Could a Madison County, Illinois man have found a mouse in his can of Mountain Dew? PepsiCo says no, but not because their manufacturing standards are infallible. Rather, they argue that the mouse would have dissolved before the man could have found it. more ›

The Sun-Times reports on a woman who was clearly unaware of the reign of terror brought on by horses across the nation. more ›

Catholic Charities continues its fight against offering foster care and adoption services to non-married, cohabitating couples. more ›

A Washington, DC family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Phusion Projects, the Chicago company that makes Four Loko. The suit contends that 15-year-old John "Bo" Rupp drank two cans of Four Loko at a concert in September and began "acting erratically." more ›

We thought finding hair in our food was bad enough, but it looks like things always could be worse: a woman sued McDonald's yesterday after she bit into and chewed on a glass shard in her McChicken sandwich. The woman, Vjollca Lecaj, had dined at a McDonald's restaurant in Oak Lawn on August 5 of last year when the incident occurred. more ›

Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit today to immediately strip former Chicago Police Lieutenant Jon Burge of his pension, which was saved last week when the four cops elected to the eight-person pension review board deadlocked the vote to revoke Burge's pension. more ›

Here's a budding politician with a residency issue not named Rahm Emanuel. Meet Sylvester "Junebug" Hendricks, a self-styled "Obamaican" (that's a Republican who supports Barack Obama) who's made a habit in recent years in running for various offices. Currently, Hendricks is looking to run for 5th Ward Alderman against incumbent Leslie Hairston. The only thing holding Hendircks back is a permanent address; he's homeless. more ›

This seems to be the week of fast food revelations and scary food scandals! Taco Bell, the tex-mex fast food giant with 10 Chicagoland locations, is being sued by a law firm in Montgomery, Alabama. The lawyers are alleging that Taco Bell's ground beef isn't really ground beef at all, but "Taco Meat Filling" which does not fit the legal or practical definition of ground beef. Now, many Taco Bell customers will be less than shocked that something fishy is going on with the filling in the tacos, but we were more surprised to find out that there IS a legal definition of ground beef. Call us naive, but we assumed that it was just... beef, ground up. We were almost right. In order to legally qualify as ground beef, a product must be made of" chopped fresh and/or frozen beef with or without seasoning and without the addition of beef fat as such, shall not contain more than 30 percent fat, and shall not contain added water, phosphates, binders, or extenders." Taco Bell might not fit the bill. more ›

A lawsuit filed last Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court alleges that Cook County Sheriff's officers removed the clothing of a woman killed in a car crash and photographed several shots of her in the nude. more ›

The mortgage securities crisis that nearly brought down the economy didn't just hurt homeowners. Allstate filed a lawsuit against Bank of America and 17 other defendants over understating the risks on more than $700 million in toxic mortgages it bought from Countrywide Financial. Bank of America bought Countrywide in 2008. more ›

Don't know what it is about Illinois and wrongful convictions, but it seems to happen with frequency here. Jerry Hobbs, was in jail for four years on charges of murdering his daughter and a friend in a Zion park before DNA evidence exonerated him, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the police who took his confession yesterday. Hobbs was arrested in 2005 in the murder of his 8-year-old daughter Laura and her friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias, and he served time awaiting trial for the murders until August, when DNA evidence implicated Jorge Torrez, a former Marine who grew up in Zion. Prosecutors knew about the DNA evidence linking Torrez as early as 2006, and the evidence didn't become public knowledge until 2008. Yet they still focused their investigation on Hobbs. more ›

The city's parking meter situation is certain to be a major issue in the upcoming mayoral election. With only $76 million left of a $1.2 billion lump sum payment for turning over control of the city's parking meters to a private consortium, Voters and media pundits will ask the prospective candidates in the next few months their positions on privatizing city services and whether it's wise to have done some privatizing of services the way Mayor Daley did: rammed through witha City Council rubber stamp and in secrecy. more ›

Even though it's already facing legal challenges, the city's new gun law, passed in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of the city's handgun ban, goes into effect today. Among the new requirements, the new law forbids selling guns in the city, requires four hours of classroom training, forbids taking a gun outside the immediate confines of a home, and requires a gun to be disassembled if it's to be transported. more ›

As the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico worsens each day - the latest discovery being the plumes of oil - BP is prepping itself for the inevitable crush of lawsuits. And to help with this impending legal action, the oil mega-company has enlisted longtime ally Kirkland & Ellis to represent it. Lawsuits over the 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill lasted two decades and some speculate the lawsuits surrounding this spill will dwarf that. Already the filings have begun. According to the Tribune: more ›

Cook County Judge Kathy Flanigan today denied a motion from media conglomerate Clear Channel requesting a summary judgment that would have removed it from dozens of lawsuits stemming from the 2003 E2 nightclub stampede. Clear Channel's inclusion as a defendant in the wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits — one of the disc jockeys accused of inciting the stampede was a Clear Channel employee — means that lawyers representing victims of the 21 dead and over 50 injured can now ask for more damages or make movements for quick settlements. Last November E2 owners Dwain Kyles and Calvin Hollins were sentenced to two years in prison for criminal contempt after refusing to comply with city orders to close the club for building code violations. [Chicago Breaking News] more ›

While 13 states have filed lawsuits against the federal government in reaction to the recently passed Health Care reform bill, don't expect one from the state of Illinois. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has no plans to do so in spite of a letter signed by Republican reps from around the state. The point of contention for those lawsuits filed by other states is the mandate requiring the purchase of health care coverage. [WBEZ] more ›

Every time our car gets towed from the Chicagoist Happy Hour, we resign ourselves to our fate: a long, expensive ride down to a random city lot somewhere incredibly inconvenient. Endless lines. Administrative hurdles that make tax forms look easy. And sometimes, we're lucky enough to find someone generous enough to give us a quasi-official hearing. We always lose. And then it's ramen noodles again, for months. But at least the hearing made us feel better about the situation. more ›

• The Tribune catches up with the elderly man who was involved in yesterday's shooting incident in the Loop.
• CPD Supt. Jody Weis wants the city to fight lawsuits brought against the police department rather than simply settle each one.
• Gov. Quinn has ordered the closing of Tinley Park's Howe Developmental Center.

As Governor Quinn struggles to find ways to balance the state budget without help from the General Assembly, an unlikely duo of litigants have filed separate suits to stop cuts in state spending and further tax hikes. AFSCME, the largest public employee union in the state filed suit in Johnson County earlier this week to prevent the 2,600 layoffs that Quinn has threatened to impose if an agreement can't be reached the cut the state's payroll obligations. And Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz has filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, challenging the constitutionality of the state’s new video poker law as well as liquor, candy and a menu of other tax increases set to take effect September 1. more ›

Last week's Twitter defamation suit turned some heads and now we'll have a chance to see if a similar suit involving Facebook will do the same. The Daily Herald has reported that The Salon Professional Academy of Elgin has filed suit against Nicholas Blacconiere and a John Doe for using the Facebook page Tspa Robinhood to make defamatory statements about the school while using the school's logo. The school is seeking $50,000 in damages. The logo has since been taken down and a posting dated June 11 refers to the logo being taken down after complaints. In the page's "About Me" section, the author has written: more ›

Remember the Roscoe's/Rosscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles kerfuffle from last year that had readers quoting lines from "Coming to America?" Looks like we're about to see it again, only with Superdawg in the role of plaintiff. more ›

• Playboy Enterprises, Inc. has named Scott Flanders, president and chief executive of Freedom Communications Inc., as their new CEO.
• A new judge has been assigned to the Drew Peterson case.
• You can no longer sue a bowling alley if you fall in rented bowling shoes.

Craigslist will drop its 'erotic services' classified ads section in favor of another, more heavily-moderated adult category, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced Wednesday. At a morning press conference, Madigan said, "I think this is a fundamental change, a recognition by Craigslist that the erotic services section truly had become an Internet brothel, truly had become an illegal and dangerous place." The decision followed several months of negotiation with the attorney generals of three states, including Illinois, and a federal lawsuit filed March 5 by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Dart, holding his own presser, said, "Under a fair and objective analysis, it's clear that but for our lawsuit, and the pressure we brought as a result of that and the exposure that came as well, that that is what brought this to conclusion." more ›

If she didn't already have enough problems, Keifer Bonvillian, arrested in 2006 for attempting to extort money from Harpo, is suing the Oprah camp for defamation to the tune of $180 million. Bonvillian allegedly recorded phone conversations with a Harpo employee, then sweet talked another staffer into agreeing to pay him $1.5 million to prevent him from publishing a book based on the material. Though the charges were dismissed, Bonvillian is now claiming that Oprah and one of her attorneys made false statements leading to his arrest. Our favorite part is Bonvillian's claim that "There was substantial damage done to my name and reputation on a world level...The extent of my damages is vast." Delusions of grandeur, much? [MSN] more ›

As the playoffs approach, postseason tickets for the Cubs and Sox have become the hot commodity around town. And if you're a fan wondering why it's so much harder to get playoff tickets this year than in previous years, there's a simple answer: the teams are releasing fewer seats than ever to the general public. Season ticket holders account for roughly 22,000 of Wrigley's 42,000 seats. Officials aren't saying how many seats were set aside for the general public (a Cubs lottery for tickets garnered over 600,000 applicants), and a growing number of seats are set aside for MLB employees, players, celebrities, and local politicians: aldermen have the option of buying "two tickets for every Cubs home playoff game at face value and can also pay for access to a Sox skybox for each game." more ›

It's been a year since former NBC 5 reporter Amy Jacobson appeared in a bikini at the home of Craig Stebic, husband of still-missing Lisa, a move that resulted in Jacobson's release from NBC 5. Now, she's fighting back against the rival network that aired a videotape of the incident. Jacobson and husband Jaime Anglada filed a $1 million lawsuit yesterday against CBS 2 for airing the infamous tape, claiming she has been unable to find work since the incident because CBS 2 portrayed her as "an adulteress and disreputable reporter." Chicago's personal Smoking Gun, Eric Zorn, has the court papers which claim the following: more ›

Well, the hits just kept on coming for one Mr. Christopher T. Turner of South Carolina. Last February, he checked into the Drake, where he was staying while on a business trip. He decided to have a little whiskey from the minibar, but when he drank the mini bottle of Dewar's White Label Scotch Whiskey, he says it tasted like urine. more ›

In 2006, James Srodon took his grandson to see Blue Man Group at Briar Street Theater. Now he's suing the group, theater owners and related entities for $50K because he says he was subject to the "esophagus cam." From TMZ's copy of the lawsuit, Srodon alleges: more ›

Investigations are still ongoing in Friday's Amtrak crash, but preliminary reports indicate that the train was going 25 mph faster than it was supposed to be. (The video is a lot less exciting than we were hoping for.) The Amtrak train's engineer told investigators he realized the speed limit was 15 mph in that stretch of track but accelerated to 40 mph anyway, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt told reporters Sunday. The... more ›

Alderman Howard Brookins Jr. of the 21st ward was hit with a lawsuit this week that claims he owes $41,819.18 in back rent for the Loop offices of his law practice. Brookins didn't know about the suit until the Sun-Times contacted him. Sounds like a fun phone call: S-T: Hi, this is a reporter from the Sun-Times. Brookins: [dryly] Grand. S-T: I'm calling about the lawsuit. Brookins: The what? S-T: The lawsuit? That your office... more ›