With restaurants and fast food chains slowly returning tomatoes to their menus, the Tribune has an interesting profile of David Acheson, the "food safety czar" at the Food and Drug Administration. The piece details the Gordian knot Acheson's been trying to solve in order to track down the source(s) of the salmonella outbreak that's led to 277 documented cases and sent 43 to hospitals across the country. Acheson admits in the article that, because tomato......

JoeM500 gets ready for "Antiques Roadshow" Hummer owners are feeling the squeeze from high gas prices. Boo. Hoo. Technology in Action: Cook County Sheriff's officials are now busting prostitutes on Craigslist. On Sunday, DePaul PhD candidate Karen Alkolby will become the first deaf woman in U.S. history to earn a doctorate in computer science. Alkolby created a computerized dictionary that translates English to American Sign language. Envelopes containing white powder were sent to Alderman......

Leading off today is this hiring video put together for Lettuce Entertain You property Hub 51 Restaurant and Lounge, an exaggerated parody of Tom Vu infomercials. (via) Fresh off his appearance on last night's episode of Top Chef Chicago, Rick Tramonto has a blog over at Restaurant & Institutions magazine website. There are only two posts right now, but Tramonto's an in-demand chef and businessman, so only expect him to update when he has......

Mike Downey at the Trib is incensed! He's pissed that the Sun-Times ran a front-page story about the White Sox' blow-up dolls, and spends his entire column ragging on the paper, its ads and its editorial content. ...if you are going to condemn a baseball team and its manager for offending the public's taste, then your own house better be squeaky clean. Particularly if your own very public publication trades in highly provocative material and......

If you think the Trib publishes some crazy shit now, you should see the kinds of things they used to run. These illustrations are part of a series called Closer Than We Think, by Arthur Radebaugh (whose work you might recognize), which ran in the Tribune and other newspapers from 1958-62. Some are actually weirdly prescient, like the "lunar mailbag," which predicts that "Christmas cards of the future may be transmitted electronically." Others...well, we're still......

OK, keep it in your pants, Sun-Times and Tribune. The moronic Sam Zell song contest that the S-T has been hyping like the second coming finally concluded today. And a Tribune intern won, although the S-T folk didn't realize that when they picked her song. The Sun-Times says it's been "punk'd," which isn't really what punk'd means, and the Trib published its own gleeful story all about how they're the bestest ever, and how everyone......

"First Amendment protected" sign by JR1479 Part of the shenanigans involved with the Tribune selling Wrigley Field to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority are renovations to the ballpark, which apparently are going to be so major that even with construction beginning immediately after the regular season ends, the Cubs might have to find a temporary home potentially well into the following season. Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney's choice for that move? U.S. Cellular Field. "To......

Todd Stroger dismissed a 54-page report (PDF) on patronage yesterday. The report, filed last week by retired Cook County Circuit Judge Julia Nowicki, the federally appointed hiring monitor for the county, documents allegations by more than 220 people that illegal patronage practices occurred over two years ending February of last year. Among the allegations in Nowicki's report are an employee boasting that he was a "soldier for Stroger", and would be promoted shortly. According to......

With how nasty the race for Dennis Hastert's vacant seat has gotten recently, you'd think a couple of high school girls were running the campaigns leading up to tomorrow's special election for Dennis Hastert's seat in Illinois 14th Congressional District. Both Republican Jim Oberweis and Democrat Bill Foster have campaigned hard for the vacancy, and this week each accused the other of misleading voters. Bill Foster hit the dairy man on his use of actors......

Funny Ha-Ha is a guaranteed good time. Tonight's edition at The Hideout features a host of writers, but seems to be "headlined" by Eric Zorn. We love Zorn, but find it kind of funny his credit is "Chicago Tribune Columnist & Blogger" while Claire Zulkey's is "Blogger & TV Critic for The Onion & Los Angeles Times." Yeah, yeah, yeah, Zulkey rose to fame due to her blog, but even so, once she scored the......

Probably not. But in the wake of a series of tax hikes levied around the Chicago area, it seems people are downright pissed. In northwest suburban Palatine, village council members are floating the idea of seceding from Cook County. Like other municipal leaders in towns near the edge of Cook County, council member Scott Lamerand is frustrated with what he sees as the potential loss of revenue to lower taxed counties just across the border.......

Leading up to the special election this Saturday in Illinois's 14th Congressional District, Bill Foster's campaign has announced a slew of endorsements. The list included the Aurora Beacon News, the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, the Kane County Chronicle, the Algonquin Countryside, and the Chicago Tribune. Besides local and regional editorial boards, he's also been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, who cited his credentials as a scientist, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, who like......

Late Friday, Todd Stroger and nine other county commissioners worked to close the Cook County budget for 2008. The compromise deal doubled the county parking taxes and raised the sales tax to 1.75 percent - making Chicago one of the highest taxed cities in the nation. Those tax hikes, coupled with an agreement to cede control of the county Health Services Bureau to an independent oversight panel yielded the elusive ninth vote that Stroger had......

To the surprise of absolutely nobody in the entire state, Governor Rod Blagojevich denied any wrongdoing in the Tony Rezko trial at a press conference held Wednesday to announce the demolition of the hall where the NIU shootings occurred. Blagojevich denied that he is the Public Official A cited in the federal indictment against Tony Rezko. "It doesn't matter what letter of the alphabet it is. What was described there doesn't describe me or how......

Maybe he hasn't made Keith Olbermann's nightly list yet, but Sam Zell is quickly cementing his place among the "Worst People in Chicago" as he continues to antagonize Chicagoans since his takeover of the Tribune Co. Not content simply wanting to replace actual news with "profitable" features and celebrity news, Zell is working overtime to squeeze every last nickel out of the Cubs before he sells off the team. This week, he reiterated on CNBC's......

With Friday's budget deadline looming for Cook County, Todd Stroger is finding himself in a very uncomfortable position. Stroger has been http://chicagoist.com/2007/10/01/cook_county_sal.php">pushing to raise the county sales tax to 2 percent from .75 percent, a proposal that was taken off the table by commissioners Monday in hopes that they could find a compromise to fund county services without the hike. The majority of the county board wants to cut spending, preferring to pass only a......

McDonald's is giving away free McSkillet Burritos today and tomorrow, which elicited responses from Yumsugar readers ranging from "Yuck! No way." to "Do they come with chorizo?" We say "eat at your own risk." Who knew Dolly Parton had a fucking cookbook? Proceeds from sales of Dolly's Dixie Fixins support her Dollywood Foundation's Imagination Library, which distributes free books to preschoolers in 43 states and Canada. Parton told Dave Hoekstra, "These are recipes of......

Sam Zell knows how to party, kids. Photo by SAL-E. Sam Zell said yesterday that he'd be down with selling the naming rights to Wrigley. Which isn't news exactly. He's been saying that for a while. But he said it again and louder. Zell was on CNBC yesterday (argh, make that video embeddable) talking about his plan to sell the Cubs, among other things. Zell's selling the team and the naming rights to the......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music The Riverboat Gamblers fucking slay, there's no debate there. Lead singer Mike Wiebe channels Iggy Pop's figuratively red-headed step-child as he thrashes and throws himself across the stage belting out hook-filled punk rawk anthems. No song breaks the 3-minute mark because there's no point in pushing the riffs any further than they need to......

With foreclosures on the rise, along with the ubiquitousness of television shows like Flip This House and Flipping Out, more and more people are showing up at real estate auctions trying to score a bargain and make a quick buck. And while veteran house flippers know that when you buy a home "as is" you're sure to find a few surprises like termites, water damage, or even a shitload of cats, we'll still bet that......

Michael Ruhlman and Anthony Bourdain announced the nominees for their inaugural "Golden Clog" awards on Eater Tuesday. Among the nominees are Paul Kahan for the "Chef's Chef" award ("for the chef who continues to make the kind of food other chefs like, while flying largely under the national radar") and Hungry Mag's Michael Nagrant - that photo is of his son staring down a 23-ounce bone-in ribeye at Harry Caray's, btw - for the "Steingarten"......

They say Shakespeare wrote over 30,000 unique words in his complete works and his vocabulary is estimated to be about twice that. The average person today knows roughly 12,000 to 20,000 and only uses a tenth of that. Thanks in part to the Internet, those numbers are fast becoming outdated. English has always been composed of a mish-mash of different languages and other words, and now Paul Payack, who runs Global Language Monitor (GLM), estimates......

I really bugged people yesterday when I said I didn't care that much about the dean of Medill possibly making up anonymous sources for a letter in an alumni newsletter, and the conversation that followed has been interesting and persuasive. The story so far: Medill dean John Lavine wrote a letter in the school's spring alumni magazine hyping the school's advertising classes. That letter included an anonymous quote from a student praising the class, saying......

Sam Zell, along with Randy Michaels and Gerry Spector, addressed the Chicago Tribune staff today. Go go gadget eccentric billionaire! That's his whole talk, and some of the language gets salty.......

From the Sunday Tribune: more men are dropping the razors and freeing their inner caveman. Citing celebrities such as George Clooney, who wore one in Syriana, men are finding it easier to let their facial hair grow out. TIME magazine, in an article on the latest beard "revolution", called the increased prevalence of beards "an act of rebellion" and that the men growing them are "trying to prove they are no corporate slave." Having......

According to a new study released by Chicago Urban League Wednesday, Chicago must expand education, business and economic opportunities for African-Americans in order to become and remain globally competitive. Cook County is the most densely black populated county in the nation with 1.4 million blacks, 1.1 million of whom live in the city. Funded by a $6.2 million grant from the BP Foundation, the Urban League is warning that the region's black middle class could......

John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will visit Illinois next Wednesday, appearing at a fundraiser at the Rich Harvest Farms golf course in Sugar Grove to raise money for 14th District Congressional candidate Jim Oberweis. Oberweis's campaign spokesman Bill Pascoe said the appearance will give Oberweis a boost with independents as well as an infusion of cash heading into the the March 8 special election to choose a successor to former House Speaker Dennis......

Jesus, have things been busy lately, highlighted by the re-opening of Schwa last night. The Tribune recapped everything we've already read about the events surrounding Michael Carlson and company in recent months, from the killer dinner he prepared for Trotter, Adria, Blumenthal, and a host of culinary Illuminati; to closing Schwa the next day, then going into deep hiding to recharge and re-energize, and coming back. Phil Vettel and Monica Eng try to dig deeper,......

Tribune Company chairman and CEO Sam Zell had some bad news for employees this morning. He sent out a memo saying the months ahead would include "a combination of voluntary separation programs, involuntary layoffs, attrition and closing of open positions." Scott C. Smith, president of Tribune publishing, sent out a follow-up with, well, more bad news: approximately 100 positions will be cut from the Chicago Tribune Media Group. Zell's and Smith's full memos after the......

Photo by Alforque Shake-ups and oustings continue at the Trib. The latest casualty: Tribune Interactive President Tim Landon. [Trib] A missing Chicago 4-year-old was found dead in a relative's home in Milwaukee. [CBS2] A Little Village man faces two counts of murder; one for stabbing a man he says attacked him months ago, and one for accidentally stabbing his brother during the fight. Jesus. [Trib] Former Sun-Times publisher David Radler is suing Donald Trump.......