In what the Sun-Times is calling the "first Chicago mayor poll" - which we guess works as long as you don't count that other Chicago mayor poll - it seems that the front-runners are Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and state Sen. James Meeks. The poll - which, like that other poll, ignored a few key potential candidates - came out like so, with a margin of error of 4.3 percent meaning these numbers actually don't mean a whole heck of a lot: more ›

In the midst of all their political polling, a question from the Trib/WGN team found a subject most Democrats and Republicans agree on: no privatization of the state's tollway system. 72 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of Republicans polled said no to leasing the system with the primary fear on both sides being that tolls would increase as a result. more ›

We're closing in on next week's primary election and in the race for U.S. Sen. Roland Burris' seat, the expected leaders are at the front of the pack but there are still large numbers of undecided voters on both the Democratic and Republican side of the fence, according to a new poll from the Tribune and WGN. For the Dems, Alexi Giannoulias garnered a healthy 34 percent of those polled with Cheryle Jackson coming in at 19 percent and David Hoffman at 16 percent. Overall, though, the "undecided" vote still accounted for 26 percent. For Republicans, State Rep. Mark Kirk has a healthy 47 percent of the vote while 10 percent is split up among a smattering of candidates and Patrick Hughes has eight percent. But even with 35 percent of the potential voters polled answering "undecided," Kirk's lead seems pretty safe. The Trib has a pretty detailed breakdown of the poll's details as well as how the GOP voters polled support the Tea Party movement. more ›

An internet poll shows that our own President Barack Obama is the most favored choice of celebrity neighbors. Most interesting is the tie for second place: Sarah Palin & entertainment's lesbian power couple Ellen & Portia. What celebrity do folks NOT want to live next to? Octomom. But the best moment of the entire run-down comes from Obama's real-life Hyde Park neighbor, Bill Grimshaw, who said, "Personally, I'd go for some hot babe, for sure. "But the prestige of living next to the president is wonderful. And the main thing is the security. I don't lock my doors any more." Win. more ›

Today is the last day you can help us choose what movies to see at the Chicago International Film Festival. Chicago Overcoat and Shorts 1: Illinoi[s]emakers both seem assured of spots in the top ten, but the other finalists are still up for grabs. Only a few votes separate the remaining front-runners. So browse the schedule and then click on over. We'll list the winners on Wednesday. more ›

The polls are open to help determine which movies we'll be seeing and writing about at this year's Chicago International Film Festival, which runs October 8-22. With about three days left to go crime drama Chicago Overcoat is definitely out ahead. But Lars von Trier's latest mindfuck, Antichrist, and Mother from South Korea aren't far behind. Also near the top, intriguingly, is a program of shorts from Iliinois filmmakers. So which ten movies will come out ahead? Browse the schedule and then click on over and vote for your favorites before Tuesday. And then vote again. It's the Chicago way. more ›

The schedule for CIFF is now online and browseable! There are around 150 films this year, and in honor of the festival's 45th year there'll be an extra day of movies (15 instead of the usual 14.) That's a whole lot of cinema. And obviously we can't see everything. That means making some painful choices. But rather than plunge ourselves into agony, we're trying something different this year. We'd like you to tell us what to see. more ›

And you thought Obama had approval rating issues. A new poll released by WGN and the Chicago Tribune claims that Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has an abysmal approval rating of 10 percent, which is even lower than Blago's was last fall before his arrest. The poll was made of 300 registered Cook County voters and a full 70 percent of those polled disapproved of Stroger and 72 percent said they don't want to see him re-elected. more ›

Man, it's been a rough summer for President Obama. As if the economy hasn't given him enough problems, the battle over health care reform has turned pretty damn nasty. And now a new poll by the Tribune and WGN shows that support for Obama in his co-home state is waning a bit. Of the 700 registered voters polled, 59 percent approved of the job he was doing, 33 percent disapprove, and eight percent had no opinion. Of course, the real split comes on how Obama's handled health care. more ›

Mayor Daley has tossed around the number $22.5 billion as the value of the economic boost the city of Chicago would receive if it hosts the 2016 Olympics. But some experts are saying that number is more Olympian dream than reality. Crain's talked to several experts about MayDay's projected boon for the city and the answers they came away with leave us a bit cold about hosting the games. more ›

As the trade deadline looms and both of our baseball teams find themselves inexplicably in contention in spite of themselves, it seems the managers of the teams - well known enough to just go by their first names - aren't as popular as we'd like to believe. Both have won World Series titles - though only Ozzie has done so in the Windy City - but a recent poll by Sports Illustrated indicates that the two are also the two managers that players would least like to play for. The poll was conducted by SI and got the opinions of 380 MLB players. Sweet Lou led the pack with 26 percent and Ozzie was close behind with 21 percent. Only one other manager, St. Louis' Tony LaRussa, hit double digits (16 percent). We haven't the slightest clue what would make players hesitant to play for either. [via Sun-Times] more ›

A few months ago, we looked at what we assumed to be Governor Rod Blagojevich hitting rock bottom in the approval ratings game. Now comes a new poll that has Blago's approval rate even lower: eight percent to be exact. Our first thought: there are still that many people that actually approve of the job he's doing? We guess the survey phoned the Mell household. This poll was taken by the Chicago-based Glengariff Group and surveyed 600 people; other questions included if Blagojevich should resign (70 percent said yes) and if he should be impeached (73 percent said yes). more ›

Looks like we're not the only ones with a case of the Mondays: Things aren't looking so great for Blagojevich today, either. Over the weekend, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn blamed Blago for the firing of 17 veterans from security jobs within the Illinois Department of Military Affairs. "The governor proclaimed this 'Hire a Veteran Month.' He didn't say 'Fire a Veteran,'" said Quinn. All together now: Oh, snap! Blagojevich says it's a matter of federal... more ›

Not a single Chicago restaurant made it onto Esquire's list of the best new restaurants of 2007, chosen by Esquire Food Critic John Mariani in the magazine's November issue. MenuPages suggests that Mariani has a thing against Illinois restaurants and that's why he didn't choose any Windy City restaurants either this year or last. Time Out Chicago critic Heather Shouse takes it a step further and essentially accuses him of being unethical in how he... more ›

Travel + Leisure, CNN.com and Headline News tag-teammed a really arbitrary survey of 60,000 people about the "best" cities. And we did pretty OK, so...awesome poll guys! According to the story, we have the best skyline and the worst weather. Worse than Minneapolis. Ouch, dudes. Ouch. We ranked first out of 25 cities in: best food and dining overall, best pizza, best home design shopping, best business trip (that's secretly fun), and sports' fan... more ›

Issues, shmissues. The real story is that the terrorist madrassa-taught, non-black, freedom-hating Barack Hussein Obama doesn't wear an American-flag lapel pin. We were startled when last night's TV news tag line said, "Why is Obama's patriotism in question? Tonight at 9." Though we have been suckered into watching the news based on these tag lines before, we were again let down when it was all about a pin. Those awe-inspiring pins are a standard among... more ›

It’s been a big weekend for Barack Obama. In a press release, his campaign reported more than 500,000 donations from over 350,000 people, and the actual financial totals should be available in the next few days. The Obama campaign continues to report more and more contributors — contrasting his grass-roots support with Hillary Clinton’s big-ticket donors. But his press release didn’t mention that they have been counting tickets to speeches and sales of tchotchkies as... more ›

New York Times reporter Monica Davey took an "unscientific survey" of people at the Cultural Center yesterday, asking them questions from the new citizenship test. People didn't do too well. We decided to do our own "unscientific survey" of Chicagoist staffers and friends, and ... wow. Somewhere, our history teachers are in a corner gently weeping. Highlights of our wrongness: 42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of... more ›

NPR Host Peter Sagal — Again
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Forgive us for being less than enthusiastic about Independence Day this year. Oh sure, we love having a day off and all that. The fireworks are cool. But it's a little hard to muster up a whole lot of that rah-rah flag-waving patriotism; between Scooter Libby, the endless war, and the paralysis of Congress, the business-as-usual attitude oozing from Washington, Springfield and Chicago has got us mired in the blahs. We're certainly not alone... more ›

Former Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa on Wednesday night became only the fifth major leaguer to reach the 600 home run plateau. Maybe it wasn't quite rain on his wedding day, but Sosa's historic home run came not just against his old team, but even against his old jersey — Sosa's 600th came off the Cubs' Jason Marquis, who now wears the "21" that Sosa wore during his tenure with the Northsiders. Chicagoist noted to a... more ›

Head 300 miles south to The Creation Museum and you may be dazzled by their Because The Bible Said So, That’s Why! explanation of life’s origins. That prospect is too much for The Field Museum. On Friday they open Darwin, a new traveling exhibition focused on the man and scientist considered the creationists’ biggest gadfly. Now a household name, Charles Darwin is remembered primarily for publishing Origin of Species and Descent of Man, the most... more ›

Chicagoist likes to think we work on a European schedule, taking the entire month of August to hang out with the Parisist staff on the French Rivieria sunbathing and making snotty comments about Americans. Sadly, our limited vacation days don't allow us to show off our pasty legs for much more than a week. Recently while some of us were on vacation, we posted, we checked e-mail like we were important, and we stayed in touch with people in the city despite our best efforts to "get away." more ›

Chicagoist woke up to the headline "Feds subpoena governor's campaign fund records" in the Tribune. Oh no, we thought, this can't be good for ol' G-Rod. For a governor that has seen friends indicted, had a public feud with his father in-law that has resulted in charges of gross misconduct and confirmation by prosecutors that they are looking close and hard at very real accusations of wrong doing, this news certainly can't bode well. more ›

Last month we shared with you the rumors that the Chicago Fire were in talks with Mexican Soccer Star Cuauhtémoc Blanco. The Fire announced on Sunday that Blanco would be coming to Chicago on Monday to sign a Designated Player (DP) contract with the Fire. The Fire will become only the third team to take advantage of Major League Soccer's Designated Player rule. The rule allows MLS teams to sign a player and have only... more ›

Were you aware that our state is the 2nd largest corn producer in the United States? According to Chicago Public Radio, the price of corn has doubled since this time last year and Illinois farmers are taking full advantage of it. Chris Gould, an Illinois farmer profiled in the story, said that normally during harvest season the price starts to drop and farmers are paid to hang on to the corn until the buyers need... more ›

Just in case you were outside smoking when the news came on, we wanted to remind everyone that the Cook County smoking ban took effect today. more ›

Aside from the fact that Barack Obama gives us a certain sense of pride in our city, we feel he truly gives our country and its citizens the feeling that things can change. This seems to be a consistent theme in reactions to Obama, ''He makes you feel like it is possible to change things,'' Brenda Calkington told the New York Times today at Obama's announcement of his intention to run for President. Thousands of... more ›

The media elite and tenured intelligentsia are making you feel like an unwashed plebian if you aren’t fawning over Fermilab or Millennium Park. And you’re sick of your relatives braying on about thrilling tourist traps like Medieval Times and Six Flags. You know better, don’t you? For the rest of the month, the Illinois Tourism Bureau gives you the chance to make your alternative views heard… and then promptly drowned out by the voters who... more ›

Del Taco has a restaurant in Oak Lawn now. Researchers at UIC did a medical study that shows that smoking in workplaces increases the risk of lung cancer in non-smokers. Critical Mass is planning shenanigans at the Chicago Auto Show. Chicago Wonk is a website that offers a daily poll on Chicago, Illinois, or US policy. Readers vote yes or no each day. A Fresh Squeeze is a company devoted to making it easier... more ›