The landlords of the 37-acre, 127-year-old Michael Reese Hospital announced they will be pulling the plug on operations, citing ownership changes, increasing competition, and the rising number of uninsured patients who can’t pay their bills. The closure is anticipated to happen some time this fall, making way for the property to be redeveloped for the 2016 Olympics. The closing will bring to an end a vibrant life for a historic medical facility on the......

Governor of the People Blago waves to Chicagoist at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Maybe the best part of St. Patrick’s Day festivities is the reminder that warmer days are on their way, bringing with them festivals and parades. Today’s emerald green dyeing of Chicago River and the downtown Chicago Parade was chillier than it had been this week, but lower temperatures far from cooled the spirits of the crowd. We were on hand to......

There's something kind of great about the way this row in our Flickr pool lined up. Photos from Katherine of Chicago, Katherine of Chicago, Chilene, Timo3K, JoeM500, and fjsjr. Local outfit Coudal has unveiled a betting pool for the 2008 Tournament of Books. Place your bets with Coudal, and all the money goes to First Book, an organization that gives new books to kids. Other companies are offering matching contributions, so bust out your......

Cubs third baseman Aramis Remirez finally arrived at Spring Training on Tuesday, but when asked by reporters what he did on his winter vacation, he refused to answer. In fact, he wouldn't even allow for the reporter to finish asking the question. Of course, we all know what he was up to back home this off-season. Last week, the New York Times profiled cockfighting and its popularity in a land known for its prolific export......

A Chinese dragon ushers in the Wu Zi, the Year of the Rat, in Chinatown earlier today. Photos by Timothy State. While Thursday was the Chinese New Year, today was the annual Chinese New Year parade. With the temperature near zero and wind chill making it feel like 20-below, the crowd was very light. Nevertheless, the Year of the Rat, known by its formal name Wu Zi, year 4705, has begun. In ancient times,......

"Winter Sport" by Art Shay Art Shay is without a doubt one of the greatest photographers this city ever produced. For sixty years he's captured some of the most iconic images of city life. His 1988 book Nelson Algren's Chicago (Visions of Chicago) inspired scores of photographers, both professional and amateur, to pick up their cameras and pound the pavement looking for the perfect shot. The above shot isn't our favorite - that would......

The Tribune has what they say are their best food photos online today. And they sure are pretty, although, for our two cents we'll always take a shot like Zesmerelda's beautifully framed photo of Crofton on Well's Indian Pudding. You can find this and other shots at the flickr Chicago Cuisine pool.......

The Cool, Lupe Fiasco's much-anticipated follow up to Food & Liquor, dropped on Tuesday to a cloud of bittersweet press. Some critics have blasted the album for its darker sound, wishing for the breezier days when Lupe's rhymes were all about meeting cute girls and skateboarding. Others question if the change in sound is a move in the right direction. However you feel about the album (or if you haven't had a chance to......

Corruption in Chicago has evolved, according to federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan. According to the annual report Brennan released yesterday, blatant abuses and manipulation of the hiring system in the city is no longer a problem. But patronage has moved to "more subtle types of manipulations of the hiring process." Brennan has been the hiring monitor since August of 2005, when federal prosecutors uncovered a fraudulent hiring scheme that led to Daley's former patronage chief......

A 14-year-old Illinois girl was on a cruise off the coast of California with her family when her appendix burst. The USS Ronald Reagan was dispatched to rescue her, and they did--including a helicopter transport between the ships. [Trib] Mayor Daley says he had no idea his son Patrick had invested in a sewer company that did work for the City. Reading from a prepared statement, the Mayor said "I did not know about......

We're leading off today's awesome round-up by reminding everyone that, as Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier says, it's alright to cry. People seem very stressed out today — Holiday stuff? Lack of daylight? Weird diet? — but don't keep it bottled up. Let it out, and recover with some things that should cheer you up and quick: Ah, real-time graphs, how we love you. Like this one, which displays the real-time gage height of the Chicago......

Word to the wise: try to keep from talking to yourself, sweating excessively or hyperventilating the next time you pass through security at O'Hare. [Ed. note: You might want to avoid those things, oh, all the time.] In light of this fall's news that TSA screeners had missed about 60 % of hidden bomb materials that were sneaked through security by tiger teams at O'Hare, the TSA is upgrading its strategy and employing new......

Shellster129 snapped this broad encouragement. We always thought "happy holidays" sounded a little blah. Maybe "very happy everything" is the way to go.......

Lance Briggs's baby mama Brittini Tribbett says he only provides $250 per week in child support. Former Sun-Times publisher David Radler was sentenced to 29 months in prison today after pleading guilty. The fire that killed a 17-year-old and her baby on the South Side this morning may have been arson. File Elk Grove under "One more town where you can't buy a hand job at a massage parlor." Snowy smile by Thelou137......

The clock is ticking, lovelies--get those presents purchased and fast. If you still need some last-minute help, though, take the Chicago bus to these three stores where we can practically guarantee you'll find something. We'll be running posts like this all week, so if you know the perfect store, drop us a line: tips@chicagoist.com You still need a present for: Your mom, your sister, some who recently moved, or someone who likes kitsch, quirky jewelry,......

You know that thing you never do? Now it will cost another 25 cents if you start to do it. Yes, the Tribune is increasing its newsstand price to 75 cents for Monday-Saturday editions, but the Sunday edition remains $1.79. The memo sent out from Tony Hunter, the Trib's senior vice president of circulation and operations, said: Starting Monday, December 31, Chicago Tribune will raise its Monday - Saturday newsstand price from 50 cents......

Countdown to Smoke-Out 2008! In case you forgot, or were outside smoking when someone shared the news, come January 1 there will be no more smoking in public places, including bars, restaurants, casinos, dorms, stadiums and anywhere else that is inside, aside from personal homes and cars. No idea yet on whether there will be smoking shanties outside of bars frequented by die-hard smokers, or if bars frequented by die-hard smokers will really obey the......

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part......

mjkmjk calls this a "snow person of indeterminate gender," but we're getting a very strong Jabba the Hutt-meets-Marjorie the Trash Heap vibe.......

It seems like the press is finally catching on that Governor Blagojevich doesn't like to venture into the public eye very much (except for Blackhawks games), where reporters might have a chance to ask him some questions about the spate of federal investigations, the inaction of the state legislature, or the recent indictment of his former chief fundraiser. An Associated Press story from yesterday outlines several "feel good" photo ops that most politicians would......

A United 777 arriving from Shanghai was evacuated on the tarmac yesterday. The Captain reported smoke in the cabin shortly before landing, and once the jet was on the ground at O'hare, he ordered the evacuation of 273 passengers and crew. The incident occurred just before 4 p.m. yesterday. One passenger was complaining of back pain after the evacuation; she was transported to the hospital. Everyone else appears to be safe. The evacuation was orderly,......

No one drew the winning combination for the Mega Millions last night, so the jackpot has now grown to $163 million. Folks, that’s winning “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” 163 times! Illinois is just one of twelve states where we can play the Mega Millions. Twenty-one second prizes were drawn last night, though, each person winning $250,000 for matching five of the winning numbers. Two of those tickets were sold in Illinois -- one......

Thee Erin's title and caption for her photo, above, absolutely slays us: "'When did we become a civilization that dressed for the crowd and not for the individual?' 'Speak for yourself Bob. I taped my ankles.'" Wonderful. "...a masterwork of nausea that is only matched by the breakfast burrito and whiskey sour I enjoyed to prepare for this competition." Joshua Allen provided the commentary for today's dizzying round of Layer Tennis. The CTA workers......

Our servers drank a big glass of bitch juice this morning, but things appear to be shaping up at this point. New York Times blogger and CPS teacher Will Okun wrote today about taking his class to meet Chicago Defender photographer Worsom. Bad news for Blago: His top political fund raiser was indicted today on federal tax fraud charges. he charges against Chris Kelley have nothing to do with politics or with the Blagojevich......

Carey Primeau posted these photos to Flickr last week, and we can't stop looking at them. Primeau tells us that the building was the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, 135 S. Sangamon. According to Preservation Chicago, The building is executed in a highly unusual Mayan style, perhaps the only of its kind in Chicago. The basic form of the building can be described as Art Deco, with low relief ornament, upward thrust, pronounced......

The CTA may be getting slightly greener (assuming it can get its hands on some green). Yes, our beleagured transit authority is looking to by hybrid buses for its fleet if Springfield works out a funding structure. The diesel/electric buses get an extra 2 miles per gallon, and they're priced to move because the King County Metro System in Seattle didn't exercise its option to by the articulated (read: accordion) buses, plus they'd save......

Aldermen Helen Schiller and Danny Solis introduced a measure yesterday that would make feeding pigeons illegal. And the punishment would be up to $1,000 fine and six months in jail. Their proposed legislation reads... No person shall purposely provide food -- including, but not limited to grain, seeds, greens, bread crumbs and miscellaneous food scraps -- intended for pigeon ingestion on public property or property subject to the city right-of-way. Solis says pigeons deuce......

The City's settlement in the Burge case has stalled again. Again. Really cute profile of a children's television production company based right here. "Well, the shit really hit the fan last night. And it was the CEILING fan. Maybe I should find a new taqueria." Nothing to do with anything, but we just lost 20 minutes going through the entire archive, and we loved every second. Hey, ladies, don't forget to have a bunch......

Liar, liar, half-man half-goat sculpture on fire! Turns out the Art Institute's "Faun" sculpture is a big fat forgery. The sculpture is not in fact the work of French post-impressionist painter Paul Gauguin but is instead a fake, made by Shaun Greenhalgh, whose family has been running an international art forgery business from England for the last 17 years. The Art Institute bought the statue from a private dealer in 1997, and the dealer......

And our trusted tech ninjas are bravely waging battle against the evil forces that seek to destroy us. Fear not. Photo by Kookybites. Maybe "bokeh" is our word of the year.........