Naperville native Evan Lysacek won the gold medal in the men's figure skating competition last night at the Winter Olympics. It was the first U.S. gold in the event since Brian Boitano won gold at the Calgary Olympics in 1988. Lysacek entered the night in second place behind Russia's Yevgeny Plushenko but Lysacek skated a near flawless performance to edge Plushenko by just over a point in the final standings. It's the second straight night that the Olympics featured a golden Chicago flavor following Shani Davis' gold medal on Wednesday night. If you missed it, NBC has full video of Evan's performance available here. more ›

Shani Davis successfully defended his Olympic 1,000-meter title yesterday, joining Lindsay Vonn's downhill win and Shaun white's golden performance on the snowboard halfpipe as part of a banner day for the U.S. Olympic team in Vancouver. In the process Davis, who first started speedskating in Evanston, also made history by becoming the first speedskater to win 1,000-meter speed skating golds in consecutive Olympics. more ›

Chicagoland Speedskater and Olympic Gold Medalist Shani Davis just took the Gold Medal in the 1,000-meter World Single Distance Championships, in Nagano, Japan. He also wiped out the track record with a time of 1:08.99, finishing just .04 seconds ahead of Russian Yevgeny Lalenkov. more ›

The Donnas have finally transformed themselves into the female KISS, sans make-up (well, the Kabuki-inspired kind); the band excels at writing party songs, evoking bygone licks, and caring not one whit that there isn't an intelligent lyric in sight for miles. Unlike KISS, the quartet of girls have razor-sharp chops and an endearing sense of relevance, which only makes sense since it seems as if they've been on the road almost non-stop for the past... more ›

Last week in Seattle, brewmasters from around the world gathered together to have their frothy malts, potent elixirs, and hop-laden potions judged in the 2006 World Beer Cup. We found while reviewing the winners list that: more ›

In case some readers think that we fine folks at Chicagoist have been going overboard with the Macy Field's coverage the past two days, for your perusal today here is a gaggle of news from Hamburger U that has nothing to do with the nutritional quality of its food or its CEO suddenly dropping dead: - Helping those affected by Hurricane Katrina will take years. The possibility of Rita hitting the Gulf Coast would... more ›

Well actually tomorrow according to the countdown clock on their web site, Chicago's new professional women's softball team, the Chicago Bandits, kick off their debut season. Part of the six-team National Pro Fastpitch League, the Bandits will play a 48-game regular season schedule plus exhibition games with their home games played at Benedictine University in Lisle. The Bandits have perhaps the biggest star in softball, Jennie Finch, on their roster. She won 60 consecutive games... more ›

Conventional wisdom says that labels are not in the business of artist development anymore. Chicago’s own Wilco is a prime example of what happens when the A&R man says “I don’t hear a single.” And yet artists like the Donnas prove that given the chance, artists will often push themselves to grow and mature into their own identity. Their new album, Gold Medal, releases today just before the band hits the road this fall in a tour that kicks off here next week. more ›