Despite our green image, Chicago doesn’t exactly have the best environmental record. Yeah, there are plenty of bike lanes and green roofs, but we also have one of only two undecontaminated rivers in the nation and no real recycling program. Still, this is a town that at least wants to look like it is moving in the right direction. Just this week the City Council started discussing an ordinance that would finally shutter the city’s two ancient and dangerous coal plants, which have never lived up to the Clean Air Act. And just to the north, Evanston has begun to evaluate the Great Lakes’ first offshore wind farm. more ›

A couple planted live worms in a salad at an Indiana Applebee's in order to get a free meal. Guh-guh-guh-gross, and holy crap, at least go someplace expensive if you're going to carry around "a plastic container of maggot-like bee moth worms." The staff at the restaurant discovered the scam when the woman accidentally left her purse behind after she and her dining companion "loudly complained she had found worms wriggling in her salad after the two had almost finished eating" and walked out on a $57 tab. A waitress was looking through the purse for ID so she could contact the bag's owner when she found the bugs. She called the cops. Again, we say gross. [CBS 2, image by deyboblue] more ›

In a situation only slightly less disgusting and tragically hilarious than the time Dave Matthews Band's waste landed on that tour boat, mysterious "splotches" over a three block radius in Lisle may be human poop and pee. Police in the western suburb are investigating a substance that landed on and often stained roofs, lawns, streets, cars, etc. The yellow and brown stains were described as "the size of the palm of [a] hand." While there's... more ›