances to the building. The fire started in a mattress in an apartment containing the elderly man. Both he and the other injured individual were taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital. Firefighters were able to contain the fire to the room it was in, and the blaze was out by 1:30 a.m., Langford said. Authorities are still investigating and believe the fire may have been caused accidentally by smoking materials. more ›

An extra-alarm broke out in an apartment building near Loyola University today and injured 11 (or 12, according to the Sun-Times), two critically. more ›

Funeral services for Chicago firefighter Corey Ankum, who was killed along with Edward Stringer fighting a blaze on the South side last week, drew 3,000 family, firefighters and dignitaries today to Apostolic Church of God on the South Side. more ›

Northbound service on the CTA's Evanston Purple line was halted briefly this morning when a small track fire broke out near the Main Street station. the fire broke out at 7:15 a.m. and was put out by Evanston firefighters by 7:40. CTA had shuttle buses running north from the Howard station in Chicago to the end of the Purple Line at Linden. more ›

The Chicago Fire Department is in mourning today after they lost two of their own in a three-alarm blaze on the South Side yesterday. The firemen, Edward Stringer and Corey Ankum, were inside the abandoned laundry at 1744 E. 75th St. looking for possible homeless people trapped in the building when the roof collapsed on top of them. The fire, which also injured 17 others, was the worst firefighter tragedy in more than a decade and occurred on the 100th anniversary of the Union Stock Yards fire. more ›

Tomorrow marks an ignominous moment in Chicago's history. 100 years ago on Dec. 22, a fire at the Union Stock Yards grew so large that it resulted in the deaths of 21 firemen. more ›

WBEZ is reporting that a fire broke out this morning between the North/Clybourn and Clark/Division subway stations on the Red Line. If you're taking the Red Line, plan accordingly for delays. more ›

A major fire broke out near Lincoln and Wellington about an hour ago. The fire started at the Peerless Imported Carpet building at 3033 N. Lincoln and that the fire had spread. There are reports (unsubstantiated) that the second building that caught fire houses Lincoln Tap Room. more ›

On November 4, a fire destroyed a playground at the Alcott Center in Buffalo Grove's park district headquarters at 520 Bernard Dr. Last week, police arrested two 14-year-old Buffalo Grove boys and two 14-year-old girls--one from Buffalo Grove and one from Wheeling--in connection with the fire. The teenagers face charges of arson and criminal property damage in Cook County Juvenile Court. Officials have estimated that it will cost $100,000 to replace the playground. "They started the fire, they said, to keep warm," Buffalo Grove police Cmdr. Steve Husak said Friday to the Chicago Sun-Times. "The fire ended up burning the equipment." Fire department officials said at one point the fire's temperature reached 1,300 degrees--enough heat to burn four aluminum poles. more ›

A fire broke out at the University of Chicago's Statistics and Mathematics building during the evening rush yesterday. No one was in the building at the time the fire broke out and firefighters had it contained early. The high winds in the area could have made the fire worse than it was. more ›

A piece of news we missed on Friday - Steve Dolinsky reported that Avec will re-open this Thursday or Friday, pending city permit approval. Back in August, the restaurant was closed by a fire connected with the ventilation system. We'll be back at Avec as soon as it re-opens, but with a little less glee than before. more ›

College Football more ›

Cubs Trip Up Cards more ›

The Sox take a step forward one night and then the next they take a step back. After picking up a game on the Twins on Friday, the Sox got routed by the Royals last night 8-2 and subsequently lost that game back to Minnesota. Edwin Jackson struggled on the hill for the Sox, giving up 13 hits and 6 runs to Kansas City while the Sox offense didn't produce much of anything in the way of offense, hitting only 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine men on base. Said A.J. Pierzynski, "Just one of those things. It goes up and down, and we had eight hits tonight, scored a couple of runs. We had some chances, and we just didn't get it done." The Sox hope to bounce back and get it done in the series finale today before the Twins come calling - the Sox last chance to make a run at the division - later this week (1:05 p.m., CSN). more ›

The White Sox struggled to get any offense going and the Tigers rode a big fourth inning to a 5-1 victory last night. An Omar Vizquel solo shot gave the Sox an early 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth but the Tigers cracked the game open with four runs in the bottom of the inning off of Sox starter John Danks, who fell to 13-10 on the season. Overall, the Sox only managed four hits on the night off of Jeremy Bonderman: Vizquel's homer and three singles, not the kind of offensive performance the team needed. Meanwhile, the Twins won their sixth straight, extending their AL Central lead to 5.5 games. The Sox play the Tigers once more this afternoon before returning home (12:05 p.m., CSN). more ›

White Sox Sweep Double-Header With Red Sox more ›

The Cubs snapped their five-game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the Braves at Wrigley on Saturday. Aramis Ramirex and Tyler Colvin each had two RBI in the winning effort. The team seemed to be cruising, up 5-1 late after Tom Gorzelanny allowed just one run over seven innings. But rookie Andrew Cashner continued to struggle, allowing three runs in the eighth and making the game closer than it needed to be. The Cubs try to salvage the series against the Braves this afternoon with Randy Wells taking the mound (1:20 p.m., WGN). more ›

The Sox tried their best to keep up with the Twins but again fell to Minnesota, this time losing 7-6, their fourth straight loss, and falling five games back of the Twins in the AL Central. Down 2-0 early, Andruw Jones hit a three-run homer to give the Sox the lead. The Sox took a 5-3 lead in the fifth with a pair of runs, but the Twins mounted their own rally in the sixth to take the lead for good. Gavin Floyd (5.1 IP, 10 H , 7 ER) took the loss for the Sox. With the wildcard out of reach, the division crown is the only chance the Sox will likely have to get into the playoffs. There's still one series left this season between the Sox and Twins, a three-game set in mid-September at The Cell. The Sox turn to Mark Buehrle today to help them stop the skid and salvage something from this series (7:10 p.m., CSN). more ›

Fire, Red Bull Draw more ›

Sox Shutdown A's more ›

Fire crews are on the scene of an explosion at Sipi Metal Corporation, located in the 1700 block of N. Elston (more likely recognized by readers of this site as just a block away from The Hideout). Teachers at Creative Scholars preschool are considering an evacuation of its children due to the incident. Elston has apparently been blocked off around the building. More as word comes in. more ›

Cubs' Offense Explodes more ›

Dodgers Drop Cubs more ›

Cubs Hold Off Reds more ›

The investigation continues this morning into a subway fire late yesterday afternoon that sent 19 people to the hospital. The fire occurred just southeast of the Clark and Division Red Line stop just before 5 p.m. yesterday afternoon. As a result, 19 people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and other respiratory complications. Over 100 firefighters responded and by 6:18, the fire was under control. Red Line and some bus service were temporarily rerouted but full service was restored by 8 p.m. While the cause is still under investigation, the early speculation is that railroad ties caught fire, something that's not entirely unusual in the summer even though yesterday's temperatures were the coolest in several days. From the Tribune: more ›