The focus in the media hasn't been on who Emanuel appointed, but on who he removed from the board. more ›

Say what you will about Wrigley Field's bleachers or people scromping in the bathrooms at The Cell, at least the food vendors at the city's four major sport stadiums (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB) apparently get a gold star in terms of (lack of) health code violations. Of the four major stadiums - Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field, United Center, and Soldier Field - only Soldier Field reported any critical violations. According to the report put together by ESPN, 12 percent of vendors at Soldier Field were cited but, "Almost all violations were due to a lack of hot water." The Cell, Wrigley, and UC reported zero percent of vendors as having critical violations. Compare these to, say, the violations found at Florida stadiums, like this one at Sun Life Stadium where the Miami Dolphins play: more ›

The Chicago White Sox are making some negative headlines today and it has nothing to do with last night's extra-inning loss to Cleveland. more ›

Avatar it's not but the White Sox are taking advantage of fancy 3-D technology to help sponsors see how their ads will appear in the park. 360-degree views are available, allowing to see their ads from various angles throughout the park. Check it out for yourself here. more ›

We realize that sponsorships are a big part of pro sports, but sometimes it seems that companies and team take their tie-ins a wee bit to far. Sometimes, apparently, they agree. After sponsoring the White Sox's weekday start time of 7:11pm, convenience store chain 7-Eleven has decided to let their deal with the team expire. The purveyor of beer, soda and snacks on roller grills paid $500,000 for three years of sponsorship, but when the deal ran out after the 2009 season they decided to step away. As a result, the Sox will take the field at U.S. Cellular Field at 7:10pm instead for 2010. To our knowledge, the Lincoln Park bowling alley paid nothing for this. more ›

U.S. Cellular Field may be getting a makeover sometime soon. The state agency that owns the field said on Friday that it's in the early stages of planning a new development across the street from the ballpark on 35th Street, including new restaurants, stores, and other attractions. The development would replace the parking lots that were built on the site where Comiskey Park used to be, potentially expanding upon the ballpark's Gate 5 entrance, with an atrium leading to a walkway over 35th Street. "Economic conditions are dictating what will happen and when," said Mike Alvarez, spokesman for the The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, to the Chicago Sun-Times. more ›

• Gov. Quinn outlined today how he plans to cut $1 billion from the state budget, including job cuts and asking some employees to give up pay raises.
• A violent month is drawing to a close; so far, 225 people have been shot in Chicago in July with 42 of those being deaths.
• A suspicious package found this morning outside Oprah's Harpo Productions, Inc building was proved to be safe.

While fans may strongly disagree on which baseball team is better in this town, the consensus has been among most Chicagoans that Wrigley Field was the better ballpark -- even after the extensive renovations to U.S. Cellular have improved many of the less-desirable features of the park when built. We admit that we love the historic ambiance of Wrigley even if we are Sox fans -- we just go and cheer on the Phillies, Marlins or whichever team is playing the Cubs. more ›

"I peddled across the whole country today!" via marinaro500 more ›

Daily Candy pointed us to Hopstop.com's new Chicago site today, and the prospect of a new online system to plan our public transportation routes had us very excited indeed. Sure, the CTA’s Trip Planner has helped us find our way on occasion, but we don’t always get the most direct route and we often fare better by analyzing the system map ourselves. more ›

• A limited number of blue seats, originally installed when US Cellular Field opened in 1991, are on sale for $490/pair. Who would want these?
• Conrad Black has plead not guilty to new charges of racketeering, obstruction of justice, money laundering and wire fraud - basically running his media empire as a criminal enterprise. A trial date has been set for March 2007.
• Mooo! The University of Chicago Illinois has started a farming blog.