Worried about baseball fans behaving badly, the city is issuing a warning akin to those used for major holidays to fans. The White Sox host Cleveland next Monday, the official Opening Day of Major League Baseball, while the Cubs start the season on the road and won't celebrate their home opener until a week later, Monday April 12, against the Brewers. Ald. James Balcer (11th) said: more ›

A few of us finally hopped on the bandwagon and saw the current blockbuster film Avatar. And while we found it visually stunning, we also found it a poorly written mash-up of the Pocahontas legend and Return of the Jedi. We're not the only ones who weren't impressed. Ald. James Balcer (11th) is adding a local flavor to a national outcry, railing against the film for what he says are anti-American sentiments. Balcer, a decorated Vietnam War vet (Marines), tells CBS 2 that the movie, "makes Marines 'look like lunatics...We are a good, generous country that helps people.'" Balcer pointed to the film's representation of the American military: "Well, they never mentioned America but when you have the eagle, globe and anchor -- the Marine Corps emblem -- it has to be America." Balcer's a bit off, but not completely: the film's antagonist is actually a large private corporation. But the company's use of power-hungry, blood-thirsty ex-marines is pretty transparent and over-the-top; James Cameron may as well have called them Halli-water. But the important question to Ald. Balcer seems to have gone unasked: what did he think of the 3D? more ›

Leave it to a connected alderman to punish someone else for his mistake. With the controversy over Ald. Balcer's painting over of a mural on private property still simmering, the Dept. of Streets and Sanitation may have been directed to fall on the sword in response to backlash from the public. WBEZ has the statement released by Streets & San, which states, "The removal of the mural was a miscommunication between the Alderman’s office and the Department of Streets and Sanitation. The owner of the building should have been notified," and ends with, "The representative of the Department of Streets and Sanitation received disciplinary action." more ›

After the Saga of Vincent Richardson and the Juan Quintero incident, it seems like some folks have had enough. Earlier this week, Chicago Ald. James Balcer (11th) introduced a new ordinance which would jack up the minimum fine for impersonating a police officer. The old minimum? $10. The new minimum? $500. The maximum fine would also increase, from $100 to $1,000. more ›