Results tagged “greatlakes”

There are several runners on staff here at Chicagoist, a few of whom have actually run some marathons. But what we've accomplished ins nothing compared to the feat completed by 30-year-old Canadian Paula Stephanson: she has completed swimming across all of the Great Lakes. She completed the 35-mile swim across Lake Michigan, from Chicago to Michigan City, last night. The undertaking began in 1996. [Sun-Times, NBC 5]

When he's not busy seeking peace in the Middle East, President Obama is still doing his job back home and he's named Chicagoan Cameron Davis as his new "Great Lakes czar." Davis has an environmental background as he's the president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Per the Sun-Times:

If President Obama gets his way, the Great Lakes could be in for a nice clean-up come next year. The President's 2010 budget, released in February asked for an additional $475 million in funds to clean the Lakes; if the funding were approved, it would put the yearly cost of funding for the Great Lakes at over $1 billion per year. Per the Associated Press (via WBBM):

After four years of work by Great Lake states, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday ratified a compact to protect the Great Lakes against water depletion by a vote of 390-25. The Senate approved the measure in August and President Bush has already said he would sign it. The Great Lakes contain more than 90 percent of fresh water in the United States; Ontario and Quebec have already implemented similar measures. According to the AP, "Under the agreement, countries or remote states are barred from tapping into the lakes from their natural drainage basin with rare exceptions. It also requires states to regulate their own large-scale water use and promote conservation." But all good measures aren't without their loopholes, which is why Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak (Dem.) opposed the bill: it still allows for diversion for containers smaller than 5.7 gallons (i.e., bottled water). Worried that the courts could still "declare the waters an economic commodity," Stupak said, "I do not know how any member in good conscience could vote to approve legislation that may unintentionally open the Great Lakes water to diversions."

Our second annual "reader's choice" month here at "BotW" begins with a simple question from Dan Jones:

Police say two sailors kidnapped a cab driver, carjacked his cab and drove it around Gurnee before setting the car on fire. Aaron Couch, 21, and Terry Gappa, 20, both face felony counts of theft of services, assault, theft of a vehicle and criminal damage to property.

EPA Midwest administrator Mary Gade has been forced to resign her post. Last summer, Gade invoked emergency powers against Dow Chemical to force the company to clean up three toxic hotspots near their Midlands, Michigan headquarters. She had been fighting the company for years over dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond the Midlands plant and into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. And when tests revealed that dioxin levels in along a park in Saginaw were the highest in the nation, she ordered more dredging. Dow and the EPA had been working out a deal over the cleanup, but Gade ended those negotiations in January, saying that Dow wasn't taking the steps necessary to protect public health. Company officials appealed to Washington, and Gade was forced from her position yesterday.

Who doesn't love dogs? Besides these two, we mean. Many of us here at Chicagoist have our own pups that we lavish with too much attention and expensive things to chew. There's nothing that warms our hearts after a long day at the office like the excited look and wagging tail of our canine companions.

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]

New York magazine got their hands on a copy of this year's James Beard award ballots (check it out for yourself here) and as usual, our city's restaurants are well-represented.

Thousands of migratory birds died in the last few months due to Type E Botulism poisoning from Lake Michigan. Scientists don't know exactly how the birds are contracting botulism, but our theory that they ate tainted canned goods—that's the most common way to human adults contract botulinum poisoning--isn't an option, apparently. The current theory blames invasive populations of zebra mussels and round gobies.

We get letters:

Some things to do this weekend, and into next, as an excuse to dress in costume. Rare and fine wine auction house Hart Davis Hart is holding an auction of private collections from both coasts today from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. at Tru. The auction is free to attend, but anyone taking the time to head to Tru and not eat is an idiot, quite frankly. Lunch today at Tru is fixed-priced at $75....

During our six years in the Navy we can remember being away from home during the holidays but not unwanted, thanks to the volunteer families of Adopt-a-Sailor programs in the towns and countries where we found ourselves on duty. Sailors at Great Lakes Naval Station ("Naval Station Great Lakes" in military/Yoda-speak) won't have that opportunity this Thanksgiving. Recent changes in program guidelines by NSGL brass effectively shut out individual families from the Adopt-A-Sailor program. Instead,...

It's making the rounds, so we feel sort of obligated to link it up, but bleh. Someone really did hang a skinned goat on the Harry Caray statue, though their curse-cursing didn't do anything. And the cops had to cut it down. Still trying to figure out what to do tonight? Local artist Brian Morris's solo show of drawings and customized toys has its opening party at Rotofugi tonight. If you like skulls and...

Now that summer is doing the quick fade, certain foods and beverages that we avoided during the warm months are creeping back into our diet. They tend to taste better during cooler weather. One of those beverages is a good stout. We mean a good stout, with the viscosity of motor oil and brewed with malt so heavily roasted you'd think they burned the brewery down making the beer. We bought a couple bottles of...

Here are some things in the news while we do spit takes at the ticket prices for the upcoming Van Halen tour. A $300-a-year parking permit created for realtors, home health care providers, and social workers to plug a $2.4 million hole in the city's 2007 budget only generated $15,900 in revenue. Facing increasing criticism in allowing BP to increase the amount of pollution it can discharge into Lake Michigan, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels...

Well, kids, last month you made your thoughts on the state of our lakes heard pretty loud and clear. One group that's on your side is the Healing Our Waters (HOW)-Great Lakes Coalition, an umbrella group comprised of more than 90 organizations that support "healthy lakes, healthy lives."

So we were at Fiesta del Sol the other day, taking photos and soaking in the ado going on around us. For those of you who aren't aware, Fiesta del Sol is an alcohol-free event. That means that you stand a good chance of seeing the stray can of beer or flask of sumthin' stand out among the throngs of stroller-wielding pedestrians (no neighborhood is immune). After a couple hours of negotiating kids hopped on churros and El Campeón virgin piña coladas running circles around our feet, we needed a beer. So we headed to Skylark for a nightcap before heading home.

Last week we clued you in to BP's plans to increase the levels of ammonia and sludge thhey are discharging into Lake Michigan from their Whiting, IN refinery. Responding to the wave of local bad press the company got, BP ran full page ads in newspapers, letters to the editor, and even blog advertising, including here on Chicagoist. Yesterday the Chicago Tribune ran with a front page headline detailing the flogging that BP took on...

You may not realize it, but the Great Lakes Watershed is not only the source of all of our fresh drinking water, but it's also a political entity, protected by a group of US States and Canadian Provinces. Under the Water Resources Development Act, diversion of water from the Great Lakes basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors, something that rarely occurs. This act, and it's ramifications, has been a point of...

The James L. Beard Awards — the Oscars of the culinary world — were handed out last night. Though Chicago didn't win a large number of awards, we did win one of the most important ones, so we can take solace in that.

Wow. Snow. That's messed up! A virus has killed a bunch of fish in the eastern Great Lakes and it seems to be heading this way. Chicagoland mayors think that the state should pick up more of the bill for public schools. Abbott Labs has more than halved the price of its HIV drug to poor countries. The state wants to get its mitts on some Abe Lincoln artifacts, including a stovepipe hat valued...

The James L. Beard Award nominees were announced yesterday and as in years past, Chicago represented. And the Chicago-based nominees are: Outstanding Restaurateur: Richard Melman, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Outstanding Chef: Jean Joho, Everest and Paul Kahan, Blackbird Outstanding Restaurant: Frontera Grill and Spiaggia Rising Star Chef of the Year: Graham Elliot Bowles, Avenues Outstanding Pastry Chef: Mindy Segal, HotChocolate Outstanding Service: Tru Outstanding Wine Service: Bin 36, Wine Director Brian Duncan Best Chef, Great...

It's coming. A fish virus so deadly to our aquatic friends that it could have a serious impact on the $4.5 billion commercial and recreational industry in Lake Michigan. The disease is call Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) and luckily poses no risk to humans. The virus has seeped into northern Lake Huron, just 20 miles north of where it merges with Lake Michigan. Based on the articles we are reading, this could be seriously bad...

Poor Great Lakes. Even with all the great gains to combat pollution and keep creepy fish and aliens out of the ecosystem, there's always another part of the human race that's chomping at the bit to drain them of their vitality. This time it's New Berlin, a town 15 miles west of Milwaukee that has requested the right to drain the lake of 1.83 million gallons of water a day, because it's not close enough to the watershed.

Continuing on our Halloween theme for "BotW", we turn our eyes east to the Cleveland-based Great Lakes Brewing Company. The folks at Great Lakes take great pride in being from Cleveland and knowing the history of Northeast Ohio, having named their beers after shipwrecks immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot, Prohibition-era G-men, and rivers so polluted they catch fire. Either that, or they have a very self-deprecating sense of humor, which we imagine one needs...

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for?

The Coast Guard is planning to create 34 live-fire training zones in the Great Lakes that could discharge over 400,000 lead and copper bullets into the waters. This would amount to more lead dumped in the water than the entire state of Michigan dumps in a year, even after the gunfire from Detroit celebrating the Tigers reaching the World Series.

Two local collegiate soccer programs clash on Wednesday night at University of Illinois at Chicago's Flames Field. The UIC Flames, ranked 10th in the nation, take on Northwestern University at Flames Field at 7:00 p.m. in a Great Lakes Region battle.