An All Nippon Airways Boeing 777 cargo plane bound for Narita International Airport in Japan made a safe emergency landing shortly after takeoff from O'Hare. An FAA spokeswoman said the plane experienced an engine malfunction and that it "may have ingested some birds" as it flew over the Mt. Prospect area. Per regulations for an emergency landing, the plane dumped its fuel over Lake Michigan (the fuel supposedly disintegrating before reaching the water) before returning......

Sam Adams head honcho Jim Koch will be at Binny's South Loop this evening from 5-7 p.m. Koch will be pairing several Sam Adams selections with various summer grill dishes, as well as give a historical overview of how he founded Boston Beer Company using his great-grandfather's recipes. RSVP to (312) 768-4400. Folks around here love a good riesling. Lucky for us that it's Riesling Week and Julia Thiel has comiled a list of......

Over the weekend, as DNC Chairman Howard Dean worked to reach a compromise on the contested Michigan and Florida delegates, we were stunned by this video of Clinton-supporter Harriet Christian. Later, Christian appeared on Fox News, being interviewed by Neil Cavuto, where she dropped this line regarding Obama and the black vote: "Ninety-nine percent of the blacks don't even know why they're voting for [Obama]." Is Christian just one upset Clinton supporter or is her......

Graham Elliot Bowles' eponymous restaurant (217 W. Huron) had a soft BYOB opening over the weekend. Mike Nagrant attended. So did we (bypassing a planned trip to Lincoln Square Mayfest) and HOLY SHITE we can't return fast enough. If what we ate was an indication of what Bowles has in store, this will easily become the most sought after reservation since Art Smith opened Table Fifty-Two last year, except without Oprah's army having been......

Leading off today is this hiring video put together for Lettuce Entertain You property Hub 51 Restaurant and Lounge, an exaggerated parody of Tom Vu infomercials. (via) Fresh off his appearance on last night's episode of Top Chef Chicago, Rick Tramonto has a blog over at Restaurant & Institutions magazine website. There are only two posts right now, but Tramonto's an in-demand chef and businessman, so only expect him to update when he has......

Muckety, a relationship visualization tool, released its map of Chicago's 100 most connected people today. Fun! muckMapWidth="640"; muckMapHeight="502"; muckMapCtx="http://www.muckety.com/Java"; muckMapProps={restore:"E960D82A4AA91CF23562B2912296B3DC.map",autoGroup:"7,14"};......

The press conference yesterday announcing the September Chicago Gourmet festival at Millennium Park went off without a hitch. Mayor Daley brought to the conference the "Chi-CAW-go is a world class city" enthusiasm that earned us (read: him) the right to fight for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Reading the press release last night, however, caused us to break out in cold sweats. If you want to attend the festival, it'll cost you a cool $150......

The Day After: Don't expect to see foie gras back on menus immediately after the repeal of the ban yesterday. The earliest that's going to happen will be June 11th. What did leave a bad aftertaste was the end-around used to repeal the ban and how Mayor Daley put Alderman Joe Moore's dick in the dirt in the process. If you don't know after that why Daley is often referred to here as "His......

Remember when prom night meant spiking the punch bowl, renting a hotel room on Lincoln and packing it with liquor, then drinking until sunrise and taking what was left to Great America? Good times. There's this new thing out called Pocket Shots. As you can see from the photo above, it's a single serving of alcohol in a tiny flask-sized plastic pouch. The target audience is most likely folks who want to sneak their......

WGN didn't lead off last night's 9 p.m. newscast with more Clinton/Obama drama. Instead, they started the newscast with Jackie Bange's discovery of an advanced rodent civilization in Terminal 1, Concourse C of O'Hare Airport. We're prone to hyperbole. Actually, it's just a pretty serious infestation centered around the terminal's food kiosks. The report, highlighted by video of WGN camera crews setting up cookies like a game of Jenga at a key party for the......

“Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey...” Lynne “Angel” Harvey, the woman behind those words and many of Paul Harvey’s best known broadcast features, died yesterday at their River Forest home. Last May, Paul Harvey told his radio audience that Lynne had been diagnosed with leukemia. Lynne Harvey was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate at Washington University, and she was working at KXOK when she met Paul Harvey. In 1940, they married and later moved to......

This week, we're doing this in "Extra Extra" format: Another study released this week shows that what gave absinthe its reputation wasn't thujone, but its high alcohol content. New York magazine food critic Adam Platt travels to Japan to eat some fugu, the toxic fish that can kill a diner if not prepared properly. Here's a list of places in the States that serve fugu. Talk about ungrateful: an obese man in an Arkansas......

That ridiculous bag ban that would criminalize tiny baggies has hit a bump in the road to useless legislation. Health Committee chairman Ed Smith is holding the ban in committee until everyone can air his or her concerns about how stupid the idea is, and what a waste of time and energy and resources it would be, about how people use those baggies for all kinds of things, and transport and keep drugs in a......

“I miss the beat,” says Bill Cameron. “But hopefully I'll be able to get back to it sooner rather than later.” Cameron is no longer on that beat because he was let go by his employers, WLS Radio, a couple Fridays back in what's being called the Leap Day Massacre. So, seeing as how he had some extra time on his hands, we decided to get in touch with him and talk about nearly 40......

A St. Charles bagpiper's pipes were stolen after the South Side St. Patrick's Parade on Sunday. The unidentified piper left his instrument in the coat room of a restaurant on Western and half an hour later, it was gone. Why would anyone want to steal his pipes, you ask? Besides being generally bad assed, the pipes in question were worth around $1,200. Bagpipes, a now iconic symbol of the United Kingdom and Celtic heritage......

Is Illinois heading towards legalized medical marijuana? State Senator John Cullerton (pretty website!) hopes so. He's sponsoring a bill that the Senate Public Health Committee approved 6-4 yesterday. A similar measure failed in the Senate last year, but try, try again. The Alternative Treatment for Serious Diseases Causing Chronic Pain and Debilitating Conditions bill would allow some patients to possess "no more than 8 plants and two and one-half ounces of usable marijuana." The bill......

First item: there's a new website called Super Cook that allows users to find recipes based on what ingredients they have at hand. This will come in handy when you have, say, those porcini mushrooms that are on the verge of turning. we've been fooling around with the site for a couple days now and haven't been disappointed. More online recipe goodness: Sun-Times writer Dave Hoekstra gets his own "Bachelor Pad Royale" going by......

Leading up to the special election this Saturday in Illinois's 14th Congressional District, Bill Foster's campaign has announced a slew of endorsements. The list included the Aurora Beacon News, the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, the Kane County Chronicle, the Algonquin Countryside, and the Chicago Tribune. Besides local and regional editorial boards, he's also been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, who cited his credentials as a scientist, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, who like......

Five people were injured in Waukegan about an hour ago in an explosion in a shopping area that destroying Tuxedo World, Cleopatra's Unisex Hair Salon, Cellular Concepts, a travel agency and vacant space. Details are still emerging. So far, authorities are saying it's a gas explosion. According to CBS 2, "Windows of the tuxedo store, hair salon and cell phone store were blown out, possibly by the collapse itself or the precipitator or catalyst that......

McDonald's is giving away free McSkillet Burritos today and tomorrow, which elicited responses from Yumsugar readers ranging from "Yuck! No way." to "Do they come with chorizo?" We say "eat at your own risk." Who knew Dolly Parton had a fucking cookbook? Proceeds from sales of Dolly's Dixie Fixins support her Dollywood Foundation's Imagination Library, which distributes free books to preschoolers in 43 states and Canada. Parton told Dave Hoekstra, "These are recipes of......

"Legoland." Just feeling the word roll off your tongue should be enough to send you into shivers of delight. But news that some in Joliet are pushing for a Legoland that close to home? That is leaving us a quivering mess on the floor. Legoland! Right here in Illinois! Please, nerd overlords. Please. Joliet City Councilman Anthony Uremovic is pushing for a Legoland to be built by the northwest corner of Interstates 55 and 80,......

Podiatrist Dr. Stephen P. Loheide, 64, of Algonquin, has been charged with dozens of counts of exchanging prescription drugs for sex, videotaping those encounters without womens' consent, drug possession with intent to distribute, eavesdropping, possession of eavesdropping devices, and other assorted unsavory activities, all of which allegedly took place in his East Dundee office. Charges unveiled Tuesday assert that Loheide illegally exchanged drugs for sex 26 times between March 2005 and Sept. 30, 2007. During......

Joseph Pannell pleaded guilty today to shooting a Terrence Knox, a Chicago police officer, in 1969. He'll serve 30 days in jail, be on probation for two years, and contribute $250,000 to the Hundred Club of Cook County, a group that assists the families of police officers, paramedics and fire fighters killed in the line of duty. Pannel skipped bail and in 1974 fled to Canada, where he lived as Douglas Gary Freeman, worked at......

More fascinated by Kelis' milkshake than Daniel Plainview's? Is the only Oscar you'll watch living in a garbage can? Then this Sunday probably means nothing to you. You're burnt out on the "glitz" and "glamor" of the night, not to mention the drama surrounding that writers strike. Of course, it's never too early to make alternative plans! While all your friends and compulsive gamblers are setting up their Oscar pools and getting ready to check......

Michael Ruhlman and Anthony Bourdain announced the nominees for their inaugural "Golden Clog" awards on Eater Tuesday. Among the nominees are Paul Kahan for the "Chef's Chef" award ("for the chef who continues to make the kind of food other chefs like, while flying largely under the national radar") and Hungry Mag's Michael Nagrant - that photo is of his son staring down a 23-ounce bone-in ribeye at Harry Caray's, btw - for the "Steingarten"......

Photo by JVoves Go take your classic shots of Buckingham Fountain now. Come September, the landmark will be under a tent for a while as part of a $25 million restoration. The fountain was last restored back in 1994, but this is a bigger undertaking. According to the Trib, "[this restoration will] concentrate on the outer basin and surrounding grounds, while also assessing whether pieces of the fountain's machinery can be made more energy-efficient.......

John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will visit Illinois next Wednesday, appearing at a fundraiser at the Rich Harvest Farms golf course in Sugar Grove to raise money for 14th District Congressional candidate Jim Oberweis. Oberweis's campaign spokesman Bill Pascoe said the appearance will give Oberweis a boost with independents as well as an infusion of cash heading into the the March 8 special election to choose a successor to former House Speaker Dennis......

Breaking news: Mitt Romney has dropped out of the presidential race. “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention… I forestall the launch of a national campaign, and frankly I would be making it easier for Sen. Clinton or Obama to win... Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. He's backing McCain, and now the pressure......

Pack an umbrella, bring your galoshes, and dress in layers. It's been that kind of week. Here are some events to brave any extreme in weather. Movies/Music: DeRo and the Other Guy , as part of Sound Opinions' "At the Movies" series, will be hosting a rare screening of the Who's 1979 concert biopic The Kids Are Alright. The screening will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Derogatis and Kot. Music Box Theater, 7......

An unrelated mystery has been solved as police investigate the Tinley Park murders. A con woman, evading police for years, was apprehended this weekend because police tracked down the owners of the cars parked near the Lane Bryant, where the fugitive Esther Reed had left her car, which was registered under an assumed identity. Reed, aka Brooke Henson among other names, disappeared from Washington State in 1999, and over the next eight years went through......