Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, a longtime suburbanite and proponent of dibs, calls the act of saving your public parking spot with random crap Chicago's "street art" and the "collective expression of the city's indomitable will." more ›

"Da Coach" responds to Jeff Pearlman's Walter Payton bio with what we're certain is a health code violation. more ›

"Chicago Tribune reporters work in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. They do not blog from mommy's basement, cutting and pasting what others have reported, while putting it under a cute pen name on the Internet." more ›

First John Kass recounted the erotic restroom romp of two Sox fans on opening day. Next, Windy Citizen found video of the same things happening at Wrigley in 2007. Now, the folks at Adult Swim [via the fine folks at The Awl] brings us eyewitness on-the-scene coverage of the event in the spirit of those Chinese CGI reenactments. more ›

Photo by DR000
• Sweet Lou's not the only one to get baseball honors this week. White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin and Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano were both received Silver Slugger awards today.
• Some more details have been released in the super creepy case of the Evanston woman living with her 3 dead siblings.
• John Kass takes a look at a smarty pants 12-year-old in Oak Park who decided to do a social experiment by wearing a pro-McCain shirt to school one day, and a pro-Obama shirt the next. Guess which shirt went over better.

"Well, we can’t change the world, so let’s just enjoy the good news: old, fun, dangerous playgrounds are not completely extinct." —#980: Old, Dangerous Playground Equipment [1000 Awesome Things] more ›

The "powerful white Tribune columnist" who apparently shouted at a colleague and challenged him to a fight? Yeah, it was John Kass. more ›

The same day John Kass shined a light on some shenanigans Chicago aviation chief and longtime Daley ally David Ochal pulled during the recent storm, Ochal decided to call it quits. The brouhaha arose because Kass discovered Ochal had used his clout to get an O'Hare ComEd crew to deliver a generator to his house on the Far Northwest Side while his neighbors sat in the dark. Obviously they were not amused by the glowing beacon of light on their pitch-black block, and tipped off the Tribune. more ›

Try to imagine John Kass writing, and the Tribune publishing, a column that's all about how black people have terrible taste, and can you believe what some of them like, and no white person should have to sit through black-themed movies—not that they'd ever want to! ack! God forbid!—and how white people are constantly getting dragged, against their will, to movies that make them want to "peel their skin off and roll around in salt—and if not salt, then ...a bathtub of lemon juice and slit our wrists" by their stupid black friends. more ›

The votes are in and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced today. The Chicago Tribune and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company production August: Osage County were among them. The Tribune staff was awarded the Pulitzer for investigative reporting for "its exposure of faulty governmental regulation of toys, car seats and cribs, resulting in the extensive recall of hazardous products and congressional action to tighten supervision." Meanwhile, in the drama category, Tracy Letts's play, August: Osage County, which has since made a successful jump from Steppenwolf to Broadway, was the Pulitzer winner. more ›

Mayor Daley unleashed a barely coherent rant today in favor of putting the Children's Museum in Grant Park. Even crazier than his ramblings? Most aldermen are backing him. [Trib, S-T] more ›

John Kass doesn't want us to think about his "Mediterranean back hair," which pretty much guarentees that's ALL we're going to be able to think about for, oh, ever, but he's really writing about what's he's dubbed "Showergate": City Budget Director Bennett Johnson III has installed a shower in his City Hall office. It's at his own expense, and City Hall spokesfolk say he wants it because he bikes to work sometimes and wants to rub a dub dub when he gets to the office. more ›

Kids in Peoria built a gigantic Lego menorah, using the big Duplo version of the blocks. We know we're assholes for having our first reaction be "Duplos don't count!" Which is why we need more good things on the list... John Kass is way, way ahead in this "celebrity" ornament auction. His beer can chicken thing is already at $435, but everyone else's piece of crap ornaments--seriously, a little effort, people--are only around $100... more ›

Two weeks ago, in what was considered a rare act of humility, Japanese Emperor Akihito apologized to his countrymen, taking responsibility for a bluegill infestation that's wreaked havoc on Japan's ecosystem by bringing home a pair of the fish from a trip to the States nearly fifty years ago. "Bluegills are the ones I brought back from the U.S. some 50 years ago and donated to a Fisheries Agency research institute", Akihito said. "In those... more ›

George Ryan starts his prison sentence today, and the Sun-Times and Trib have helpfully chronicled every move the former governor has made since last night. You know what that means: time for a Ryan Round Up! Olé! Yesterday, the 73-year-old released this statement to the public, again claiming innocence and thanking his family and legal team. At 5:50 this morning, Ryan left his home in Kankakee in a van driven by his son, George Ryan... more ›

Tribune columnist John Kass has been on a roll this week. He started it by discovering the existence of "freegans" and ends it by suggesting His Elective Majesty (in his more animated, apoplectic moments) bears a frightening similarity to horror film icon Chucky. Kass's observation was a casual and humorous toss-off in an otherwise serious column about City Hall's continuing efforts to wrangle themselves a casino. It's an informative read, and if you - like... more ›

In yesterday's Tribune, John Kass discovered the existence of "freegans." Like Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens trying to describe the Internet, Kass ridicules the movement as "equal parts youth, privilege, guilt and Al Gore's wackier environmental pronouncements mixed with bits of what your socialist professors told you in college but you can't remember, exactly" while theorizing (via his assistant) that most freegans embrace the philosophy because "(i)t's all about getting dates." more ›

Chicagoist got a blast from the past yesterday when our man in Dirksen, Patrick Fitzgerald, announced the indictment of former 10th Ward Alderman Fast Eddie Vrdolyak on charges of federal fraud and bribery in connection with an alleged scheme to collect kickbacks in exchange for the sale of choice Gold Coast property. The charges allege that Vrdolyak conspired with businessman Stuart Levine to defraud the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science of the full... more ›

at the Christkindlmarket made about as much sense as tits on a bull, the city of Chicago now says it objects to the ads because it would be too commercial. more ›

Dennis Hastert held his press conference in Batavia yesterday. Just as we suspected, rumors of his resignation were overblown. In fact, he even announced that after he wins reelection he plans to run for Speaker of the House. Again. Even John Kass saw this coming. As part of his grand Mea Culpa, Hastert says that he has asked the House ethics committee to look into the matter. He also said he asked the Justice Department,... more ›

You can't turn a TV to any local station this week without seeing a story about pit bull attacks. On Sunday, three pit bulls escaped from their home in McHenry County and attacked six people, including two children who are still in the hospital in critical condition. Then on Wednesday, police had to shoot three dogs, one pit bull and two mixes, after someone released them while the officers were breaking up a gang fight. more ›

Have you ever been around a bratty little kid that was so desperate for attention that he or she would say the most outlandish thing possible just to make people turn quickly and his or her direction and exclaim “Tell me I did not just hear those words come out of your mouth!” Yesterday that bratty child was the Cook County Republican Party when it announced a $10,000 reward for anyone who comes forward with... more ›

With yesterday's 6-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, the White Sox saw their streak of games in which they held a lead to start a season end at 37 games. Chicagoist wasn't even aware such stats were kept, but evidently they are and the Sox's streak broke the Major League record that previously had been 27 games. However, the streak fell 11 short of the all-time record of 48 games with a lead set by the '98 Yankees. more ›

For the same reasons as just about everyone else who writes about Chicago politics, Chicagoist loves Dominic Longo. He just can't resist the spotlight, and he doesn't seem to have a sense of how the outside world views him. more ›

There's a whole lotta hoopla starting in our nation's capital today. There's gala balls, parades, a big speech, and probably at least one or two beer bashes. Our compadres in Washington, DCist, have the whole coverage, but here's the meager Illinois angle: Basically, Chicago Democrats have all come home, or gone elsewhere. Chicagoist has spotted a number of Chicago Congressmen in Chicago this week, and we've heard stories of more than a few elected Illinois... more ›

James Duff, a Chicago "dealmaker" and man about City Hall, pled guilty Monday for 33 federal counts of defrauding the city. Mostly because his businesses claimed to be minority and woman-owned businesses, so he could get special dispensations. You'd think the city would want to cut ties with a guy like that, right? But yesterday the Sun Times found that he still had a sub-contract to truck salt for the city. more ›

We're kind of all over the place today, itching to get out of work Right Now, Or Even A Little While Ago. Our attention-span is shot to shit, so here are some afternoon tidbits: more ›

Quick recap: Politically connected company, Environmental Auto Reclaimation, gets city contract seven months after forming. EAR buys towed cars from city for less than $130 each. Towed cars are sold from pound after only 15 days. People of city get screwed, stuck with fines and their old car loans. more ›

Looks like we're going to need those Dunkies on the L�you can get a ticket for falling asleep on the train. Guarav Bhatia was handed a $50 ticket for dozing off on the Orange Line on his way to Midway, but it's not totally clear exactly why. A CTA spokeswoman told everyone's favorite liberal propagandist John Kass that more ›