Aside from American President Barack Obama showing up in Copenhagen, shaking some hands and and mugging for the committee, another IOC member is now saying that the U.S. will have to come through with some cash and guarantees to secure the summer games for Chicago in 2016. Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior, Spain's IOC member, told South Africa's Mail and Guardian Online that Obama will have to have some skin in the game. more ›

With the IOC Evaluation committee out of Chicago and on to other conquests, we've been granted a (brief) reprieve from the grandstanding, outrage, promises and protests that come with the city's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. But come October, we may find ourselves in the midst of more drama. more ›

The 13-member evaluation team of the International Olympic Committee finished its tour Saturday of Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro, a potential host for the 2016 Olympic Games. The IOC offered high praise of the city - as it also did on earlier tours of Chicago and Tokyo - saying it was "highly impressed" by Rio's vision for the Games and offers of governmental support. more ›

Now that the International Olympic Committee's Evaluation Committee is out of town, new information is coming out regarding the IOC's concerns about Chicago's bid. On the last of their visit to Chicago, the IOC met with several groups that oppose Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. Among the concerns raised by No Games Chicago and Housing Bronzeville is the possibility that the games might displace Chicago residents, especially around the proposed sit of the Olympic Village. more ›

Have you seen the new wing of the Chicago Art Institute? Yesterday evening the International Olympic Committee, along with city officials and visiting dignitaries got a private, behind the scenes tour of the venerable institution's Modern Wing as part of the Evaluation Committee's visit to the city. Besides meeting with such luminaries of Chicago as Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett, the IOC was greeted by an angry crowd of about 50 protesters from No Games Chicago and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. The group of community activists met up at the Bean in Millennium Park and, escorted by a group of (not unsympathetic) Chicago police on bicycles, headed south east to the rear entrance of the museum, where media were lined up along a barricade next to a red carpet, awaiting the arrival of Patrick Ryan and other Olympic boosters. more ›

Organizers say they expected up to 2,000 protesters to join the No Games Chicago event yesterday afternoon, but just a few hundred showed up at 5pm in Federal Plaza at 50 W. Adams. Set to the predictable protest tunes* of "This Land is Your Land" and "Get Up Stand Up," protestors wrapped just about every anti-Daley social justice cause together under the banner of anti-Olympic sentiment. more ›

The City of Chicago is putting the finishing touches on its clean up as we prepare to welcome the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission tomorrow, their first stop on their candidate city evaluation tour. The last potholes have been filled, the last sidewalk has been pressure-washed, and the homeless have all been rounded up and temporarily relocated to an undisclosed location for the next week. more ›

Thursday's news that Chicago's Olympic bid committee had reached a community benefits agreement that would set aside affordable house and increase minority contracting appears to have been premature. Both the Reader's Ben Joravsky and Progress Illinois took a harder look at what came out of the city council's Finance Committee last week, and found some decidedly un-Olympic games being played. more ›