The round goby. This googly-eyed invasive species has been winning the war for the Great Lakes. But scientists have a new weapon to battle these foreign fish: a "seismic gun." What could go wrong? more ›

A Kiwi 35 sport boat, the boat's large sail area and light weight were not appropriate for such a race. more ›

Last night's wind storms also afforded Craig Shimala the opportunity to film some of nature's beauty, and set the resulting video to Sigur Ros. more ›

Why do we seem to have problems dealing with high winds when we live in a city nicknamed "The Windy City?" more ›

Kanye West debuted his line of women's wear at Paris Fashion Week, and let's just say he'd totally get kicked off of Project Runway. more ›

While most of us normal people were sleeping soundly in our respective homes early Sunday morning, Rahm Emanuel and thousands of others competed in the 2011 Life Time Chicago Triathlon downtown. more ›

SAIL magazine has an in-depth look at the events that transpired, costing Mark Morley and Suzanne Bickel their lives during the 333-mile race across Lake Michigan. more ›

The latest flare-up of our apparently never-ending Asian carp infection brings new evidence the fish are swimming in Chicago on the same day as officials leading the fight say otherwise. Oops. more ›

The Coast Guard recovered the bodies of two participants in the Race to Mackinac whose boat capsized during the race. more ›

Fear not, the Army Corps of Engineers thinks it will only take "a generation or two" for a permanent Asian carp solution to swing into action on Chicago's waterways. more ›

If the North Shore suburbs are so great, why did a national study note that their beaches are so bad? Find out where to swim over the holiday weekend. more ›

The press took an Asian carp cruise to hear about how the invasive fish have been kept at bay, but the New York Times and a leviathan netted in the Ozarks make clear what's at stake if they are wrong... more ›

Two people--a 60-year-old woman in a wheelchair and a 59-year-old man--were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Friday night when they were rescued by police and fire crews after falling into Lake Michigan at DuSable Harbor. The two victims had attended a party on the 100 block of North Lake Shore Drive, according to police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer via the Chicago Sun-Times. Around 9:45 p.m., the man wheeled the woman down a ramp when the two accidentally fell into the water, Greer said to the Sun-Times. The woman is listed in critical condition and the man is listed in stable condition, according to police and fire officials. Both are expected to survive. more ›

The U.S. House of Representatives have blocked a measure introduced by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) to indefinitely shut two area shipping locks in order to block Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan. more ›

That massive maze of pipes and towers around the bend of Lake Michigan where BP’s Whiting, IN refinery is in the midst of a $3.8 billion “modernization” project has not exactly been a beacon of good news. Issues of increased Lake dumping and vented carcinogens have garnered regional concern. And this week BP announced that the project is behind schedule, with the completion date now pushed back from 2012 to 2013 due to “many variables.” No doubt fixing up the aging 6th largest refinery in America is a complicated problem, causing executives plenty of stress. Folks living outside the BP property are literally losing sleep over the project for far different reasons---and they are starting to get understandably grouchy. more ›

When thousands of blackbirds wound up dying in Arkansas on New Year's Eve, and another 500 later in Louisiana, we chalked it up at the time to some hillbilly messing around with a giant Tesla coil. It seemed as reasonable an explanation as the "they was spooked by the holiday fireworks" theory bandied about by some Arkansans. So what's to explain the thousands of dead gizzard shad that geese and mallards are feasting on along the lakefront? According to one biologist, they're sensitive. more ›

We spent noon on New Year's Day sealing drafty kitchen windows in plastic, making our traditional good luck hoppin' john and watching a Three Stooges marathon on the WGN's newly launched Antenna TV network. So let us be the first to offer kudos to those of you who jumped in Lake Michigan in what has now become an annual tradition at North Avenue Beach and in Waukegan. We're also glad that, after the balmy temps of New Year's Eve, the weather cooperated in a big way Saturday. more ›

New Years Eve should have been a happy occasion for Michael Hilling and Jessica Woytonik, who were at the lakefront celebrating their first anniversary as a couple. The evening took a turn for the worst when Woytonik accidentally dropped her water bottle into Lake Michigan and Hilling, 19, jumped in to retrieve it and ended up drowning. more ›

I took the bike out for a fifteen-mile ride Saturday, which is nothing compared to surfing Lake Michigan in winter. There is a small band of dedicated surfing enthusiasts who are committed to truly making Lake Michigan the Third Coast, and they won't let rain, snow sleet or hail get in their way. Take a look at this video the next time you want to complain about the weather. more ›

Something is killing birds in Michigan. Lots and lots of them. A new theory explaining the thousands of carcasses washing up on beaches on the state’s Upper Peninsula points the finger at botulism. Nope, not from discarded dented cans or tainted spinach. Researchers think this might be another weird example of the havoc being wreaked in Great Lakes waters by the invasive quagga mussel. more ›

Now this is cool: the wreckage of a F4U-1 Corsair Fighter was pulled from Lake Michigan in Waukegan today. The salvage operation was privately financed by Chuck Greenhill, a Korean War veteran. more ›

Although Waukegan is a hop, skip and a jump away from Chicago, the Waukegan Port District has been thinking outside the box in figuring out ways to boost tourism within and around the area. If you've been itching to find a more swank way to travel to the idyllic city of Waukegan other than by car, bus or rail, the further research into a dinner and an overnight cruise line to Kenosha and Milwaukee through Waukegan might strike your travel fancy:

Port District Chairman Hank Bogdala, a lifelong Waukegan resident and supporter of the idea, said a nautical connection between those points seems natural. "We've got the highway, we've got the railroad. Why not the water? he said. The port district board, which oversees Waukegan Harbor and the Waukegan Regional Airport, recently approved further research of the idea. Bogdala said there already are many tourists, families and students in the area visiting destinations such as Six Flags Great America or Gurnee Mills. A pleasure passenger cruise line would draw people to Waukegan Harbor and Chicago's downtown, and vice versa.

Five people were hospitalized on Saturday night after they were rescued from their boat that capsized in Lake Michigan at 98th Street. Around 10:35 p.m., the boat hit a break wall, which caused it to capsize, according to police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro via the Chicago Sun-Times. One person was taken in serious to critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, two people were taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital in fair to serious condition, and the remaining two were also taken to Trinity Hospital in good to fair condition, according to Fire Media Affairs spokeswoman Richard Rosado. more ›

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, sixty-eight people have died in Lake Michigan so far this year--the highest in at least eight years and a great increase from 2009's thirty-nine deaths. Experts are attributing the increase to an unusually hot summer and warmer lake temperatures luring in more swimmers, some of which are unfamiliar with rip currents. more ›

While the threat to Lake Michigan from the Kalamazoo River oil spill seems to be diminished, the cleanup and concerns raised by the oil industry's follow up to the Gulf disaster are far from finished and will reverberate far outside the Wolverine state. Enbridge Energy Partners, owners and operators of the pipeline which spilled over a million gallons of oil into the Michigan waterway, announced that they had finally excavated the damaged pipe late yesterday as controversy raged over the Canadian company’s response to the spill. more ›

As clean up of the Kalamazoo River oil spill continues, EPA officials continue to downplay fears that the spill has spread and is threatening Lake Michigan. The EPA's Ralph Dollhopf told the media, “There is no anticipated inflow (of oil) into the city of Kalamazoo. We are confident we can contain the oil upstream.” And another EPA official, Susan Hedman, disputed claims by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm that there was oil on Lake Morrow, an important milestone for potential spread of the oil downriver. Other experts have also spoken up saying, that while this is certainly a disaster for local wildlife, damage to Lake Michigan is unlikely. more ›

Bad news out of Michigan where reports say that oil from this week's spill has breached Morrow Dam and is now travelling downriver, as far as halfway from the spill site to Lake Michigan. The reports come even as Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's office and the EPA continue a public dispute over the spill's reach. Granholm's officereleased photos (one is above) that claim to show an oil sheen Lake Morrow while EPA officials deny the claim. Officials are also suggesting the evacuation of as many as 50 homes located near the original spill site near Battle Creek, Michigan. more ›

There were mixed messages coming out of Michigan yesterday where workers continued to clean up an oil spill on the Kalamazoo River near Marshall. The EPA has officially taken over clean-up duties and is now reporting that over one million gallons of oil leaked into the river and is affecting a 25-mile stretch of the river between Marshall and Battle Creek. U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R, St. Joseph) indicated there were no hitches in the clean-up: “They seem to be getting everything. The system seems to be working at the moment.” But Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm blasted the clean-up efforts. Calling the response "anemic," and "wholly inadequate," she added, “I’m very angered. We need for the responsible party (Enbridge Inc.) and the EPA to step up. The situation is very serious.” Rep. Mark Schauer echoed Gov. Graholm's anger, questioning the time it took Enbridge Energy Partners, the company that owns the pipeline, to report the leak and that officials might be underestimating how much oil entered the river. The EPA's takeover of the clean-up was underscored by the fact that Enbridge had been warned twice since late 2008 about possible pipeline corrosion and monitoring issues. more ›

As clean-up from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues, a new, albeit smaller, oil catastrophe is unfolding much closer to home. An oil pipeline that pumps about 8 million gallons of crude oil from Griffith, Indiana to Sarnia, Ontario cracked near Kalamazoo, Michigan on Monday. The pipeline, part of Enbridge Energy Partner's Lakehead System is estimated to have dumped over 800,000 gallons (~19,500 barrels) of oil into a creek leading to the Kalamazoo River, which empties into Lake Michigan at Saugatuk though officials told the AP they don't expect the spill to reach the lake. Enbridge has dispatched crews to contain the spill, deploying booms onto the river. Local officials have already declared a state of emergency and Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pali Matyas said yesterday afternoon, "It’s all rolling downhill and there are a lot of complications.” Authorities on site say that the spill appears to be contained at Battle Creek. “Oil entered the Tallmadge Creek and found its way to the Kalamazoo River,” Enbridge Chief Executive Officer Patrick Daniel told Bloomberg News. “Teams have been working through the night and day working on the containment and clean up.” Some of the complications mentioned including workers not able to use trucks to help remove some of the oil due to high water levels. more ›

Sometimes you, the readers, have burning questions. Send them. For example, an email from Phillip came into the Chicagoist public inquiry machine yesterday asking “if anyone thinks the Asian Carp were given free admission last night into Lake Michigan when the locks at the Wilmette Pumping station were opened to consider storm drainage.” Great question! more ›