• Police are investigating whether or not four specific strangling deaths over the last two years are connected.
• Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, the Democratic candidate for Cook County Board President, is backing off her promise to cut taxes, blaming a worsening budget situation.
• Some competition for ComEd.

In the wake of "The Bong Hit Heard 'Round The World," Olympic swimming champion/badass Michael Phelps faced a brutal falling-out with various sponsors and parents. Kellogg's recently dumped Phelps as a spokesman because getting high on grass at a college party is "not consistent with the image of Kellogg," according to the company. Speedo, on the other hand, has kept Phelps on. So, too, it seems, will the Chicago 2016 committee. more ›