Tomorrow night, the Chicago Fire play host to the Los Angeles Galaxy for the first of two matches with them in just four days. On Saturday night, the Fire will try to clinch a playoff spot by defeating the Galaxy with just three more regular season games to go after this one. Then just four days later, they will rematch with Los Angeles in the U.S. Open Cup Championship match. The Fire clearly have the... more ›

The easy story told about the artists opening galleries in Pilsen is: white north side art students are forcing Latino and Latina residents out of the neighborhood. There might be some truth to that, but gentrification, like art, is rarely so simple. That story assumes Latinos have no interest in new galleries, and vice versa, and that Important Art requires the approval of rich white folks. Thankfully, those assumptions are way, way off. more ›

The Orange Line is quite possibly our favorite train line in the “L” system. Towering high above the southwest side it cuts a swath across several working-class neighborhoods before reaching its final destination at Midway Airport. Furthermore, with the right conductor you can get from downtown to Midway in twenty minutes- sometimes a ride on the Orange Line is more thrilling than a roller coaster at Great America. With dining and nightlife so focused on... more ›

The College Board released its report today on national and statewide trends in SAT scores. The national average is the same as last year: 1026. Verbal scores are up one point to 508 and math scores are down one point to 518. Illinois�s average, though reported here as being the same, actually appears to be 1182, with 585 on verbal and 597 on math. You can read the whole Illinois report in this .pdf, or trust us that that�s what�s on page 12. Actually, the report is pretty interesting and worth flipping through�the information is broken down in lots of different ways, and it�s kind of cool. Nerd alert. more ›