Someone gave the folks in Springfield the remaining cases of Four Loko or something, 'cause they're moving with a purpose during the veto session. The House Judiciary II Criminal Law committee voted by a 4-3 measure yesterday to bring a proposal abolishing the death penalty to the full House. more ›

Those who know the exact price of their morning coffee received a gentle reminder this morning: the Cook County sales tax hike to 10.25% is effective today. Statewide, other new laws taking effect July 1: more ›

Illinois is joining five other states with first-offense mandatory ignition-lock breathalyzers starting January 1. Currently, Illinois drivers who are repeat DUI offenders who want to drive with a suspended suspended license can have the locks installed, and about 3,000 have. The locks cost $150 to install and around $100 a month thereafter, all of which is paid for by the drunk driver. According to a spokeswoman for Illinois MADD, the dashboard devices are "90 percent effective in reducing repeat offenses." [S-T, Total DUI]
more ›

A report released today from the Justice Policy Institute compares drug imprisonment statistics for big counties and concludes that everything is messed up. Granted, the Institutes's slogan is "dedicated to ending society's reliance on incarceration," but the report is still fascinating and surprisingly easy to read. Cook County has the ninth highest rate of admission to prison for drug offenses, with 166 out of every 100,000 people going to prison for a drug offense. But... more ›

How Cold is Too Cold? more ›

Oh, look, it's time for another sensationalist story about the internet. Let's see... sexual predators on the web? Nah, that's too played out. We know: Hate speech! Let's get to it. Trib says: "It might come as a surprise to the soldiers who defeated fascism in World War II, but the United States has become a refuge for Nazism and other brands of extremism over the last decade. On the Internet, that is." We say:... more ›

Jesse Jackson Jr wants the FEC to tell him whether he can use his campaign funds to help his wife, 7th Ward Alderman Sandi, to unseat Bill "Hog With the Big Nuts" Beavers as ward committeeman. In the advisory opinion request he submitted to the federal commission on October 15, he specifically asked for clarification on several issues, including how much money, if any, his re-election campaign can give his wife, as well as the... more ›

We don't think much of eating food a couple of days past its sell-by date. To us, those little numbers are an approximation, not a hard and fast rule. Glencoe residents Ross Marks and Charles Farinella also followed this logic, but on a much larger scale. They bought 1.6 million bottles of Henri's salad dressing that were about to expire, re-labeled them with a new expiration date, and tried to re-sell them. Not surprisingly, they... more ›

A new ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may finally put an end to the Cavel horsemeat slaughter saga that has been on our radar for some time. On Friday, the court upheld the Illinois Horse Meat Act, effectively shutting down the DeKalb County-based slaughterhouse. The ever-prolific Richard Posner penned the 15-page opinion. In his trademark witty style, he writes, But even if no horses live longer as a result of the... more ›

Here’s the premise: Take 40 kids aged 8 to 15. Throw them into a ghost town in New Mexico sans parents, without iPods, minus Lunchables, and let them go at it. Build your own city! Form a government! Be bold and prosper, you say! What’s that a recipe for? Some (OK, many) say child endangerment and labor violations; CBS says buzz. And if buzz translates into viewers, well, CBS, you’ve got it made with “Kid... more ›

In a report published Monday, the Chicago Reporter found that Chicago is the the nation's capital for "high-cost" home loans. The study, looking at three years' worth of federal home-loan data, showed that in 2006, "the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metropolitan statistical area, which includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will counties" led the nation, with 88,315 “high-cost” mortgages. "High-cost" mortgages are defined as first-lien home loans that are at least three percentage points above... more ›

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom... more ›

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked... more ›

That's how many people are working illegally in this country, at least according to some estimates. Others put it closer to seven, depending on who you ask, and when. It's hard to get a handle on the actual number because most undocumented workers aren't too keen on standing up and being counted. Yesterday afternoon Elvira Arellano was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency charged with, among other things, keeping people from washing... more ›

The most popular museum in the world is the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., which sees nearly 9 million visitors come through its doors each year. So it is no surprise that Chicago's Annual Air & Water Show is the largest two-day spectator event in the United States, with audience numbers reaching nearly 2.5 million. The free annual event is back for its 49th edition and has a great line-up ready to... more ›

One year after she took refuge inside a Humboldt Park storefront United Methodist church, immigration fugitive, mother, and unlikely activist for immigration reform Elvira Arellano announced that she would risk deportation by leaving the church to head to Washington, DC to lobby Congress for immigration reform. "If this government would separate me from my son, let them do it in front of the men and women who have the responsibility to fix this broken law... more ›

Here are some things in the news while we do spit takes at the ticket prices for the upcoming Van Halen tour. A $300-a-year parking permit created for realtors, home health care providers, and social workers to plug a $2.4 million hole in the city's 2007 budget only generated $15,900 in revenue. Facing increasing criticism in allowing BP to increase the amount of pollution it can discharge into Lake Michigan, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels... more ›

One of Chicago's newest aldermen, Bob Fioretti (2nd) is taking heat from one of the city's older hotels. The 14-story Congress Plaza Hotel, designed and built to accommodate visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, has been embroiled in a strike with UNITE HERE Local 1 since June 2003. According to Crain's Chicago Business, the hotel, owned by Albert Nasser Shayo, a Syrian globe-trotting businessman with residences in New York, Argentina, and Switzerland, who... more ›

The Hideout is one of Chicago's more curious rock venues, presenting live music in a space that’s one part Elks Lodge, one part Uncle Dan’s rec room. But the strangely homey, lived-in space lends depth to Walkabout Theater’s “site-specific” production of Mark Guarino’s “Overnight Lows,” an insomniac tale set in a seemingly familiar but subtly off-kilter world. Extracting drama from everyday locales is Walkabout’s bread-and-butter; the company previously examined mundane daily rituals in a laundromat... more ›

No, that headline is not redundant. One of our favorite movie theaters, the Music Box opened in 1929. By the 70’s however it had added porn to its schedule in order to stay afloat. It actually closed in 1977 but was reopened in 1983 after renovations. It’s been showing the best in foreign, revival and indie film ever since. Love that organ. In 2003 the theater was sold to the building’s owner, William Schopf.... more ›

Here at Chicagoist we've been watching the ongoing developments of HB 429, the pending legislation in the state House of Representatives, with a cautious gaze. Readers will remember that HB 429 is intended to bring Illinois in "compliance" with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Granholm v. Heald, which stated that non-reciprocal wine shipping laws were a violation of interstate commerce laws and the 21st Amendment to the Constitution repealing Prohibition. If signed into law... more ›

Before you continue reading, we want you to raise your right arm, take your index finger, place it on the top of your head and begin to scratch. A woman visiting Chicago from Tennessee was arrested yesterday morning after attempting to visit the Skydeck of the Sears Tower with a loaded gun in her purse. When passing through the metal detector, it was discovered the she was packing a .38-caliber revolver. She was taken into... more ›

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires... more ›

Normally, this would be Kevin's territory, and he covered the reasons we're weighing in today at length yesterday. As we sit in front of a computer terminal in Wisconsin fresh from a bike ride to New Glarus, the sights of yellow "support our troops" ribbons, flags and jingoistic bumper stickers every quarter-mile along the route fresh in our mind, we felt the need to write. more ›

A couple weeks back we wrote about the Illinois House approving legislation that would restrict the amount of wine an Illinois vineyard could sell directly to a customer to 12 cases a year. The legislation, HB 429, was drafted to bring Illinois in compliance with the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Granholm V. Heald, in which they found non-reciprocal wine laws in New York and Michigan to be in violation of both interstate commerce... more ›

The State House passed legislation on Tuesday designed to bring Illinois into compliance with a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling by limiting the amount of sales an Illinois winery can directly ship to a customer to 12 cases a year. The 5-4 decision in Granholm v. Heald ruled that laws in Michigan and New York permitting the direct sale and shipping of wine produced in state to customers while prohibiting out-of-state wineries from doing the... more ›

If there is one thing that you can say about Mayor Daley, it’s that he’s a tenacious motherfucker. With one eye always on expanding his influence beyond the borders of the city, he’s been taking on the state legislature for some 15 years now over the issue of gun control. Often at odds with those that represent Illinoisans outside of urban areas, Da Mare has been defeated in the General Assembly more than once in... more ›

Peraica put Stroger "on notice". Daley will appoint a commission to study gun laws and makers -- he says we'll debate Iraq forever, but no one wants to talk about this issue. A consumer revolt by Midwestern baby boomers is bringing Brownberry's Natural Wheat bread -- original recipe -- back to store shelves June 11. Parent Arnold Foods Co. introduced an airier, sweeter version in April. Big mistake. Tribune Co. said Monday that the... more ›

Chicagoist is a feminist. We make no bones about it and we've felt this way since we knew what one was. We're a staunch defender of women's issues and really aware of the subtle societal influences on women. However, we have never been a party-liner for anything and we may sound like we don't get where these women are coming from. We do. But the first amendment trumps nearly everything and at some point, there... more ›

We're not sure what to dedicate this week's round up to: Rudy Guiliani salivating as he was "asked" about a fictional terrorist attack in last night's debate, Tom Tancredo's vow to double the size of Guantanamo Bay if elected, or Tommy Thompson's large ears and no neck. Ah screw it, this one is dedicated to Rod Blagojevich's hair. Here we go: Mayor Daley Is a Funny Guy. No, really, he is. Go read Mick Dumke's... more ›