Mayor Rahm Emanuel is hosting his second Facebook town hall forum on Monday evening, and this one focuses on education. He might need to address that whole extended school day thing. more ›

9th District Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky held a town hall meeting on health care reform this week, where she was met by both supporters and opponents of the legislation. Among the opponents of reform were several in the crowd that booed the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. more ›

Music: The Jazz Institute of Chicago is sponsoring a jazz guitar summit at Austin Town Hall this evening. Featured performers will be John Moulder, Buddy Fambro, Jeff Parker, and Curtis Robinson. more ›

With the race for the Democratic nomination showdown just days away, and polls showing Obama closing in on Clinton in key Super Duper Tuesday states, the Obama campaign made a huge ad buy during the Super Bowl in the Super Tuesday states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Washington, (but, alas, not Illinois) more ›

While the Cubs and their fans held their annual love-in last weekend, this past weekend the rest of us gathered at the Palmer House Hilton to celebrate and commiserate with fellow White Sox fans. Given the airing of grievances by fans and feats of strength by team management, it could very well have been renamed SoxFestivus. more ›

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did... more ›

Number one place not to smoke weed/hash: work. A longtime Cook County employee was busted in the stairwell of the County Building on Wednesday for allegedly smoking hash. New allegations of brutality by Chicago police have surfaced. In his lawsuit, one man claims he was beaten during a traffic stop. In that vein, two hundred people attended a town hall meeting on the city's West Side Wednesday night to complain about police misconduct and... 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 ›

If we were to describe this movie update post using song titles … In an email last week, long-time Chicago Filmmakers program director Patrick Friel announced he will be stepping down on August 10 to pursue other interests. He had been with Chicago Filmmakers for over eleven years. A replacement has not been announced yet. Also in his email was news that there will be opportunities to become involved with the programming of their weekly... more ›

Download the original attachment We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment... more ›

It's been nearly 10 years since the untimely, unfortunate demise of Chicago-area comedian Chris Farley. We're not going to lie and say we remember exactly where we were when we heard the news or anything like that, but we can't believe it's been that long already. He had still been big in the movies with a promising future at the time of his death, if he could have broken out of the stereotypical fat-guy-does-crazy-shit-cuz-he's-fat role.... more ›

Chicago's DJ collective, Flosstradamus, featuring DJs Josh Young (a.k.a. J2K) and Curt Cameruci (a.k.a. Autobot), and Melissa Young (a.k.a. club rapper Kid Sister and actual sibling of J2K), grace URB's April 2007 issue, "The Next 1000." These eclectic artists blend electronic and hip-hop beats, while sampling lyrics spanning several genres from crunk to punk. Flosstradamus thrills hipsters and hip-hop heads alike with their unique blend of genre-hopping. The duo employs a three-turntable set up with... more ›

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into... more ›

As Hurricane Rita gains steam and takes aim at Texas, the Bush administration is still reeling from the criticisms of its failures and slow action in the tragedy that is Hurricane Katrina. Last night Senator Barack Obama addressed the 35th annual legislative conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and condemned the President’s response to Katrina and his efforts, or lack thereof, to deal with poverty honestly in this country. In response to Bush’s... more ›

Monday, the Bush and Kerry camps agreed to three 90 minute debates with the first held on Sept. 30 at the University of Miami. The first debate will touch on foreign policy and homeland security. The second debate will be a town hall meeting with questions from "soft" Bush and Kerry supporters in St. Louis on Oct. 8. And the third debate on Oct. 13 in Tempe, Ariz.? It's the economy stupid. more ›