Pretty Chicago garbage truck, presumably with no drunk people getting trash-compacted in the back, by SF Moe William Bowen's friends have some serious explaining to do. Bowen recently came to in a garbage truck, full of garbage, in Muncie, Indiana. The driver had just emptied a commercial trash bin into his truck and was about to activate its compactor when he heard Bowen screaming. "He looked up and this gentleman was standing out the......

Well, we didn't set out to have a fecal-theme day, but when it rains (poop), it pours (dog poop). A Gold Coast grandmother was fined $400 this week for flinging dog crap at the Latin School. Strange but true! What would prompt such an act? "I had just had it with Latin," she said. Kass works for CPS and is also minister, according to the Pioneer Local. [She says she] "just got tired of......

We've looked all day and still can't top hedgehogs in bandages (they were bandaged at, no lie, Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital). That's the clear winner of awesomeness today. But there were other good contenders... Good luck getting this catchy pork song out of your head. Have 24 hours to burn? The annual 24-hour The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa Benefit kicks off tonight at 7pm at Second City. This year's performers also......

Hearts all across Chicago were broken last January when Zephyr closed its doors. We walked past its former space a few days ago and wouldn't you know, construction workers were busy building what looked to be another restaurant. Alas, it won't be Zephyr 2.0 but rather an Irish-style bar and restaurant (pictured), opening in March 2008 (to their best estimate). The workers didn't know what it was going to be called. New York Times writer......

Barry Bonds was indicted this afternoon for perjury and obstruction of justice. Dennis Hastert resigned today, which means there'll be a special election in his district. Open office plans turn out to suck if you like privacy. No kidding! Is Lollapalooza going to Philly? Police have identified one of the two women whose remains were burned on the South Side. She was Theresa Bunn, 21. Workers paving a bike trail near Lemont discovered the......

The male bowerbird is one ugly dude, but he makes up for his drab plummage by building elaborate, intricate nests with unusual materials like insect skeletons and bits of colorful garbage. Like their namesake, Raleigh, NC's Bowerbirds build a rather glorious abode out of simple, majestic, and formidable storytelling to house their comparatively modest, unassuming image. Chicagoist first basked in the group's aural light back in August, amidst a mellow crowd at Schubas that had......

Skidoo sounds like something we made up at 3 AM while at some party: Groucho Marx (in his last movie) plays a gangster named God, Jackie Gleason trips on acid while in jail, Carol Channing plays the most sane character in the whole thing, there's a musical number known as the Garbage Can Ballet, and every credit to the movie is sung. It's an actual movie from 1968 and it was directed by Otto......

OMG, you guys: Puppy thief! Burglars broke into a pet store on 80th and Cicero Saturday night and stole at least 17 puppies. The thieves broke the front window at Pet Luv Pet Center, and apparently filled a plastic garbage can with golden retrievers, boxers, beagles and huskies, a Shih Tzu, a puggle and a Pekingese. The store's owners don't know why the alarm didn't go off or why the security cameras in the store......

By all accounts, Park Grill in Millennium Park has been doing wonderful business. It's not surprising, given its location. They also have a sweetheart deal with the Park District. Instead of leasing their digs, Park Grill has a 20-year concession contract with the Park District, with a 10-year option. They also don't have to pay for water, gas, or garbage collection. Lowers the overhead for running the restaurant just a little bit, wouldn't you agree?......

Oh, the lengths that some amateur film makers will go to get the perfect shot. Gas station attendant Jose Gomez-Valerio seemed like just another employee doing his job cleaning the bathroom so a customer could use it (you know how gnarly gas station bathrooms can become). That is, until the 20-year-old woman Gomez-Valerio cleaned the bathroom for noticed a red light peering out of the garbage can. That red light turned out to be attached......

Southwest Side Alderman Lona Lane (18th) isn't feeling like chicken tonight, chicken tonight. She's introduced an ordinance to amend a four-year-old pigeon ban to include chickens. The ordinance would make it a crime to "import, sell, own, keep or otherwise possess any live chicken" in a district zoned for residential use. It would also require a separate food establishment license for those who want to slaughter chickens. "I was alerted that some of the people......

It’s been a while since we’ve weighed in with a "Gardenist" update. The last time we did, about six weeks ago, the peppers were just starting to come in, after months of waiting. Since then, we’ve been picking peppers fast and furious. August was a wet month, and September, like much of the summer, was unseasonably mild. This probably contributed to the lengthy wait for fruit to come in from the pepper plants. Two days......

Former WKQX-FM 101.1 radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller filed a lawsuit Tuesday against his former employer, saying radio officials disparaged his show and blocked him from getting other work. We are getting pretty sick of the cell phone drivers, but we are always amazed at the cell phone bikers (not in a good way). Yesterday, an 19-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a garbage truck on the Northwest Side, was apparently talking......

Here are some things in the news to chew on while we're eating kabobs at the Velika Gospa. Macy's second-quarter profits don't look too good. Neither does the forecast for the residential real estate industry. A woman was run over by a garbage truck on the north side this morning. Indications are that she laid down behind the rear tires before it happened. Two apartment buildings in the Fulton Market were evacuated Tuesday after......

Before we teleported up into the great nightclub in outer space, Chicagoist took a few hours to walk around Grant Park this weekend and have a friendly chit-chat with some of the many fine folks who came to Lolla this weekend. Some of them came from nearby - North Side, South Side and the suburbs. Others came from farther away, places like New Jersey. Still others came to visit us from other countries, like Ireland.......

Like someone who's ready to quit smoking but still can't clean up their own mess, Chicago will go smoke-free on January 1 but ... we'll still have a little problem. A garbage problem. Daley's trying like gangbusters to make the city go green. And we're behind green roofs, eco-friendly sidewalks and solar-powered bus shelters 100%. But. (Non)news flash: the recycling program is a joke. The Blue Bag recycling program doesn't address the fact that......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

This sounds pretty cool -- the State of Illinois' third annual small-business challenge cited 13 winners for its $10,000 Innovate Illinois grant program. You can find out more about the program here. Don't stop believin' in anonymity when it comes to the mob -- as the much-anticipated Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial opens, jurors will share their backgrounds, views on issues and reading habits-but not their names. It's Police Superintendent Idol! Three and "possibly......

On Friday night at the 5400 block of S. Kilbourn police seized 992 pounds of marijuana. The street value of the weed clocks in at around $2.7 million and according to the authorities the marijuana looked as if it had been recently shipped. As a point of reference for the mass amount of marijuana seized, the following weigh approximately the same; the hog shot by an 11-year old in Alabama, this totally real video of......

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless estimates that 166,000 people experience homelessness in Chicago. We aren't going to try to imagine how difficult it must be to be without a place to come home to, and we certainly don't know what it is like to be so hungry you would dig through garbage for a bite to eat. We've led a pretty charmed life, so far, and so we try to give back where we......

Rats are nasty. Chicagoist wouldn’t want our cat to tangle with one. We’ve all seen those scary “Target: Rats!” posters up in nearly all of the alleys in Chicago. We’re not really sure what the city does when they target rats, but we don’t really want to know. The town of Cicero will spend $8.43 per person this year on rat eradication in comparison to Chicago’s $3.32 a person, and part of their plan this......

It was a different night, but the same results for the Bulls in Game 2 in their best-of-seven series against the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons jumped out to another early lead and never looked back, pounding the Bulls once again 108-87. The Bulls were outplayed in every aspect of the game yet again. The Bulls still couldn't shoot; a 34% overall shooting percentage just won't cut it. Kirk Hinrich was 0 for 7 from the......

As everyone in Chicago should know by now (if only due to reading Chicagoist), the Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight, started filming here last week. In the course of preparation, crews turned the old Post Office on Harrison into a Gotham-ready edifice. Planners and conservationists have wondered what to do with the hulking 1920s relic ever since it was vacated in 1996, but we doubt any of them wanted to set it on fire.......

Flammable Fire Escapes?...

This isn't a local story, but nothing, and we mean nothing, can top the strange case of astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak. She was arrested Monday at Orlando International Airport after attacking Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, who she thought was trying to steal her would-be boyfriend and fellow astronaut, Cmdr. William Oefelein. Aren't astronauts supposed to be our best and brightest? This makes that episode of the Simpsons where Barney lays off the sauce and......

We're sure that there are some women in this town who, not understanding the importance of the Bears to their husbands, think that they're loving wives simply because they'll let him watch the game without asking him to take out the garbage or fix the dripping sink in the middle of the game. Or maybe some will expect their husband to watch the kids all Saturday while she goes shopping, in return for his spending......

Pat yourselves on the back Chicagoland, most of you managed to keep yourselves out of trouble this week. Usually by Friday, we can count on a whole heap of news stories about the stupid and depraved acts you manage to commit, but not so this week. Whatever the reason, you were on your best behavior. Maybe you're too excited about the Bears game. Maybe Barack Obama's almost presidential announcement still has you all a twitter,......

When we think of sexy athletes, typically blonde tennis players come to mind. So we're not sure what to make of the recent Sun-Times poll and its result, naming Bears punter Brad Maynard as the Hottest Bear. Girls, your thoughts? Maynard won in a landslide by garnering 57% of the vote! Well behind Maynard, "Adewale Ogunleye was second with 8 percent of the vote. Hunter Hillenmeyer and Brian Urlacher got about 7 percent each, and......

The city claims to be winning its war against rats, according to a Streets and Sanitation official. Spokesperson Matt Smith told the Sun-Times yesterday that citizen complaints about rats are down 14 percent from last year. Smith credits increased baiting efforts and the roll out of new garbage cans with tightly fitting lids. Chicagoist wrote about a rat and mice infestation at City Hall last year in which we also quoted Mr. Smith, and now......

This week at a PetsMart in Schaumburg, about 600 fish were killed. The police are still investigating, but somehow an unknown substance (poison?) got into either a tank or the filtering system on Sunday night or Monday morning. The substance then spread to the store's 127 fish tanks, killing about $3,000 worth of freshwater fish. Question: How do you dispose of 600 dead fish? No, seriously. This is something we never pondered before. Do you......