John Marshall Law School, Chicago-Kent College of Law and DePaul University College of Law are being sued for inflating job placement statistics. more ›

The suits, filed by the Zell-controlled company EGI-TRB LLC, makes clear that Zell still believes the buyout was legitimate, but hedges his bets should a federal bankruptcy judge rule the buyout as fraudulent. more ›

Zell is buying the Elysian Hotel for $98 million. That breaks down to $502,000 per room. more ›

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey rejected two plans for reorganizing Tribune Co. and threatened to appoint a trustee to help pull the media company out of the heavily leveraged "deal from Hell." more ›

The Tribune Co. exodus that started with the departure of CEO Randy Michaels and "Chief Innovation Officer" Lee Abrams continued yesterday with the departure of Kevin Metheny from WGN-AM. Also not letting the door hit him in the ass on the way out is former City Clerk and convicted felon Jim Laski, who came to epitomize Metheny's meddling management style as much as Howard Stern's nickname for Metheny - "Pig Virus." more ›

Tens of thousands of commuters wander through one of the city’s most notable buildings every day without any sense of the origin of its quirky design. Metra riders step over real estate history as they make their way down the massive ramp in 2 N. Riverside Plaza which is linked by a sky bridge over Canal from the Ogilve Transportation Center next door. more ›

On the eve the publication of that damning New York Times profile into the corporate culture at Tribune Co. under Sam Zell, CEO Randy MIchaels, the man at the focus of the exposé, sent out an email to Tribune employees urging them to "ignore the noise" that would be generated from the piece that painted the actions of executives brought in after Zell's debt-heavy leveraged buyout as juvenile, at best. more ›

The Tribune Co., like that one prudish looking girl in high school who was outed as easy the day after senior prom, is getting picked on mercilessly in the wake of that New York Times expose. more ›

Today's New York Times has a pull-no-punches, just-the-facts expose on Sam Zell's disastrous ownership of Tribune Co. The article posits that, as gross of a miscalculation the heavy borrowing Zell used to broker the purchase was, the decision to bring in a group of aging frat house types led by current CEO Randy Michaels to steer the company into a new era of workplace blunt talk may have been even more damaging to the company, from the perspectives of both business and morale. Comparing what Zell, Michaels and their lieutenants have done since arriving to Nero fiddling while Rome burned is not out of line. more ›

Recession? What recession? Economic collapse? Pay it no mind. Job losses? Pshaw, we say! Forbes has let loose with it's annual list of people who make us feel poor and a smattering of Chicagoans made the annual 400 richest Americans list, including Tribune Company Owner Sam Zell (No. 60, worth $4.4 billion), Oprah (No. 130, worth $2.7 billion), and a slew of Pritzkers. You can check out the list here and check out the Trib's photo gallery of Chicago's reps here. more ›

Tribune Co, just weeks away from having to submit its reorganization plan, continues to reshape itself. Sam Zell announced today that he is resigning from CEO of the company, a position he held for just two years. Zell, who engineered the $8.2 billion buyout in 2007, will remain as chairman of the company, while Randy Michaels will take the reigns as new CEO. Michaels takes on the new position previously serving as COO of the company since May 2008, as well as executive vice president and CEO of Tribune's interactive and broadcast divisions before that. more ›

Is Sam Zell pulling a fast one on taxpayers with his sale of the Chicago Cubs? It seems like he might according to the Washington Post's Allen Sloan. And as The Reader's Whet Moser points out, this is not exactly the first time Zell has pulled some shady shenanigans in his dealings with the Tribune Company. more ›

• Adding fuel to the talk that Sam Zell's short reign at the Tribune is almost over, yesterday Trib bondholders filed a motion to probe into the billionaire's takeover of the newspaper.
• DAMMIT! Our bid was $39,999,999.
• Governor Quinn has vetoed a campaign finance bill, saying that it "should go back to the drawing board." Critics have complained the bill has too many loopholes.

It looks like Sam Zell's fun-filled reign over the Tribune Company might soon be at an end according to a report from Tribune rival the Sun-Times. According to their story: more ›

The Tribune Company may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in regards to the Chicago Cubs. But it's not as bad as it seems; rather, it's a move that may help the pending sale of the team go a little smoother. According to Bloomberg: more ›

• The most updated swine flu er, H1N1 influenza A tally for Illinois stands at 20, give or take.
• If Judge Clayton Crane has his way, former Chicago police commander Jon Burge will have to testify in the torture case against him.
• Governor Quinn's reform commission panel stands by their decision to advise against a recall amendment.

When we were younger, our friend told us about a car his older brother was selling for the low price of $900. Sure, it looked a little ragged, what with the rust holes and the mismatched door, but we were assured that at its heart the car was solid, and could be revived back to its shiny, reliable former self with just a little bit of elbow grease. Six months later, after being stalled on the side of the road for the third time, we wound up giving it away to that cancer foundation with the annoying jingle. Well, Sam Zell is feeling the same way right now, except his error in judgment contained seven more zeros. In an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday, Zell said that he now thinks that his acquisition of the Chicago Tribune was a "mistake" and that he "was too optimistic in terms of the newspaper's ability to preserve its position." Huh, a business guy with zero experience in the newspaper industry was wrong about the direction said industry was heading -- imagine that. more ›

Coinciding with the start of 2007 baseball season began, Sam Zell purchased the Tribune Co. and announced that he was putting the Cubs up for sale to help pay down the company's debt. Two full seasons later, the team remains part of his now bankrupt media empire. But this seemingly endless process of determining the winning bidder may be over soon. From an initial pool of at least 10 interested parties, the Cubs have asked three bidders to polish up their bids as the team decides which to accept. The three finalists are: Tom Ricketts, Marc Utay and Hersch Klaff. more ›

What a week for Sam Zell. First, his company filed for bankruptcy on Monday. Then on Tuesday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested, partly for trying to extort the editorial board of the Zell-owned Chicago Tribune. And it's that last item that has the FBI curious to talk to Zell about what he knew and what he did in response to Blago's threats and attempts to have editor John McCormick fired in exchange for helping along the sale of Wrigley Field. While Zell said in a television interview he was contacted by the FBI, he denied a request by his own Chicago Tribune for an interview. The Tribune Company sticks by their recent assertion that their behavior has been "appropriate at all times." more ›

Image taken outside the Governor's Mansion in Springfield by Anonymous, printed with owner's permission via L. Stolpman