Things are tough all over, especially at Jays Foods. Last Thursday, the longtime local potato-chip king filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in four years, amid claims that the company is "struggling financially" and facing an "acute liquidity crisis caused, in part, by a sharp, unprecedented rise in commodity prices" including corn oil, fuel and packaging. Ubiquity Brands, Jays' parent company, claims $20 million in debt to unsecured non-bank creditors. more ›

While the state government devolves into a teeming cesspool of Machiavellian intrigue and self-loathing (quickly becoming an annual tradition in one form or another here in the Land of Lincoln), the world of politics moves on. While we have no problem kicking around Blagojevich (and the other asshole cynics downstate), this week, we're putting it aside, damn it! With out further adieu, here it is, your dose of news before lunch: Daley Takes his Public... more ›

Last Thursday, the Regional Transportation Authori-tay (RTA) told Metra, Pace and CTA to start preparing emergency budgets to take effect July 1 due to a $226 million deficit in the big picture of the RTA. Springfield needs to help out or the Chicagoland area is getting some more salt in the public transportation wounds that have been inflicted with deteriorating infrastructures, higher fares and delays caused by massive renovations. The Daily Southtown article quoted RTA... more ›

Last Thursday night, Chicagoist went out to the Hideout to catch a couple of bands. We had seen Das Kapital before because we know one of the guitarists* and had heard great things about Reptoids and M.O.T.O. These three bands perfectly complemented each other more than any other show we’ve seen this year. more ›

Last Thursday evening Chicagoist had the chance to attend a special advance screening of the movie The Architect, which goes into release on December 15. We'll be reviewing the actual movie that week, but right now we'd like to talk about the screening itself. The movie was projected in Theater 1 at the Landmark Century using a brand-new Blu-ray DVD player. That is, there wasn't film running through a projector; instead, a Blu-ray DVD of the film was outputted to a video projector. more ›

The Maxwell Street blues scene is a shadow of its former self. So it’s with sadness and worry that we read this piece in the Sun-Times this morning about Piano C. Red, one of the men who’s worked tirelessly to keep this part of Chicago’s history alive. Red, whose real name is James Wheeler, is known as one of the last remaining bluesmen in the Maxwell Street market, which is now located on Canal St.... more ›

In an effort to hammer out an extension of the collective-bargaining agreement between the league and the players' union, the NFL extended the deadline 3 more days. Last Thursday was dubbed "Bloody Thursday" and then Sunday was expected to be a day of carnage. We're pretty certain newspapers across the land had U2 song-referencing headlines in the hopper for today's sports sections. Instead, another delay in the opening of the league's financial year allows another... more ›

The inevitable finger pointing has begun as investigators try to determine what exactly caused Southwest Flight 1248 to skid off a runway at Midway and strike a car, killing 6-year-old Joshua Woods. more ›

As a sometime student of the fine art of writing, Chicagoist has often been given the age-old advice: write what you know. Last Thursday, Chicago author David Cowan allegedly took that old platitude (or perhaps its less pithy and more useful corrolary: research that which you want to write about but don't know) a little too seriously. Cowan, author of Great Chicago Fires: Historic Blazes That Shaped a City, is charged with setting fire to a church storage building on the North Side. A former firefighter and also co-author of To Sleep With Angels: A Story of a Fire, Cowan has given a statement to police admitting to setting the fire, from which there were no injuries. more ›

The show is described in a press release as, "An international exhibition thematically peeking into the depths of evil through the print making form of the postage stamp sheet." The exhibition is an extension of the book "Axis of Evil: Perforated Praeter Naturam." more ›

Seriously, what is up with our teachers lately? Selling drugs and having sex with students? Hi, we've got some major problems. more ›