Results tagged “heroin”

Like baseball and steroids, drug-dealing and hip hop always seem to be mentioned in the same breath. This time Lupe Fiasco’s business partner at 1st and 15th, the record label he started in 2000, has been sentenced to 44 years on drug charges. There have been no charges filed against Lupe who partnered with Charles Patton for his first album, Food & Liquor. Assistant State’s Attorney Patrick Coughlin stated that it was rare to have...

Man, you just can't fool anyone anymore. Try to skip out of jail using someone else's name, rob a bank with an initimidating T-shirt, or change your name to that of a famous football player, and someone always stops you. Plus, your damn five-year-old cousin won't stay out of the way when you want to audition for Girls Gone Wild. Aaaargh! On Tuesday, two sisters from Sheboygan, Wisconsin were charged with disorderly conduct after taking...

Ok, let's get the story straight ... or at least we'll try.

It's been nearly 10 years since the untimely, unfortunate demise of Chicago-area comedian Chris Farley. We're not going to lie and say we remember exactly where we were when we heard the news or anything like that, but we can't believe it's been that long already. He had still been big in the movies with a promising future at the time of his death, if he could have broken out of the stereotypical fat-guy-does-crazy-shit-cuz-he's-fat role....

Somewhere near the Iowa border, 160 miles from the increasingly cold streets of Chicago, there is a 15-acre farm that has one mission: helping women turn their lives around.

Here's a nice little wrapup to all of the assorted robberies, shootings, fires, car crashes and drug busts that happened this weekend:

Twenty minutes into a live performance, Gene Janson, a veteran Chicago stage actor, died of a heart attack. He died doing what he loved, at least. The YMCA isn't so sure it wants to move its national headquarters to the South Loop now. They say that rising construction costs is one of the reasons. A University of Chicago study shows that a drug that helps alcoholics and heroin addicts kick their habits might also...

Chicagoist knows sometimes someone just needs a good groin kick and/or cock punch. We get it. But there are some circumstances in which this response is inappropriate. Say, when a law enforcement official is involved. Then, it’s not such a great idea.

Despite all devil babies, good news came with the dawn of Satan’s day (…obviously today). Federal agents in the U.S. and officials in Mexico have shut down the drug lab that is believed to be the source of at least some of the powerful painkiller fentanyl that has done in heroin users in eight states.

We don't know how else to put this -- there's bad junk going around. Chicagoist hopes that you're not nodding off whilst checking the blogosphere, or getting into a comment war and then running off to cop, but if you are into heroin or were considering picking up the habit, you might want to think twice. Besides the regular old hazards from being riding the big H, (e.g. HIV or Hepatitis C from dirty needles,...

Houstonist reports on cross-dressing thieves and undressing educators this week. A Peeping Tom defends himself with a papaya and an outraged onlooker asks Ken Lay, "TATER TOTS OR FRIES?" Also, FEMA wants it's money back. LAist are a bug bunch of geeks. They're Star Trek geeks, David Duchovny geeks and Frank Gehry geeks. During their Cochella preview their readers reveal themselves to be Depeche Mode geeks. Seattlest saw their basketball team preparing to leave for...

Sure you may call us hipsters or yuppies or whatever, but Chicagoist thinks we’re above social labels. And, no matter what you call us, truth is, we’re sometimes a little late to the party. We know Rainbo Club at 1150 N. Damen is nothing new, but it wasn’t until recently that we stopped by. And while we enjoyed many aspects of this cozy little bar, there’s one thing we really must emphasize: hygiene matters.

Because we just can’t get enough of the architectural beat this week, we bring you our third installment: Save the graystones!

When Chicagoist was attending high school at Joliet Catholic Academy in the early 90s, a girl in our class totally got busted by the dean for carrying around a bowl in her purse. Back then, Chicagoist hadn't known what a bowl looked like, let alone smoked pot out of one. No one else really did, either. But it was the talk of the school - someone was smoking weed!

There's a whole wide world out there, and here's the proof: DCist revels in The University of Maryland's basketball triumphs, marvels at Metro's security strategy, and applauds DC local Katie Couric's new gig. Phillyist is all about the Philadelphia Film Festival. OK, not about -- they still have time for loitering, underage sex, and random wacky news. LAist would have to send a camera around the world to get shots as bizarre as Katie's big 'ol bump and Kenny Rogers bad plastic surgery (in LAist Carolyn's words: "Kenny Rogers doesn't know when to fold 'em!" Ha!). Despite such bizarre sightings in LA, LAist interviewee Vanessa Grigoriadis chose to move there (to be with her fiancee, awww). Somebody ask Vanessa if they have record release parties as fun as the ones for LA based bands Languis and Spaceland in New York! Bostonist has the best local papers! While The Globe reports on a baby shower gone bad, the 'Herald coins a gruesome new term. They put down the paper long enough to comment on an election that has gone to the dogs, and, speaking of dogs -- check out this personal ad. Of course, it wouldn't be Boston without baseball, and, speaking of balls, here's why same-sex marriage can be outlawed for out-of-state couples. This chick we read about on Houstonist should talk to Phillyist's sexually active teen -- we think that they could find some interesting common ground. Or maybe not. A million dollars worth of pot would have us finding common ground with a lot of folks (and, hey, since we might get arrested for being drunk in a bar, weed's looking better and better to us), but maybe not Tom DeLay. Speaking of common ground, they also debated the need for a "record labels", and followed that up with an interview with the founder of Pandora Miamist reminds us not to wear a thong to our Dolphins cheerleader tryouts, but we're more worried about getting busted for driving with a suspended licence. Other crimes we won't be committing: bird theft, misspelled hate speech, and...well, if it's not a crime to do the "Gator Chomp" on the lawn of the White House, it should be. Torontoist warns us that downtown Toronto isn't that safe. First falling billboards, then self-immolations in donut shops and now falling bricks! Maybe you'd better escape to the safety of Montreal. We'd really be psyched if that train served dandelion salad, but we'll settle for Coke Blak. (We've had some and we LOVE IT.) SFist is one step closer to getting free citywide wireless, but until we get the internet ported straight into our brains we'll still have time for sex. Foodies seem to dig food-reality show Top Chef, and Barry Bonds probably wishes people had thrown food at him in San Diego instead of syringes. SFist also spoke to the producer of , a movie that's so good that our glibness escapes us. And it's back! You know what brought it back? Gothamist telling us about balls of heroin! Thank you Gothamist, for restoring us to our jerky glory. You know what else makes us feel jerky? The Times redesign. We'll say nothing jerky or glib about the reaction the trailer for is getting. Finally, Gothamist does their damndest to top DCist's rioting over women's basketball with a Hasidim protest. Is it riot week and no one told us? Chicagoist readers had a lot of time on their hands and thoughts in their heads about Wal-Mart, bicyclists, and dumb criminals. Chicagoist writers previewed Chicago's upcoming baseball season, made a tasty bowl of clam chowder and scratched their heads in wonder at the wrestler/public speaker/caveman known as The Warrior. Austinist gets all smug because they're third safest big city in America. Yeah, from crime, maybe, but what about the endorsed spread of disease or outbreaks of pillow fighting? But if you're a guy, thank goodness that now there's a place to deal with those outbreaks of the dermal variety. Fresh from an evening of fashion fun Shanghaiist rips Kristie Lu Stout a new one. Maybe someone needs to send her a copy of Dave Liang's "Shanghai Restoration Project"? For the more mainstream tastes, the Rolling Stones are coming to town, but it seems too too coincidental that they're also reporting on body parts that keep turning up in Gansu. The two news items are unrdelated, we're sure.

• Natarus and Gold Coast residents are still rallying to shut up street performers. Ironically, a Trib poll reveals that 56% of us say street performers don't bug us.
• A dozen people who recently bought heroin along the same stretch of South State St. have died. Police think that the drug is tainted or that they were sold fentanyl, which is many times stronger than morphine, instead of heroine.
• Scott Okun, the head of I-PASS, has been suspended without pay for job-related misconduct.

It's pretty tough to gain the jury's sympathy when during your trial you frequently spew profanity, insult prosecutors and then attack your own attorneys. So it comes as no suprise that the jury found Aaron Patterson guilty. The jury found the freedom fighter/revolutionary/professional troublemaker guilty on one count of marijuana conspiracy, one count of heroin conspiracy, one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, one count of possessing a machine gun, five...

The twelfth Hired Trucker was convicted this week, as Joseph Ignoffo of Ignoffo Trucking plead guilty to mail fraud and detailed how bagmen from the Water Department took bribes and directed political contributions to campaign funds for Cook County Commissioner and Mayoral Brother, John Daley. Ignoffo would make cash payments to Water Department Deputy Commissioner Donald Tomczak and later his underling, Gerald Wesolowski, in return for millions of dollars of city trucking business. Meanwhile, the...

This morning federal prosecutors alleged that a branch of a Colombian heroin ring operated within our fair city's water department. Because the news only broke an hour or so ago, details right now are a bit sketchy. The headlines scream that the heroin distribution ring operated "in", "at" or "inside" the water department, but the stories never quite explain anything besides the fact that three of the individuals were water department employees. The media aren't explaining whether the charges say the heroin dealing was done using city resources or on city time, and the scarce details lead us to believe that maybe three of the alleged heroin traffickers just happen to be water department employees. The Sun-Times tells us that the government informant involved in the investigation "was engaged in the conspiracy during normal weekday working hours," but nothing about those actually charged.

Continuing today's "Fun With Drugs in Schools" theme, Chicagoist just had to let you know about the suburban dad that is using the time-honored method of newspaper advertising to allege hard drug sales in the halls of a local school. Park Ridge's Dominic Vecchio, whose grammar school-age children attend schools within the Maine Township High School District, spent $900 of his own cash to publish an ad in last Thursday's Park Ridge Herald-Advocate (a Pioneer...

Two Midway customs officers are among 20 people accused of being a part of a drug ring that smuggled millions of dollars in heroin, cocaine and marijuana from Mexico. Officials said the officers, both from Chicago, used law enforcement databases to find out if any members of the drug ring were being investigated. Federal agents also say that in early 2003, they arrested a person who'd just left one of the customs agents' house. On him was over $300,000. The agents face 10 years to life in prison if convicted.

In the second major gang/drug bust in a week, state and federal authorities arrested 50 people and seized $37,000 in cash, 5 handguns, 2 rifles and 1 hand grenade. Included in those arrested was Troy Martin, known as "King Troy," the head of the Chicago gang, Mafia Insane Vice Lords. Authorities say that the gang raked in as much $235,000 a day in crack, heroin and marijuana sales. Last week the FBI indicted 47 members of the Black Disciples, including it's "king" Marvel Thompson. Chicagoist was scared when in 2003 we were crowned Murder Capital, with more homicides reported than any other city nation-wide. These major gang busts are helping to ease our minds just a little bit.

Today, the FBI indicted 47 members of the Black Disciples, one of Chicago's largest street gangs. Rap record producer Marvel Thompson was identified as the "king" of the citywide drug conspiracy that lasted over 15 years and netted $200,000 to $300,000/day. All 47 are charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute powder and crack cocain, heroin, and marijuana. Along with bulletproof vests, 11 guns and $320,000 was seized. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, "These defendants are alleged to be not just drug dealers, but individuals who had their own laws, territory, justice system and economy. They operated as if they were an independant nation, subject to only the laws of the streets, not the law of the land."