Photo by Rob Lambert The Tinley Park murderer is still on the loose; pastors today called for him to turn himself in. [Trib] There's going to be a giant new hotel near Midway. [S-T] Most presidents have names that start with a stressed syllable. Interesting! [Freakonomics] Can't believe we missed this one for Valentine's Day...eve if it is total see-you-in-my-nightmares territory: Daley, Weis. [via Second City Cop]......

Handlebar, everyone's favorite bicycle bar turns five tomorrow. The highlight, for us, is the serving of Bell's Kalamazoo porter. They're also offering free appetizers, half-off all drinks, and Mucca Pazza will do their best to blow out the windows. Festivities run from 10 p.m. - 3 a.m. For you guys who only bought your valentine doghouse roses, the James Hotel and Local wine Events Chicago have paired up to offer a $229, all inclusive......

The CTA will be spending $227 million in federal funds on improving itself and fixing slow zones. Doors open on the left at "finally." In other CTA news, the Yellow Line is going to start running on weekends. [S-T, Trib] Chicago police officers made heroic rescues in a fire last night in a Chicago Housing Authority building. [Trib] This just in: Airport security might be bullshit. [S-T] Patrick Daley's sewer company did $200,000 worth of......

Seriously, this is so much fun. Make a Chicago Valentine and send it in, won't you? E-mail margaret@chicagoist.com Original photo by JoeM500 Original photo by PhotoDu.de......

Original image......

--Marcus Gilmer......

Original photo by Swanksalot......

We're pretty tough on love and Valentine's Day around the office, but we're not completely embittered. If you're got a secret crush, today might just be the appropriate day to let them know how you feel in an unconventional way. Here's some inspiration. Make your own at Had to Say.......

Virgin Atlantic is offering free flowers, cards, cab rides and movie tickets in honor of Valentine's Day. You can grab flowers or cards at the NBC Building, Ogilvie Building, Union Station and the LaSalle Metra Train Station between 3:30 and 7:30 tonight. For free movie tickets, you have to text VPORT312 to 51684, and it'll text you back a Fandango code. Word. If flowers and fun aren't your bag, you can also download Suze Ormen's......

Valentine's Day is nothing but a pre-fab holiday designed to get consumers to spend money on crap for each other ... especially if you're single. Instead of battling the hordes for a good table at a restaurant this evening, why not just order out from Art of Pizza, rent a movie and enjoy a few hours of twisted romance with one of these: 1. Rear Window [directed by Alfred Hitchcock] "Every man's ready for marriage......

Screw Valentine's Day...let's think of tomorrow as Palentine's Day instead. High fives and paper airplanes for everyone! Daley's plans to privatize Midway is forging ahead, with five of the seven carriers who fly into Midway agreeing to the proposal. [Crain's] Anthony Abbate may plead guilty to aggravated battery. [S-T] Illinois lawmakers have accepted $83,000 from tobacco companies in the four weeks before the primaries. Is there such a thing as "small" tobacco, or is it......

Valentine’s Day had always been a great excuse to go out to dinner. Unwilling to foist our screaming banshee toddler on fellow romantic diners these days, we’ve created a new luxe tradition to celebrate: after bed time, we’re reheating Charlie Trotter’s take out. Trotters to Go is the pre-made food endeavor from high end chef Charlie. This cross between a wine shop and an upscale deli counter, sitting in a strip mall on Fullerton, serves......

Happy Valentine's Day, Barack! Obama hasn't yet snagged the Democratic nomination. But already, like John Kerry before him, he's about to become the target of an "exposé film." As reported in the New York Times, the conservative group Citizens United has budgeted about $1 million to produce the film, which they plan to distribute this summer. The group and its president have previously released such creatively-titled valentines as Hillary, the Movie (a love song......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Food/Drink: Get an early start to Valentine's Day with a champagne dinner at Café Matou this evening. Chef Charlie Socher will prepare a five-course dinner featuring dishes from the Champagne region, paired with Champagne wines selected by Wine Director James Rahn. 1846 N. Milwaukee, 7 p.m. Cost is $95 (all inclusive); RSVP at 773.384.8911. Art:......

Still not sure what to make your sweetie for Valentine's Day? How about a Coolio Caprese salad? But remember to go easy on the olive oil — "an oily salad ain't shit." [HT Brendan]......

We're going to be doing a special Valentine's Day version of the Buffet next week. Until then, here are some events to tie you over. Big City Swing is hosting a wine and chocolate tasting from 10:30 p.m. through 3 a.m. Cost is $15. The Alliance Francaise de Chicago is hosting a cooking class tomorrow open to kids between 7 to 10 year old accompanied by a family member. Expose your child to French culture......

If your Valentine has a sweet tooth and you're looking for something special to make for him or her on the big day, this chocolate-dipped shortbread may be just the thing. These cookies only have six ingredients, all of which we had in our kitchen already. Score! Love it when that happens. Traditionalists will want to leave the chocolate plain, but if your Valentine is a nut-lover, sprinkle some chopped nuts on before the chocolate......

Michelle Garcia at Bleeding Heart Bakery sent out an e-mail last week to highlight a limited edition run of what she and husband Valentin have planned for Valentines Day. The Sid Vicious cupcake is nice, but we also love the tribute to Sid Vicious (whiskey and chocolate). The Garcias have also created a seven deadly sins of bakery goods and truffles. Yo can check out the entire line at this flickr page. If it whets......

Author Jeffrey Eugenides is no stranger to lovers of both great fiction and fine cinema. His novel Virgin Suicides was adapted into the 1999 film by Sofia Coppela, and his follow-up novel Middlesex was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. His work has also been featured in the likes of the New Yorker and the Yale Review, and he has received numerous other awards and recognition for his talents as an American writer …......

Were you on flight 293 from Delhi to O'Hare to San Francisco on December 13th? Have you developed a bit of a cough? It could be because officials learned on Friday that a woman who had the drug-resistant form of tuberculosis was a passenger on your flight. A 30-year-old resident of Sunnyvale, California, she was diagnosed in India this past August and according to reports, she was not in the dark about her condition:......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

Unfortunately this isn't one of those fun stories where we anthropomorphize the animals and let them make a statement. Actually, it's more about people acting like animals: abandoning their young, fear-biting, forcible sodomy, and pouring boiling water on your enemies. OK, those last two are things that only humans do, which leaves us to wonder who the animals really are. Last Saturday, a 25-year-old woman robbed a bank in the town of Lake in the......

We admit to being sort of "eh" about Valentine's Day. Single people hate it for making them feel like losers (except Jen Shefft of course), and people in long-term relationships have to come up with some new way to make the yearly holiday "special." Chicagoist thinks that the only people who really dig little cupid and all of his fancy greeting cards are people who are newly part of a relationship. And lots of people......

It's been a whole seven days since last week, and just like snow, the news is piling up. As our man Barack implores us to let him walk with us on this movement, everyone is just hoping for a piece of his shadow. Let's take a look back. Chicagoist's favorite whipping boy Todd "The Toddler" Stroger got booed by the crowd at Obama's announcement rally in Chicago Sunday. Considering that the people that carried Obama......

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's hoping you all get a bunch of candy hearts and Garfield valentines stuffed into the basket taped to your desk, if you make it to work that is. Commuters from the South Side will have to deal with closures on Lake Shore Drive from 39th Street to 57th Street that could last until 8 a.m. This also affects the No. 2, 6, X28, 14, and 170 buses. UPDATE — Never mind.......

Robert Feder composed a lede so perfect we must pay it tribute: “On the eve of Valentine's Day, Bonneville International is renewing its commitment to Love FM.” How sweet. It's heartwarming when faceless international media entities can show the L-O-V-E to their S.O.’s, even when they are in 23rd place in the Chicago radio market. We personally have a soft spot for LOVE FM and their toothless tunes, so we’re not totally sure how we......

Maybe you think that Valentine's Day is just a crock, in which case a visit to the Altoids store might be in order. And maybe you're single and you don't relish the idea of spending an evening alone, either feeling sorry for yourself or in defiant rebellion against another Hallmark Holiday. If so, you will want to avoid renting films such as Before Sunrise, Brief Encounter or Charade. Who wants to feel suicidal? Instead we'd......

Freezing cold? Check. Snowstorm on its way? Check. Another week of great music in Chicago despite (or "to spite") the weather? Check. We're not going to employ any lame Valentine's Day digs or puns. It's Wednesday. Who cares? OK, that was a dig. Anyway, Flosstradamus is one of our favorite DJ teams around, anywhere, right now. Their files may be digital, but the beats they throw down are organic as hell. Their sets literally mash......

Valentine's Day is such a gut-wrencher. We hardly know anyone who likes it. The Just Broken-Up With are bitter and lonely, wishing that the whole coupled world would go to hell. Or The Sad And Desperate, bemoaning the fact that they'll never, ever find someone to love them ... ever. There's The Newly Dating, who are excited to be with someone, but are unsure what exactly to do ... is this gift too much? Is......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the......