We just came across a video The U shot of a few employees of Schubas and Lincoln Hall explaining why they love their job. Matt Rucins (Talent Buyer & Promoter), Tim Stephans (Communications Director), Brendan Fitzpatrick (Digital Media Director) and Rob Jensen (Promotions Director & Ad Sales) all make an appearance and, as you probably suspected, they have many reasons to love their job. Prepare to be a little bit jealous. more ›

Weigel Broadcasting, the local company behind The U, MeTV and MeToo, has announced that this fall it'll be partnering with MGM to produce a new, nationwide digital TV channel to be called This TV. When stations go all-digital in February, there will be many broadcasters that won't be able to fill the new subchannels, due to lack of funds and/or programming. This TV aims to fill the gap, available for lease to broadcasters who can broadcast the schedule as is (it'll be on the air 24/7) or customize it with local content. The new station will draw from more than 10,000 hours of TV shows and thousands of films that are part of the MGM library. And it'll be run and programmed right here in Chicago, overseen by Weigel's Executive VP Neal Sabin. more ›

Laughter, the best medicine. As in, your doctor is laughing at you and giving you fake medicine just to get you to shut up. The U of C surveyed internists from U of C, Northwestern and University of Illinois at Chicago, and of the 233 doctors who responded, 48 percent said they'd given patients placebos, including "vitamins, herbal supplements, saline infusions, dummy pills and doses of medicine too low to be effective. One of the most common placebo treatments was giving antibiotics for viral infections that don't respond to antibiotics." Er, isn't that an awful idea? Taking antibiotics you don't need can make those antibodies ineffective when you do need them. more ›

Things are looking up in Margaritaville! We know, we know, wrong Buffett--but we always think Jimmy first. Sorry, Warren. Go cry in your mountain of money. more ›

Another man was charged today in U of C grad student Amadou Cisse's murder. Benjamin Williams, 21, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted robbery, two counts of armed robbery, and aggravated discharge of a firearm for the string of robberies that preceeded Cisse's death. Williams was not accused of shooting Cisse, and he's the third person charged with crimes from that night. more ›

And the hits just keep on coming for Rod Blagojevich. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops elected a new president today, and it's Chicago's own Cardinal Francis George. But it's not all good news today for George: the Sun-Times got a copy of a letter he sent, in which he says new legislation that allows sex-abuse victims to sue perpetrators even after the criminal statute of limitations has expired, is "about money." Police are... more ›

Here are some other news items of note while we're at Millennium Park enjoying Muhal Richard Abrams and Reginald Robinson: The U.S. attorney's office has joined an ongoing Cook County probe into the rogue actions of an elite squad of the Chicago Police Department . Blue Line passengers can expect (more) delays starting this weekend. The sculptor who created Berwyn's spindle claims that the shopping plaza where it sits is "prostituting" the sculpture under... more ›

There is nothing more that we want to get done than this installment of Empty Out Your Wallet, so we can get outside and enjoy this day. Leave it to the Ticketmaster gods to curse us once again with numerous great shows making our job harder. The show that our readers were looking forward to last week, The Flaming Lips at the Aragon, goes on sale at 11 a.m. on Saturday. This should be a... more ›

Toyota Park will host two international sporting events this summer. The first on Sunday, July 22 when the Chicago Fire host Scottish Premier League side Celtic FC. Celtic FC had a remarkable season last year where they went unbeaten in 31 of 34 games, leading them to a repeat as champions in the Scottish Premier League. The club has won five of the last seven championships and has racked up 41 domestic titles in their... more ›

It was a great atmosphere in Chicago this weekend for soccer fans. The Chicago Fire won an international friendly over MKS Cracovia on Friday night at Toyota Park. Saturday night, Chicagoist visited the Globe Pub where we found United States National Team supporters who had traveled from both coasts for the Gold Cup final. They joined together singing soccer songs while taking in Major League Soccer action via satellite feed. The U.S. fans found themselves... more ›

As we mentioned a few months back, the state of Illinois, and the Midwest in general, are at the forefront of the increasingly high-profile energy debate in the United States. With ethanol at the top of the pack as alternative sources go, the price of corn has doubled, leaving Illinois corn growers with lots of dough. It isn't just corn though folks, the state is also making headway in research and development regarding new biofuels; including wind energy, solar energy, liquid coal, and ethanol (sans corn). more ›

In the “reality TV”-obsessed era of “So You Think You’re the Next Bachelor Genius Idol” cultural saturation, there comes a time when every sensible man and woman must turn off the television and venture out into “reality life.” Luckily, the transition is eased by events like tonight’s regional finals of the U.S. Air Guitar Championships at Metro — ambitious folks with limited talent in a ridiculous “discipline?” Check! Less ambitious, more voyeuristic folks willing to pay to observe the first group perform feats of absurdity within said discipline? Check! One of the most storied rock venues in America to host this circus? Check! more ›

If you have purchased a baby bib from Wal-Mart in the past three years, listen up — the superstore is recalling "Baby Connection" bibs (made exclusively for the chain by Hamco Inc.) due to unsafe levels of lead. At first, the recall was just for the state of Illinois, but it is now nationwide. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has weighed in on the matter as well, stating that "there is a potential risk of lead exposure from baby bibs with cracked or peeling vinyl surfaces." more ›

The United States Women's National Soccer Team has scheduled a series of international friendlies this year to help them prepare for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup that will be held in China this fall. At noon on August 12, the U.S. Women's team will take on New Zealand at Soldier Field, a game that will also be broadcast live on ESPN2. Soccer fans can start buying tickets as of today. The U.S. squad is... more ›

Photo of ice on the lake by pantagrapher. more ›

Neal Sabin, MeTV more ›

McDonald's new menu, especially the new fancy coffee, helped them make big money last year. The city is unveiling Olympic ads that will be displayed at O'Hare. Motorola is sending kids to China (not in a Jack Bauer kind of way). And their investors want new fancy toys. Mayor Daley isn't allowing the Park District to jack up parking prices for the Bears game. An E2 guard discussed the stampede in the club. The CTA... more ›

On Wednesday it was discovered that an Orland Park firefighter was arrested for felony theft for falsely claiming he was fighting for the military in Iraq. Lawrence Masa was actually working for a private security firm in Iraq and was being paid quite well. During this time Masa made approximately $190,000 as a firefighter and $200,000 as a private security worker. Yesterday, Steven Slawinski, a Lemont Firefighter, was accused of the same crime. Slawinski, a... more ›

When you think of Chicago arts students, several schools might come to mind. The School of the Art Institute and Columbia College would surely be on the list, and maybe even you’d throw in Northwestern for some theatre. But the University of Chicago? Not unless your idea of art is some abstract illustration of economic models or something equally dorky. more ›

The U of C students are back on campus this week, and luckily, no one has lit anything on fire yet. Perhaps because they're too busy bringing us another quarter of hard-to-find films and modern trifles through Doc Films. Like several film classes rolled into one, this semester explores the Women of Early Hollywood with films from former It Girl Clara Bow, America’s sweetheart Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish and Greta Garbo; the later works of... more ›

Remember how much fun fire drills were in grade school? Loud alarms, a break from class, a chance to talk with your friends outside (even though there was supposed to be no talking!) - it was essentially a mini recess. And, we didn’t have to pay attention because an emergency would never really happen to us. Oh, the invincibility of youth. more ›

The Chicago Fire are slated to take on the New England Revolution in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals on Wednesday night at Toyota Park. The two teams are familiar with each other, as the Fire defeated the Revs in New England 1-0 this past Sunday. That win moved the Fire into a second-place tie with the Revs in the Eastern Conference standings. However, the Fire hold the edge against the Revs in 2006... more ›

The CTA needs themselves a James Koh: Mistakes on the new CTA maps cost one guy his job and will cost the agency $75,000 to correct. Topinka unveiled her new education plan. The U of C jumped up to 9th place in a national college ranking. Traffic aides in the green vests get no respect. No, it's not OK to sleep on the job, even if you work for the city. Diarrhea Harbor (a.k.a.... more ›

Anyone working downtown realized today that the 48th Annual Air & Water Show is this weekend. Aircraft participating in this year's event started roaring up and down the lakeshore today in preparation for this weekend's show. Chicagoist had the opportunity fly with the AeroShell Aerobatic Team this morning to check out the pilots to ensure they were ready for the show. The AeroShell Team is comprised of four T-6 Texans and four planes used to... more ›

"So, the U.S. Olympic Committee comes into town and...." Sounds like the beginning of a joke. To us, at least. We might be in the minority of people who *don't* want the Olympics to come to town in 2016. more ›

Can the Lincoln Park Zoo finally catch a break? The last two years haven't been kind to the zoo, despite the opening of the fantastic new Regenstein Center for Apes and the African Journey habitat. Three of the zoo's elephants died, ultimately causing them to give up trying to keep the pachyderms in Chicago. Two gorillas and a camel also died, then another small monkey had to have an arm amputated after an accident. These incidents, especially the elephant deaths, led to widespread criticism from animal rights groups. Then if that weren't bad enough, three langur monkeys died in May 2005 after eating leaves from a yew tree that shouldn't have been near their habitat in the first place, and then a gorilla bit a zookeeper the following July. more ›

• A former Aurora gymnastics coach was sentenced to 20 years for molesting 7 young girls. He says that gymnastics is a hands-on sport and that his touches were misunderstood.
• This is already one of the coldest Decembers on record. Warming centers are open for the homeless.
• A Chicago man is suing Microsoft for selling a "defectively designed" product, saying that the Xbox 360 has a flaw that causes the hardware to overheat and freeze in the middle of gameplay.

Well, he finally did it. He signed his law banning the sale of violent and sexy video games to minors. But not without uttering, what sounds to us like, quite a contradictory quote: more ›

The Bears opener is still 4 months away, but Soldier Field saw nearly 48,000 pass through its gates for a football game of the other kind on Saturday. The U.S. national soccer team played an exhibition against England, losing 2-1. England's team missed some of its biggest stars like David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen. Fans wishing to see those stars had to attend Tuesday's England-Colombia match in New York. The star of the... more ›

This time it was without a warrant and with the full cooperation of the Mayor's staff, but for about twenty minutes after work hours on Monday, federal investigators visited the Department of Streets and Sanitation, their third city office in as many days. The U.S. Attorney won't comment on what they were looking for, and city Corporation Counsel Mara Georges is repeatedly telling reporters how cooperative Mayor Daley is being. The Mayor, nor his senior officials, have been accused of any wrongdoing. more ›