Tickets are still available for one of the best dinners of the year. With food insecurity at record levels, GCFD needs all the help you can give. more ›

The continuing recession and high unemployment means food security is at a low point in Chicago. more ›

Food stamp use among Americans is at an all time high. Progress Illinois reports one in five Americans receive food stamps. Earlier this year, nearly 2 million people in Illinois received aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which administers the program. Cook County had the highest concentration of recipients, a total of 950,300. A record number 45 million Americans received food stamp assistance in May. more ›

Normally the news of a young black man sentenced to prison for murder would get a passing glance in the media. This story is a bit different as the young black man at the center of the story, Derrick Lemon, was once a primary figure in another murder case 17 years ago. Lemon was sentenced yesterday to 71 years in prison for murdering his aunt's boyfriend during a family barbecue in 2006. In 1994, Lemon tried in vain to keep two other youths, ages 10 and 11, from throwing his younger brother Eric Morse fourteen stories from the Ida B. Wells housing projects to his death because Morse wouldn't steal candy for them. Lemon at one pint was hanging on to his brother, but let go when one of the youths bit his hand, and he tried to run down the stairs to save his little brother. more ›

Congress let extending benefits for the unemployed slide by this week, failing to approve measures that would aid over 2 million jobless Americans. Soon enough, some 127,000 Illinoisians could feel an even harder pinch in an already grim economy. more ›

Paul Mason, economics editor for BBC's "Newsnight," takes a well-researched, thought-provoking look at the urban decay of Gary, Indiana (hint: it isn't the same town Ron Howard sang about in "The Music Man"); how Federal stimulus money was spent and if that money was worth it; how politicians are deflecting blame for Gary's current condition; and the undying hope of some of Gary's residents that one day they can change the town's fortunes. more ›

Metropolitan areas have long held the stigma of comprising the most poverty. But the Great Recession has impacted this notion with surrounding suburbs increasing in poverty while the big cities have seen a slight decrease. more ›

Other findings from the report worth noting include
• There was 1 job opening for every 5 Midwesterners seeking a job in February 09;
• 936,259, or 11.3 percent of Chicago area residents live at or below the poverty level;
• The growth of the overall senior population in the Chicago area has increased 3.4 percent, but the growth of seniors in the labor force in the Chicago area has grown by 14.6 percent since 2000;

More bad news for and from the Sun-Times: business editor Dan Miller, a 2006 inductee into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, resigned today as seven non-union employees were laid off, including editorial board members Michelle Stevens, Lloyd Sachs and Michael Gillis, and Assistant Managing Editor Avis Weathersbee. Miller wrote in an email that he thinks the Sun-Times will be sold in a matter of months. [Crain's, Trib] more ›

From a public relations standpoint this has not been a banner couple weeks for the Chicago Police Department. First, the Reverend Al Sharpton opens a Chicago office for his National Action Network in order to address the issue of police brutality in Chicago. Days after Sharpton opened his office, 42-year-old Gefery Johnson died from injuries sustained after police Tasered and forcibly arrested him. Days after that, 18-year-old Aaron Harrison was shot to death by police... more ›

One of Chicago's newest aldermen, Bob Fioretti (2nd) is taking heat from one of the city's older hotels. The 14-story Congress Plaza Hotel, designed and built to accommodate visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, has been embroiled in a strike with UNITE HERE Local 1 since June 2003. According to Crain's Chicago Business, the hotel, owned by Albert Nasser Shayo, a Syrian globe-trotting businessman with residences in New York, Argentina, and Switzerland, who... more ›

Winner of a special prize at the Berlin Film Festival, #12 on Metacritic's All-Time High Scores and one of the first 50 films chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry, Killer of Sheep has always been a film more talked about than seen. Until now. This week you'll probably be hearing a lot more about it, because twenty years after it was finished it's finally getting a release; it opens Friday at the Music Box. more ›

Back in the early ‘60s, a two-mile strip of low-income housing was completed on State between Pershing and 54th. That strip of 28 high-rises, dubbed the Robert Taylor Homes, would develop over the years into one of the most infamous housing projects of the city, if not the nation. Amid all the sensational stories of the violence, drug-dealing and poverty that surrounded the area, residents insisted the Taylor Homes were not the cesspool many believed... more ›

In the marathon that this presidential political season is becoming, presidential hopeful and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards made a pair of brief campaign stops in Chicago Wednesday, just one day before Barack Obama made a campaign stop in North Carolina. At BB's bar and restaurant on Hubbard, part of his "Small Change for Big Change" series of fundraisers, Edwards told the crowd, who had paid between $15 and $100 a head to hear... more ›

In typical short-sighted manner, Mayor Daley lashed out at graffiti artists and their parents yesterday. "Who should be responsible, the building owner?" Daley asked the press. "The building owner should sue them." While Hizzoner has had some success battling graffiti as a quality-of-life issue here in the city, Chicago is gearing up for a projected increase in vandalism, anticipating some 170,000 incidents of graffiti vandalism this year. In response, Daley has proposed an ordinance, at... more ›

Outside.in, the aggregator of all things in neighborhoods across the country, recently tallied their numbers of neighborhood specific blogging and released the top 10 "bloggiest" neighborhoods in the country. Coming in at number 5 was Rogers Park/North Howard. Outside.in describes the neighborhood as, "Located in one of the last remaining pockets of poverty in Chicago's North Side, it‘s home to a culturally diverse group of residents that have very mixed feelings about the rapid gentrification."... more ›

Not everyone has the resources, time, pennies, bonds or forethought to plan at least eighteen years ahead when their baby is born. That's why we think it rocks that good people up top are working toward establish savings accounts for every baby born in Illinois. more ›

Chicagoist is a big fan of channeling our inspirations into our creative output, so we’re naturally drawn to the British Invasion — worshipping Locksley. Named for Robin of Locksley from Robin Hood, one has to expect and accept a certain amount of best-intended robbery. Fortunately, this fab foursome from Madison (by way of Brooklyn) has the gumption and showmanship to pull off the rip off with more than a bit of style and an endearing dose of pluck. Whereas Chicago’s dour own Redwalls attempt a similar aesthetic, it’s Locksley that delivers because you can believe these guys truly love the music they emulate. more ›

One of our favorite writers, Dawn Powell, once wrote, "Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." This explains why the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, some of which are screening at the Chicago International Documentary Festival starting this weekend, often feel so scathing. They show people as they are, not how we usually see them, and in doing so... more ›

It would be easy to write the obligatory piece about "the man and the dream" today. The fact of the matter is that the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is so much more than just the speech he give at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 in Washington, DC. Although he is remembered in the US as one of the leaders, if not the leader, of the civil rights movement in the 1950's... more ›

A few brave soldiers in the "War Against Christmas"(tm) have been stealing Baby Jesuses (or is it "Jesi"?) around Chicago's Clearing Garfield Ridge neighborhood. Thirty-two replicas of the immaculately-conceived child (the Jewish carpenter kid, not the annoying Skywalker kid) were forcably kidnapped from owners' front lawns and were rudely deposited this morning at St. Symphorosa Church. 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 Sun-Times is reporting on the labor movement's most recent moves in city politics. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has compiled a researched list of "targeted" wards where it will rally its resources to oust incumbent aldermen, or try to fill vacant seats with candidates that are sympathetic to its point of view. Further exacerbating this threat to the entrenched are the alliances that SEIU has made in the past 5 years. more ›

Mayor Daley and Governor Blagojevich are asking lawmakers to increase the state’s minimum wage by a dollar, to $7.50 an hour. Illinois’ wage of $6.50 an hour (signed into law by Blago three years ago) is already higher than the federal minimum of $5.15 an hour. Despite the Democrats holding the governor’s seat and a majority in the General Assembly, one state representative thinks it will be a tough bill to pass, which is both... more ›

So far, the voting experiences of those in the Chicagoist offices range from easy as pie to frustrating as hell. more ›

Chicagoist is keen on keeping up with the latest news at CPS, especially when it’s good news. Mayor Daley and CPS CEO Arne Duncan announced yesterday that $27.5 million in federal money came through for a program to help retain good teachers at some of the schools which need them the most. As several local papers report, the program aims to reward teachers individually and schools as a whole for jobs well done. Some of... more ›

After a week jam-packed with shows, we're not surprised that this weekend finds us wishing that payday hadn't been so long ago. Did you know Morrissey is making his only 2006 appearance in North America here in Chicago? We feel like it’s all we’ve heard about all week. But it’s true. Except for when he played SXSW back in March. So, not as special now. But still: Morrissey! Still spelling cranky as s-u-a-v-e after all... more ›

Chicagoist found this bizarre video today: Yes, yes, the video is juvenile, disjointed, mildly delusional, and most likely from someone that has no affiliation whatsoever to the fellow that is challenging 46th Ward Alderman Helen Shiller this winter. But if you add it up with some other tidbits, you can see that Shiller is going to have to run a campaign this year to hold on to her office. Besides this bit of weirdness, there... more ›

“From Birmingham to Manchester to Brooklyn to Chicago, we’re tired of being poverty pimped by the politicians and poverty pimped by the rappers….” This is Rhymefest after meeting with David Cameron, the head of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. At a British Society of Magazine Editors event in June, Cameron stated that Radio 1, a British Radio station operated by the BBC, plays music which "encourages people to carry guns and knives." Rhymefest... more ›

In Chicago, summer film viewing usually means … whatever’s air-conditioned. The Outdoor Film Festival is a notable exception, but generally speaking, summertime is an annual famine where interesting film choices are few and far between. But autumn is a horse of a different color. Suddenly (due in part to the Oscar race) it's time to bulk up. No sooner does the Chicago International Film Festival draw to a close (winners were announced this week) than... more ›