State's Attorney Anita Alvarez replied as expected to a request for a special prosecutor to investigate the death of David Koschman. Five police officers, "gravely concerned for their safety," sued the Sun-Times for publishing lineup photos that were the key reason they closed a 2004 homicide involving Daley nephew Richard "R.J." Vanecko without filing charges. more ›

Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell put her perfumed handkerchief under her nose and wandered out amongst the unwashed masses at Occupy Chicago on Wednesday, and was concerned at what she saw. more ›

The internet has been tweeting and crowing about the appointment of Michael Nagrant to the coveted post of Sun-Times dining critic - an appointment that was well deserved. Pat Bruno, the recently fired critic, has fallen by the wayside as ousted figures often do. Many people didn't like him or didn't respect his ethics - but here's one thing that we can respect: he didn't use extenuating circumstances to create buzz around his firing. It turns out Pat Bruno is fighting cancer. And he's also 77, not 68 as previously reported. more ›

When you're Chicago's longest serving mayor, you're going to have your ups and downs. But a mayor is only as good as the people he surrounds himself with. Daley had a cast of criminals around him, but he had some good people too. Fran Spielman of the Sun Times highlights the best and worst of the king's men. more ›

This past Wednesday, Sun-Times Pop Music Critic Thomas Conner posted in his Via Chicago blog his picks for “10 Local Bands On the Rise.” Among his choices were some well-known acts--flame-haired brother and sister duo, White Mystery come to mind--and some that have been flying under the radar, like Daniel Knox, whose vocals Conner fittingly describes as “clarion.” more ›

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 ›

Okay, this is ridiculous. We felt kind of gray and fuzzy on it the first time around, but now? Once again, "columnist" Michael Sneed has given up an entire column over to republishing a letter from Drew Peterson, currently awaiting his trial for the murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio and still the prime suspect in the disappearance of wife number four Stacy Peterson. In this letter, Drew makes an "an impassioned media plea on behalf of his children," specifically prosecution (and what Drew alleges is persecution) against oldest son Stephen who is currently the primary caregiver for four of Peterson's kids: two with Savio and two with Stacy. Like the first letter, this one was handed directly from Peterson attorney Joel Brodsky to Sneed and reprinted (the lead-in says it's been "edited" though there's no word if the paper edited the letter or if, like the first one, it was edited by someone else in the Peterson camp before getting to the Sun-Times). more ›

• The FDA is looking into Walgreens' plan to sell genetic testing kits.
• UConn President Michael Hogan is the top choice to become the new president at the University of Illinois. Related: a 9.5 percent tuition hike at the school is on the way.
• A tentative start date of November 1 has been set for Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana's terrorism trial. Related: Fox does us all an alarmist favor by listing the top 10 terror targets in town.

Both major papers see circulation shrink even as the Tribune's Chicago Now blog network shows growth. more ›

A trio of media outlets are asking U.S. District Judge James Zagel to unseal the Santiago proffer, the document that outlines the feds' case against the former governor that prosecutors filed under seal earlier this week. The Tribune, Sun-Times, and Associated Press made the request, citing the First Amendment. Lawyers for those outlets said, "Those rights, and the public's interest in their vindication, are of paramount importance in this case. No one could question the public's interest in receiving information about a case alleging public corruption at the highest levels of state government, including the alleged ‘sale' of a United States Senate seat by a sitting governor." more ›

The Windy Citizen has a new video section which includes gems like this pair of old Sun-Times TV ads, one featuring Roger Ebert. more ›

Last week, word came down that the Tribune's Rick Morrissey was leaving the sports pages of the Trib to join up with the rival Sun-Times. Of course, as soon as Morrissey was out the door, you can guess who's name came up right away in whispered speculation: yep, Mariotti. We've been down this road before and, as Crain's Ed Sherman tells it, while Mariotti may be gung-ho to relocate to the Tribune Tower, the bridge there remains charred and smoking. more ›

Could Rod Blagojevich be the ex-Governor so prosecutorially "nice," we indicted him twice? Federal officials are considering it just to avoid a trial delay, so sayeth Natasha Korecki in the Sun-Times: more ›

The sale of the Sun-Times Media Group, parent to the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of smaller papers, to a group headed by James Tyree is now complete. The $26.5 million deal is made up by $5 million paid by the group plus the assumption of the STMG's $21.5 million in liabilities. The new partnership will be called Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC. The Sun-Times reports the other members of the group are businessman Kevin Flynn; real estate executives Andrew Agostini, Ed Heil and Ed Ross; insurance executive William Parrillo; his brother, attorney Robert Parrillo; Chicago Blackhawks owner and property and liquor magnate W. Rockwell "Rocky" Wirtz; and Mesirow executives Michael Mackey, Richard Price and Bruce Young. Said Tyree of the sale: more ›

Mayor Daley's budget for 2010 has been presented and, as expected, there were no new taxes but lots of cuts. There will also be much taken from the parking meter lease fund. In fact, by this time next year, don't expect much to be left from the $1.15 billion/75-year deal, the deal we may have gotten hosed on. Having already spent $400 million of that money this year, according to the Tribune, Daley is looking to spend an additional $600 million of that money in 2010. We're no math geniuses and even we know that doesn't leave a whole heck of a lot left in the pot for the remaining 70+ years of the lease, something that concerned Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) earlier this week. All told, Daley claims that there will still be around $700 million left in reserve funds - the combination of the Skyway and parking meter leases - next year. A cut in the city's tourism budget also raised eyebrows. And besides the cuts to entertainment and furlough days for non-union employees and elimination of vacant jobs, there are smaller cuts, too, such as the scaling back of the city's recycling program. more ›

Crain's Chicago reported today that two more names have emerged as investors in the yet-to-be-finalized purchase of the Sun-Times. Businessmen Kevin Flynn (casino owner and CEO of Emerald Ventures, Inc.) and William Parrillo, Sr. (chairman of Safeway Insurance Co.) are reported to be among the group that has served up as much as $5 million in an attempt to revive the struggling newspaper. more ›

It seems that the Sun-Times sale to James Tyree isn't quite a done deal yet. While the group's largest union, the Chicago Newspaper Guild, agreed to terms along with the expectation that two others would follow suit, there's one union that hasn't even scheduled a vote on the matter. The six member Chicago Typographical Union No. 16 is in no rush to approve anything. Said union president Steve Berman, "I can't sign a document that gives the company the ability to discharge my people without any assurances...we're not running to vote on this one." The Tribune has more on the matter. more ›

• A barricade situation on the city's West Side was peacefully resolved this afternoon.
• An off-duty Chicago Police officer was killed in an early morning car crash on the Kennedy Expressway.
• Kirk Dillard got an endorsement in his race for governor from former governor Jim Edgar.

Last month, the members of the Chicago Newspaper Guild voted down a proposal by James Tyree, a deal with the devil which would have gutted the union in exchange for his buying the bankrupt media group. Late yesterday afternoon it was announced that the guild had reached an agreement with Tyree, in spite of his claims that he would withdraw his bid and that the "concessions are an absolute prerequisite from all 18 collective bargaining units for a proposed sale." While the agreement, which the membership voted on yesterday afternoon and evening, means significant pay cuts, Jim Newton, chair of the Waukegan Unit of the Guild said that the agreement "demonstrate[s] our commitment to [the paper] and our craft.... We look forward to helping this new venture not only maintain but improve our presence in the local and regional media market." more ›

Unionized workers from the Sun-Times approved a motion that rejects concessions set by management to pave the way for the sale of the Sun-Times Media Group to businessman James Tyree by a vote of 83-22. According to the Trib, "Management has said the concessions are an absolute prerequisite from all 18 collective bargaining units for a proposed sale of parent Sun-Times Media Group." In spite of a memo sent earlier Tuesday by Chairman Jeremy Halbreich, reminding employees that a rejection of the concessions would mean a withdrawal of the bid, it seems Tyree isn't giving up on his bid. He told the Sun-Times: more ›

• The latest parking meter issue has Mayor Daley annoyed, calling the issue "unacceptable."
• The Sun-Times' union workers will shortly assemble to vote on concessions requested in Jim Tyree's bid for the paper's parent company. A smaller paper in the STMG family - the Post-Tribune - voted against the concessions last night.
• The IHSA has reinstated all levels of football at North Chicago High School after the program was suspended following a brawl with Simeon High earlier this month.

• He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
• The Sun-Times looks into a fence that cost taxpayers over $45,000 but seems to have benefited Ald. Ed Burke (14th) the most by keeping those damn kids with their rock'n'roll music off his lawn.
• Jackie Heard, Mayor Daley's press secretary, is not amused with media reports suggesting she rented a house to drug dealers.

Wow. Judging by this story appearing on the front page of the Sun-Times' website - pictured right - it seems like we've come a long way from those heady mid-June days when both the Cubs and Sox still had a shot at the post-season. College football kicks off tonight and the NFL follows suit in a week, so we suppose the story makes sense. more ›

Sun-Times colleague Lynn Sweet is reporting that columnist/pundit Robert Novak has lost his battle with brain cancer and passed away early this morning at the age of 78. Novak, a Joliet native, had been with the Sun-Times since 1966. Novak’s wife, Geraldine, told Sweet, “He was someone who loved being a journalist, love journalism and loved his country and loved his family." more ›

The Sun-Times is reporting today that the city and the FOP have reached a deal to let veteran officers retire at 55 instead of 60, in an effort to save as much cash as humanly possible. Cops retiring at the new lower-age cutoff would take a "staggered payout" of their comp time, whereas previously, older police retiring at 60 would otherwise be charged co-pays until Medicare kicked in at 65. more ›

Far be it for us - of all sites - to pick on another site for a tech glitch. That's not what we're doing here, promise. We're routinely chasing the goats out of the tech closet where they've been chewing wires and causing general havoc for us. But when we just stumbled across this mix-up on the Sun-Times, juxtaposing the upcoming Sox-Cubs series with a brewing Daley family feud seemed almost...appropriate? A picture of Daley and nephew Robert Vanecko with text that talks about short-term memory issues...Are we way off or are we on to something here? Just wondering... more ›

Finally. Someone from one of the two major newspaper in town has come out as opposed to the city's 2016 Olympic bid and it happens to be one of the higher profile sports writers. Of course, we've expressed our qualms about the bid here and The Reader's Ben Joravsky has also been all over the bid and the TIF entanglement therein. But it seems with the Parking Meter Debacle continuing, Telander has had enough. more ›

Maybe Senator Burris shouldn't be so relaxed about the release of a taped conversation between him and the governor's brother. The Sun-Times' Natasha Korecki is reporting this afternoon that caught on tape is Burris - before the senate appointment - promising to write the governor a campaign check of $1,500, but Burris attorney contends it was not pay-for-play. more ›

Chicago's journalism elite gathered together Thursday afternoon for yet another group therapy session, this time bringing Carl Bernstein and our beloved editor-in-chief, Marcus Gilmer, into the mix. Covering a sweeping range of topics, the central theme was the future of the news industry. Conclusion? Doom. Oh, and there's no agreeing on life-saving measures. It wasn't that we didn't have the most brilliant minds of the old guard in the conference room at the Newberry Library for the IFC's Make Media Matter series - Bernstein was joined by editors Gerould Kern (Chicago Tribune), Donald Hayner (Chicago Sun-Times), Tran Ha (RedEye) WBBM-TV news director Jeff Kiernan, columnist/editor/host Carol Marin and WVON's Cliff Kelley - it's just that the old guard doesn't know what's going to happen and the new guard, represented only by Marcus and Ha, can't predict the future of their industry. more ›

If there's one things Cubs can get excited about this Spring, it's the emergence of Ryan Theriot as a power force to be reckoned with. As of today, Theriot is tied for second on the team with five homers and 17 RBIs, plus he boasts a .297 avg, a .372 slugging, and he is tied for first on the team with 38 hits. All five home runs this season have come in May and he only hit one all of last year. But at least one Chicago sportswriter is murmuring with concern. more ›