Travelers leave thousands of dollars in change behind at local airports, Miss Wisconsin crowned Miss America, and other news. more ›

The Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service will offer their users one free hour of wireless internet at 50 airports across the country. Both O'Hare and Midway Airports are among the 50. more ›

An online petition has formed in opposition to the City's Wednesday approval to buy four properties near Midway Airport to expand "runway protection zones." more ›

City Council's Aviation Committee approved an ordinance yesterday allowing the city to buy property around Midway Airport to establish a "runway protection zone" around the World's Busiest Square Mile. more ›

Even though Chicago's O'Hare International Airport is the third busiest airport in the world and home to United Airlines, Boeing, and Orbitz.com (seriously), it is not enough for Emanuel. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Bureau has found subsurface tears in three more Southwest Airlines planes similar to the one that ripped a hole in the fuselage of a Boeing 737 in flight and forced an emergency landing last week. Since then, Southwest has canceled over 300 flights across the country and pulled the remaining 79 of its 737s from its fleet. more ›

With more than 20-30 inches of snow falling hard along the East Coast (Gothamist dubbed it "Blizzargeddon"), travel plans throughout the country are being thrown all out of whack. more ›

Midway Airport is going to get one full body scanner, purchased with federal stimulus funds, per Chicago Breaking News. more ›

You would think that, after the shit storm that rained on Mayor Daley's head once the details of the parking meter privatization came out, he'd give up the privatizing ghost and count down the days until next May. more ›

Yesterday Illinois PIRG held a press conference outside of city council chambers to thank the 19 aldermen who signed a pledge against future privatization of city resources. more ›

They've already landed at O'Hare, now they're coming for Midway. While details like "when" and "how many" still aren't known, what is known is that Midway will be one of 28 airports getting a new round of scanners. There are currently 23 scanners installed at O'Hare. more ›

In a city that's currently stalled on arguing about whether or not we can eat food from a truck, Mayor Daley is pushing legislation to allow airport patrons to drink from a cart. At today's City Council meeting, Daley introduced a measure to create two new licenses for vendors at O'Hare and Midway to sell spirits alongside beer and wine. more ›

Mayor Daley's dream of leasing Midway Airport finally came crashing down for good Monday, as news that the consortium of private investors led by Citibank notified the city over the weekend that they had failed to line up the financing necessary to close the deal. As a result of MidCo's failure to obtain the $2.5 billion in credit necessary to lease the airport, the City of Chicago will retain the $126 million in earnest money the consortium put up. more ›

Mayor Daley's scheme to lease Midway Airport to a private partnership continues to stall amid the global credit crisis. The April 6 deadline to close the deal passed on Monday, although the city has granted a two week extension on the deal, in hopes of negotiating a six month extension while a consortium of investors tries to line up the remaining cash needed to seal the 99-year lease. more ›

Despite a bevy of concerns, mainly concerning money, the City Council's Finance Committee signed off on Mayor Daley's proposed leasing of Midway Airport. The main questions centered around how the decision to absorb the cost of police and fire protection at the airport (listed at $10 million a year) and what exactly would be done with the profits. One alderman, Leslie Hairston (5th), was upset about the lack of minority investors:

Chicago is not an all-white city. In a city as racially and culturally diverse as Chicago, before we go selling off the city's assets, we want to know that the purchasers are sensitive to that diversity. And we are not seeing that.

Mayor Daley announced this afternoon that Midway Airport has been leased to Midway Investment and Development LLC. The lease runs for 99 years and will bring in $2.5 billion; Daley hopes some of the money will help close the humongous budget shortfall. Not that airport food was cheap last time we were at Midway, but we're still not looking forward to a $10 pretzel. more ›

Mayor Daley sure is busy. Or at least chatty. more ›

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s … an electric shaver? Low-rise capris? A James Michener book? Holy cripes, DUCK!!! This very well could have been the scenario yesterday in the vicinity of Midway Airport. Seems a Delta plane bound for Atlanta (or “Hotlanta,” as one of our coworkers insists on calling it) experienced a pressure abnormality soon after takeoff. Upon inspection, it was revealed that one of the bin doors holding the luggage at... more ›

- Say hello to Cuppy's. Another coffee chain opens its first Chicago location. - Taking parenting advice from Britney Spears, a 26-year-old woman left her kids in the car with the windows up and hot air blowing while she went to Cook County Criminal Court on the south side. - Oak Park/River Forest High School alumni Charles Simic was named poet laureate by the Library of Congress. - Keep drinking your beer, Cubs fans.... more ›

Where to go Prom Dress Shopping? more ›

We at Chicagoist are suspending our policy of trying not to add more momentum to Rachael Ray's unstoppable takeover of the United States. (About the only thing that would kill it at this point would be a leaked Internet video involving sheep, salad tongs and some damn good reasons for that insidious grin.) Ms. Ray is hooking up with Delta Airlines in order to promote seven new daily flights between Midway Airport and LaGuardia, raising... more ›

We've all been there - completely fucking wasted, wandering, drunk, not quite sure where we are. But usually we figure it out, come back to our senses, and get the hell out of dodge without incident. You know, unless the place we wandered drunkenly onto is a runway at Midway Airport. Then there's gonna be some hell to pay. more ›

Ready for a Silver Line? The CTA is chopping off the Cermak Branch from the Blue Line and will be calling it something else, tentatively the "Silver Line," starting this summer. It's hard to describe what they're doing with words, we've gotten all confused trying to figure it out, but we think we finally have this graphic right. So just look at it to see the changes. more ›

There's not much known right now, but a plane has gone off the runway, through a retaining wall, onto a field and onto Central Ave. at Midway Airport. A warming bus has been sent out and everyone has been evacuated off the plane. It seems like everyone's ok. Weather is to blame. 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 ›

You'll excuse Chicagoist if we can't muster up the give-a-fuck for Timothy and Everett Rand. more ›

ATA filed for Chapter 11 protection last month and now at least 2 more discount airlines plan to bid for the gates they used at Chicago's Midway Airport. America West and Southwest (what's with the wests in airline's names?) told a federal bankruptcy court judge that the companies want to maked seperate bids for part or all of ATA. more ›

So the shit hit the fan yesterday around 7:00 p.m. at Midway Airport. A TSA bag screener saw what he thought was an explosive in one air traveler's bag. The agent then wanted to re-screen it, but the passenger had grabbed his bag and entered the terminal. more ›

Fly through O'Hare recently? It's miserable. Even worse when there's a major storm system somewhere in the US. Recognizing the problem, Transporation Secretary Norm Mineta called airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration and others together to set a cap on the number of flights going in and out of O'Hare every day. The voluntary cap, announced yesterday, of no more than 86 flights per hour reduces the number of flights by about 60 a day. more ›

After months of whispers that he was planning to do so, Southwest Side Congressman William Lipinski announced today that he will resign his ballot position for reelection, and then retire from Congress at the end of his term. His replacement? None other than his son, and University of Tennessee political science professor, Daniel Lipinski. Rep. Lipinski has pulled off an incredible bit of jujitsu. By timing his announcement for today, it is too late for... more ›