A pall hangs over the ‘Ist-a-verse this morning, as we received word yesterday that Phillyist editor Star C. Foster passed away due to a pulmonary embolism caused by a tumor that had metastasized in her leg and traveled to her heart. more ›

As much as Chicagoist loves to rail against the corruption and graft that plagues our fair city, occasionally our obsession with back-room deals and hereditary peerage takes a back seat to more mundane fascinations. With this in mind, today we bring you this interesting tidbit: Barack Obama is a smoker! We stumbled across Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Michael Currie Schaffer's meditation on what makes a candidate more real, a person more than a media hack's... more ›

The student paper at NIU has jumped into the controversy by running the cartoons this week. more ›