Jay Mariotti pleads no contest to his most recent legal troubles and it doesn't appear to have humbled him one iota. more ›

Former Sun-Times sports columnist and ESPN shouting head Jay Mariotti was charged with, and pleaded not guilty to, charges of felony charges of stalking, corporal injury on a spouse or domestic partner and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, and two misdemeanor counts of disobeying a court order. If convicted of the charges, Mariotti faces up to five years in prison. more ›

Domestic violence has been an increasing problem in Illinois and budget constraints have limited the services available to victims and children. more ›

• The CHA has closed two of the remaining Cabrini-Green buildings, meaning just one remains open.
• Anita Kustok, the mother of Comcast SportsNet reporter Sarah Kustok and former Northwestern quarterback Zak Kustok as well as an elementary school teacher, was killed by a gunshot wound to the head.
• Jay Mariotti has pleaded no contest to one domestic violence charge while the other six were dropped.

The drama ain't over for Jay Mariotti yet. Arrested in August for an alleged domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend, Mariotti has now been charged by Los Angeles prosecutors with with seven misdemeanors. The charges break down as: two counts of domestic violence with injury, two counts of domestic violence, one count of grand theft, one count of false imprisonment, and one count of vandalism. The max sentence for each charge is a year in jail. He's due to be arraigned Friday morning. more ›

The schadenfreude over Jay Mariotti's arrest for domestic assault continues with relish from nearly all who've weighed in on the subject. One of the more recent (besides Sun-Times columnist Rick Morrissey, who reminded readers today that Mariotti nicknamed Frank Thomas "the Big Skirt") is Sox and Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, whom Mariotti waged a Quixotian battle with despite Reinsdorf's teams winning six NBA titles and a World Series, making him arguable the most successful local sports owner of our time. more ›

We'd never thought there'd be something about Jay Mariotti we couldn't joke about but now there is one, when he allegedly took things a few steps too far in a suspected domestic abuse incident with his girlfriend in Los Angeles last weekend. And now the punishments are rolling in. Mariotti, a regular guest on ESPN's "Around The Horn," hasn't appeared on the World Wide Leader all week and it seems there are no plans to include him this week, either. Perhaps more importantly, Mariotti was suspended from his job as writer/blogger/blowhard over at AOL Fanhouse. 's Richard Deitsch also tweeted out the following statement from AOL: "We are continuing to gather all the facts. In the meantime, we have suspended Jay Mariotti and are not featuring any new work from him." In related news, Deadspin talked to the guy who reported the incident to police and have his account of what happened. more ›

Last week, word came down that the Tribune's Rick Morrissey was leaving the sports pages of the Trib to join up with the rival Sun-Times. Of course, as soon as Morrissey was out the door, you can guess who's name came up right away in whispered speculation: yep, Mariotti. We've been down this road before and, as Crain's Ed Sherman tells it, while Mariotti may be gung-ho to relocate to the Tribune Tower, the bridge there remains charred and smoking. more ›

Sports blog extraordinaire Deadspin reported earlier today that Jay Mariotti apparently got himself booted from Underground last night for a bit of a scuffle over a cell phone pic. The alleged incident was spread on Twitter last night and Deadspin got the story from a reader this morning. Mariotti (not surprisingly) hasn't responded to Deadspin and the photo hasn't surfaced yet, so we'll just have to make do with this one of Mariotti pulling a Tankboy on someone's couch after a big party. We wonder if Jay's gonna make a hungover appearance on Around The Horn. more ›

Jay Mariotti still scares us, so we've tried our best to avoid him since he departed our local rag's pages. Which explains why we missed his latest WTF moment until the boys at NQTC pointed it out. That we knew what was coming didn't dull the mystification of reading Mariotti's words. He really does just jump right from Cubs spending money now that they've been sold to the fact that Joe Ricketts' daughter is a lesbian. more ›

Earlier today, when asked about those "Jay Mariotti to the Trib on September 1" rumors, one Trib employee told us, "I haven't heard anything about it, sorry. And I would have heard something." We also posed the question to the Tribune's Gary Weitman, Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations, who told us, "This rumor is not true." Seems pretty succinct to us. Mr. Weitman forwarded our inquiry to Kate Mersman, communication manager for the Tribune, who we're still awaiting word from also told us, "I have no additional comment. The rumor is not true." Whether or not Mariotti ultimately ends at Tribune Tower in one form or another, at least it gives the Trib a little press on the day its Chicago Now blog network - Mariotti's originally rumored destination - moves out of beta and into "officially open for business" territory. Even their Breaking Tweets Chicago blog addresses the rumor but seems to ultimately wind up in pseudo-denial mode. more ›

It looks like all those rumors about Jay Mariotti returning to Chicago media are circulating again. Back in July, rumors swirled that the Trib's upstart blog network Chicago Now was trying to land Jay but now sports blog SportsByBrooks reports that once Mariotti's non-compete clause concludes at the end of this month, he'll join the Tribune as a weekly columnist. We've reached out to a few folks we know at the Tribune but the only response we got from one worker there was, "I haven't heard anything about it, sorry." We'll update if we hear any addition info from the Trib. more ›

• The Parking Ticket Geek has coverage from today's City Hall Parking Meter protest.
• The Harold Ickes Homes are coming down and Chi-Town Daily News has a great story on it. [via Gapers Block]
• Brown Line riders rejoice! Another stop is finally reopening; this time, it's the Wellington stop which has been closed for 16 months.
• The Sun-Times brings us the bizarre story of the sorority, the former Chicago Housing Authority comptroller, and the $900,000 wax statue.

• Do not be alarmed when the loud F-16s go screaming overhead tonight at 1 a.m.; there's a good reason for it.
• Looks like there will be a delay in the guilty plea of former Blago cohort Len Monk who was scheduled to do so tomorrow.
• A plant in Carol Stream was evacuated earlier today because of a chemical leak.

• R.I.P. acting legend (and Chicago native) Karl Malden.
• Bail was denied for Harold Turner, the blogger from New Jersey currently in jail for threatening several Chicago-area judges over their upholding of Chicago's handgun ban.
• Layoffs began today at the Chicago Public Schools.

Given his popularity around town, Chicagoist would have thought that former Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti might choose to tape his Around the Horn segments from a location only slightly more disclosed than Dick Cheney's old lair. Or least choose to relocate from the Windy City to a locale where he's not quite so despised. Instead, Mariotti is venturing out in public to go on camera. This week, the controversial sportswriter began taping his daily ATH segements from ESPNZone in River North. Fans (he's gotta have a couple, right?) and hecklers can check out Mariotti at work each weekday starting at noon. At least ESPN has enough sense to keep him locked safely behind glass. more ›

We made it about three weeks into our "No Mariotti New Year" resolution, but damnation if we have to go and bust it. In an interview with RealClearSports, Jay the Joke goes out of his way to generally shit on everyone and everything in his way. Including the Pulitzer-Prize winning, Steak & Shake loving, everyone's-favorite-movie-critic, Roger Ebert. This aggression will not stand, man. more ›

Photo by scrapplequeen