The White Sox struggled to get any offense going and the Tigers rode a big fourth inning to a 5-1 victory last night. An Omar Vizquel solo shot gave the Sox an early 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth but the Tigers cracked the game open with four runs in the bottom of the inning off of Sox starter John Danks, who fell to 13-10 on the season. Overall, the Sox only managed four hits on the night off of Jeremy Bonderman: Vizquel's homer and three singles, not the kind of offensive performance the team needed. Meanwhile, the Twins won their sixth straight, extending their AL Central lead to 5.5 games. The Sox play the Tigers once more this afternoon before returning home (12:05 p.m., CSN). more ›

Things have turned violent up in Toronto surrounding the G20 summit. Our sister site Torontoist has some amazing photos here and you can check out their full coverage of the summit here. more ›

The owner of a Toronto film studio has purchased 48 acres on the West Side with plans to develop a film and tv production complex reports WBBM. Nick Mirkopoulos chairman of Cinespace Studios said he paid about $20 million for the property at 2558 W. 16th St., a complex of nine buildings which was the Ryerson Inc. headquarters and old metals plant. more ›

For five years, one bike rider tracked his movements via GPS as he rode all over Toronto. The resulting map is like an etch-a-sketch of awesome. Now we're waiting for someone to do this with Chicago. Joe M500? Chuck? Anyone? I'd do it, but it would simply track my movements between my house and the ice cream place a few blocks away. [via] more ›

http://seattlest.com/2008/02/28/foo_fighters_da.php">announced his presidential bid.

Joseph Pannell pleaded guilty today to shooting a Terrence Knox, a Chicago police officer, in 1969. He'll serve 30 days in jail, be on probation for two years, and contribute $250,000 to the Hundred Club of Cook County, a group that assists the families of police officers, paramedics and fire fighters killed in the line of duty. more ›

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The Spice Girls are in town tonight at the United Center for the Chicago stop of their reunion tour. Originally Chicago tour dates were scheduled for both the February 15 and the 16, but management moved Saturday’s show over to Detroit. Tickets are still available for tonight’s show. more ›

href="http://torontoist.com/2008/02/phototo_snowbal.php">photographing a big, organized snowball fight.

The United States isn't the only country that is having federal elections this year. In March a by-election will be held in Toronto's Toronto Centre Riding. And our sister site, Torontoist has been posting a semi-regular column by their Environment Editor, Chris Tindal, who is running for parliament as the Green Party candidate. more ›

U of C Business School Assistant Professor Nicholas Epley has been on faculty at the GSB for three years, but this week he's been making headlines around the world. Today's Financial Times profiles Epley as a "professor to watch," focusing on his application of behavioral science methods to business education. According to the article, Epley's brand of mind-reading, which basically amounts to knowing one's coworkers, "looks at how people intuit others' thoughts, how good they are at it and the consequences of what he calls 'mind-reading mistakes.'" The study finds that our perceptions of others and what others think of us are distorted (we think people like us more than they actually do), and these distortions can be improved with better communication. However, "if you want to avoid ambiguity, never depend on e-mail," the article warns. 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 ›

Next Thursday's second day of the Tomorrow Never Knows weekend may be its most eclectic, which is an enticing departure from the usual blog-approved buzz acts. more ›

No Pants 2K8, a no-slacks spectacle that was started by the New York-based performance comedy group, Improv Everywhere, is upon us, and you know what that means: Drop trou, pronto! more ›

It only took them five games into the season, but the Bulls finally won a game on Thursday night. After dropping their first four to mediocre teams, they handed the previously undefeated Detroit Pistons their first loss of the season. Nice! Second-year player and new starting power forward Tyrus Thomas had his second monster game of the season, leading the team with 19 points while grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds. Luol Deng added 17 points,... more ›

A recent agreement between the National Lacrosse League and the Professional Lacrosse Players Association prevented a cancellation of the 2008 indoor lacrosse season. Yesterday, the Chicago Shamrox, Chicago's indoor pro lacrosse franchise, announced their 2008 schedule . The Shamrox will host seven Saturday night games and one Sunday afternoon game. They will kick off their season at home on January 5 against the Toronto Rock, and the 16-game regular season runs through April 26. They play their home games at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, and individual tickets for this season start at $15 a game. more ›

So in 2000 a dude gets hit by a New York City Bus (Bear with us; the story has roots in New York, and eventually makes its way to our city) and decides he’s going to make something positive out of the experience. What does Brendt Barbur do? He creates a Bicycle Film Festival (BFF), featuring films celebrating the bike. And all forms of bikes: Tall-Bike Jousting, Track Bikes, BMX, Alleycats, Critical Mass, Bike Polo, Cycling to Recumbents--if it’s a bike, BFF has probably screened a movie about it. more ›

The Fire's recent changes, bringing in Juan Carlos Osorio as head coach and signing Cuauhtemoc Blanco, are paying off as the Fire earned their first victory since the first week of June. Many, including Chicagoist questioned the Fire's decision to sign Blanco figuring that a combination of his aging legs and his often destructive temper would not allow him to be a productive member of the team. Since joining the Fire a little over a... more ›

The Chicago Fire may have found a spark in Cuauhtemoc Blanco that Chicagoist hopes helps the club ignite a run to the playoffs. The Mexican star made his debut with the Fire on Sunday when the team played an international friendly with Celtic FC of the Scottish Premier League. Blanco marked his debut with a beautiful goal in the 30th minute and continued to entertain the crowd with cheeky back heel passes and deft touches... more ›

Now that Conrad Black has been convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice the real fun begins. With prosecutors asking that Black's $21 million bond be revoked, fearing the Lord of Crossharbour to be a flight risk, Black has voluntarily turned in his passport while he awaits sentencing from Judge Amy St. Eve on November 30th. Now the search for his money begins. more ›

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried... more ›

The Fire will be looking for a win tonight when they return home after dropping the last two of a three game road run. The Fire helped make history in their last match, but not the good kind, when they became the first franchise to be scored upon by expansion franchise Toronto FC and then went on to be the first team to lose to the Canadian club. The Fire host FC Dallas in tonight's... more ›

The Chicago Fire came into the week tied for first place as a result of the Fire's best Major League start in club history, 3-0-1. After Sunday night’s loss to the New England Revolution the Fire (3-1-1, 10 pts) fall below the fold in the tough Eastern Conference standings to fourth behind Kansas City (4-1-0, 12 pts), New York Red Bulls (3-0-2, 11 pts) and New England Revs (3-1-2, 11 pts). The Fire were able... more ›

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with... more ›

One night, one game, but three seeds lost on the final night of the NBA's regular season for the Bulls. Heading into the final game, the Bulls had the upper hand in winning the second seed in the Eastern Conference. All they had to do was win. Or Cleveland had to lose. But neither came to fruition. more ›

Injured prior to the All Star Break, Bulls forward Andres Nocioni finally returned to the court this weekend, scoring three points in 10 minutes against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. more ›

Prosecutors and defense attorneys settled on a jury in the Conrad Black trial on Friday, and the real fun begins today with opening statements. Despite the Tribune's best efforts, Judge Amy St. Eve won't release the names of the 12 jurors and eight alternates, a move usually reserved for trials involving organized crime or terrorism. She is expected to let two of the alternates go today after making sure none of the other jurors suddenly developed an allergy to ridiculously rich media barons over the weekend. more ›

), was casting the wide goblin smile of Willem Dafoe and hiding it inside a mask. The Green Goblin should look something akin to what's on the label to Wychwood's Green Goblin Cider. But we'll leave the movie reviews to Rob and get back to talking about beer. more ›

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not... more ›

Today Major League Soccer hosted its 2007 SuperDraft. The draft was overshadowed by yesterday's announcement that David Beckham has signed with the LA Galaxy. Today's newest members of Major League Soccer will get paid significantly less than Beckham's nearly $1 million per week in salary and endorsements. Toronto FC, an MLS expansion team, had the first selection and picked University of Maryland product midfielder Maurice Edu. The Columbus Crew was scheduled to have the second... more ›