The great thing about animation is that you can edit it to fit just about anything you want. Like the "Peanuts" gang singing the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic." more ›

A little historical perspective never hurt anyone, and we're especially big fans of the photographic kind. more ›

Sumei Hu, the woman who disappeared from O'Hare on Feb 26, still hasn't been seen or heard from, but her husband Steven Frash went on Greta Van Susteren's show last night to explain--or, not really explain--what happened. more ›

Hey, dad, can you give me a ride? Oh, you want to be a brief media sensation? Then yeah, a ride in your plane is cool, too. more ›

Former alderman Dorothy Tillman was arrested over the weekend in Alabama. She was charged with criminal tresspassing after refusing to leave an Montgomery hospital, according to the police. Tillman says the cops used excessive force and that she was brutalized. more ›

We don't know about you, but if we managed to escape 63 counts of involuntary manslaughter after being hanged in the court of public opinion, we might try to go back to our lives, shut the hell up, and count our lucky stars. more ›

Podiatrist Dr. Stephen P. Loheide, 64, of Algonquin, has been charged with dozens of counts of exchanging prescription drugs for sex, videotaping those encounters without womens' consent, drug possession with intent to distribute, eavesdropping, possession of eavesdropping devices, and other assorted unsavory activities, all of which allegedly took place in his East Dundee office. more ›

Eight people were bound and robbed at gunpoint Sunday night at the Hilton Chicago at 720 S Michigan. The assailants got away with about $20,000. more ›

Ah, late February in Chicago. Cubs tickets go on sale today, there's a forecast for a high temperature above 35 degrees next week, and thousands of indie rock kids around Chicago will soon be shedding their parkas for high-priced hoodies bought from Wicker Park boutiques (tip: ours cost us $12 at Target!) for several worthwhile shows around the Chicago area. Lots of tickets go on sale this weekend. So, despite this crappy weather, there is, in the words of Spoon, "something to look forward to." more ›

More disturbing details are emerging today about Steve Kazmierczak: Police are saying that he tried to cover his tracks before the shooting spree. He removed the hard drive from his computer and took the SIM card out of his phone. And apparently the account his girlfriend gave CNN yesterday doesn't match with what she told the police. more ›

It was pretty much inevitable that discussions about the NIU shooting would turn to gun control. And turn they have. more ›

Perhaps crime will slow down tomorrow, when all that water lying around freezes and turns Chicago streets into one giant ice rink. But for now, let's see what's been going on this weekend in the world of criminal justice: more ›

At least two people were shot during a geology class at Northern Illinois University this afternoon. As of 3:50, NIU had posted this on its website: more ›

Here we go again ... The Police are coming back to town, playing Allstate Arena, with Elvis Costello opening. We enjoyed them immensely last time they came through town, but we'll probably pass on seeing them again, although Costello is a much more enticing opening act than Sting's son. But we reckon Costello was brought in to counter the fact that the immediate mix of nostalgia and excitement will probably make it harder to move tickets this time. more ›

Forensic anthropology students at the University of Indianapolis have exhumed what may or may not be the body of Belle Gunness, a La Porte, Indiana serial killer from the turn of the century. Some say Gunness killed herself in a kerosene-soaked fire that burned down her farmhouse, but others say she staged that and escaped. Now, forensic anthropologists are going to test DNA from the exhumed headless skeleton again saliva from an envelope from a letter Gunness sent one of her eventual victims. Wowsers. more ›

Attention sword enthusiasts: Don't exercise with your samurai gear at playgrounds. You may "alarm" school officials. more ›

Joseph Pannell was 19 years old when he shot a Chicago police officer in 1969. And then he skipped bail. And skipped bail again in 1974, this time fleeing to Canada, where he changed his name to Douglas Gary Freeman and lived under that identity for almost 40 years. But in 2004, Chicago's cold case squad tracked him down and started extradition proceedings, which Parnell fought....until this week. more ›

The number of homicides in Chicago is decreasing, but there's another number that's dropping, too: Fewer murders are being solved. Of Chicago's 443 murders last year, only 162 were solved. The police also solved 102 cases from previous years. This year's clearance rate of 36.6 percent is about the same as last year, but 42 percent of 2005 and 47 percent of 2004 murders were cleared. more ›

). Even less fun is rotting away in a cell for almost 26 years for a crime you didn’t commit. Now imagine that the key to your freedom was sitting the entire time locked in a box in a lawyer’s office, who couldn’t reveal it due to attorney-client privilege. That’s exactly what happened to Alton Logan. Logan, now age 54, was arrested in 1982 for the murder of a security guard at a south side McDonald’s in a robbery gone wrong. He was identified by witnesses along with Edgar Hope. A few days later, as police were hunting down Andrew and Jackie Wilson for an unrelated murder of two officers, a raid on Andrew’s suspected hiding place turned up a shotgun that tested positive as the gun used in the McDonald’s shooting. But since only two men were involved in the robbery and police conveniently had two men already in custody, charges were never filed against Andrew Wilson in that case. You might remember Wilson -- his allegations of being tortured by Jon Burge and two detectives started the snowball that led to Burge’s firing and a $1 million award by the court. But the plot twists even further -- public defenders Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz, representing Wilson in the police shooting, received word that Hope was claiming Logan had nothing to do with the McDonald’s murder, and was pointing the finger at Wilson. When Coventry and Kunz confronted Wilson he admitted to being the trigger man. Wilson agreed to allow the lawyers to prepare a notarized affidavit of his confession, but it could only be revealed after his death. The affidavit has sat sealed in a metal box in Coventry’s office ever since. Andrew Wilson just died in November of last year -- Coventry and Kunz have now come forward with the new information, and Logan’s attorney is motioning for a new trial. Logan’s case is an example of how our justice system is for the most part effective, but far from perfect. The evidence to help exonerate someone in prison is just sitting around next to back issues of the , and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Even if Coventry and Kunz didn’t care about reprimands and losing their license for breaking the attorney-client privilege, because of that privilege the affidavit would be inadmissible, anyway. At least that’s our hope, as the thought of these two men sacrificing Logan just for the sake of their careers is unfathomable. Can any of our law degree toting readers confirm this? [Trib] more ›

Artur Shehu is still on the lam, but he was charged yesterday with two counts of first-degree murder for killing his parents. Syrja Shehu, 66, and his wife Safo, 67, were each shot once in the head, and were found dead in their Villa Park home early Monday morning, after Artur placed a call to the police. He was gone by the time police arrived. more ›

Hunter Podschwit is one lucky dog. Or one really unlucky dog, depending on how you look at it. Unlucky to be shot point-blank in the head by a police officer, certainly, but extremely lucky to survive the shooting, yes? more ›

The Sun-Times giveth, and the Sun-Times taketh away. How great: a list of 10 inspiring women of 2007! Wait a second...Jennifer Love Hewitt and the beauty queen who thinks we don't have maps? Come on. And what exactly do Paige Wiser and Lisa Donovan mean when they say that Laila Ali "redefined our idea of a female athlete"? [S-T] more ›

Felipe Rivera of Cicero has been charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated battery and a hate crime for allegedly beating, raping and sodomizing a man. Rivera and the victim met at a party on 1200 block of South 50th Avenue, and Rivera thought the victim winked at him. more ›

There's not a whole hell of a lot going on today, or hadn't you noticed? We're still thinking about that tiger attack in SF, but now we're also thinking about how telegenic Chicago can be. Por ejemplo: more ›

We're calling it a day a little early today--and something tells us you are, too. more ›

Wow, Alderman Tom Tunney has been having an interesting couple of months. First he gets a ticket for talking on his cell phone while driving and may have received special favors from the police department, then he makes a sweet deal and moves his flagship Ann Sather's, and now it's being reported that Tunney was the victim of an attempted holdup yesterday afternoon just a block from his 44th ward office. more ›

In a situation only slightly less disgusting and tragically hilarious than the time Dave Matthews Band's waste landed on that tour boat, mysterious "splotches" over a three block radius in Lisle may be human poop and pee. Police in the western suburb are investigating a substance that landed on and often stained roofs, lawns, streets, cars, etc. The yellow and brown stains were described as "the size of the palm of [a] hand." While there's... more ›

Former Chicago Police sergeant John Herman faces a minimum of 24 years in prison after he was convicted of rape this week. Herman had a bench trial rather than a jury trial, and Judge Joseph Claps not only found Herman guilty, he also had some additional harsh words for the rapist. "The defendant's testimony is unreasonable and nothing short of perjury," Claps said. Claps also didn't believe two officers who testified on Herman's behalf, saying... more ›

Wow, it's been hours since Al Sharpton was in the news, so here we are today with a new round of Sharpton headlines. He held a press conference outside the Mayor's office this morning demanding that the City effectively treat its police brutality issues--or Sharpton will campaign against Chicago's Olympic bid. He also urged aldermen to reject Daley's nominee for police superintendent Jody Weis's because Daley selected Weis without input from the black community. Psst,... more ›

Reginald Potts, Jr., was charged late last night in the murder of Nailah Franklin, who went missing in September of this year and whose body was later found in a wooded area in Calumet City. Not a big surprise, as Potts has been the primary suspect all along. In fact, the police didn't have to go very far to find him -- he was already locked up in county jail on other charges of violating... more ›