Recently released ISAT test scores for Illinois students in grades 3 through 8 show that Chicago Public Schools students have improved in nearly all subjects, bringing some good news to CPS. more ›

We knew it was coming eventually, and now it's finally here. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Transit Authority will begin to test out two electric buses on the roads. On Friday, the board approved the purchase of two 35- to 40-foot, lithium-ion battery-powered buses, with funding from a $2.2 million Federal Transit Administration grant. more ›

City officials announced yesterday that they'll start testing the city's water supply for hexavalent chromium. A study released late last month showed that Chicago's water supply contained higher levels of the metal than what was the standard allowable level in California. The announcement closely followed a memo released by the EPA to more closely monitor levels of the metal made infamous in the movie Erin Brokovich. more ›

On Thursday, the Chicago Transit Authority received a $2.2 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to buy two all-electric buses. The battery-powered buses will be tested to see how they perform during CTA's regular service, officials said to the Chicago Tribune. "We anticipate that the buses will be used for shorter runs," CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said to the Tribune. Gaffney also noted that the buses will be used as part of the CTA's initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. more ›

Why the city is technically not breaking any rules or laws by excluding them, their failure to list some of what was found in the waters of Lake Michigan seems disingenuous. The annual report was recently sent to residents across the cities and while the City did follow the rules, the Tribune took a look at the full report and came across a few discoveries: more ›

In a move that actually makes sense, Chi-Town Daily News reports that Chicago Public Schools will soon begin offering students STD testing with help from the Chicago Department of Public Health. Cook County is number one in the nation in gonorrhea cases and third for chlamydia cases and teens make up 60 percent of Chicago's new cases. No word, though, when testing will become available to students. more ›

Today is National HIV Testing Day, "an annual campaign produced by the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA-US) to encourage at-risk individuals to receive voluntary HIV counseling and testing." Testing centers around the country will be providing HIV tests, health fairs, and outreach to anyone wishing to participate. It comes on the heels of unsettling news from the CDC: between 2001 and 2006, HIV/AIDS cases in gay men climbed 8.6 percent. According to other CDC findings, in 2006, almost three-quarters of diagnosed cases were in males; half of the 2006 diagnoses were from male-to-male contact and a third resulted from heterosexual contact. These statistics hit home as the city prepares for this weekend's annual PRIDE parade.

“The bottom line here is we are woefully under-serving gay men” in the fight against HIV/AIDS, said Jim Pickett, director of advocacy for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. more ›

Chicago schools are out for the summer, but education reporting gets no such vaycay. A new study shows the revamped SATs don't do a better job of predicting college grades than the old SATs. The new test, which includes a writing portion, is, like the older test, a better predictor for women than men and for whites than minorities. What the study fails to mention is that the new SATs have also created an uncrossable divide between people who took the old test and people who took the one--those new scores don't make sense at all. How are siblings supposed to compete now, we ask. How will classic Saved By The Bell episodes make sense to new generations? more ›