Breaking news: Mitt Romney has dropped out of the presidential race. “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention… I forestall the launch of a national campaign, and frankly I would be making it easier for Sen. Clinton or Obama to win... Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. He's backing McCain, and now the pressure......

The Audit Bureau of Circulation released its Fas Fax data today, giving newspaper ombudsmen everywhere a topic for tomorrow's column. Too bad everyone's going to write largely the same story: Newspaper circulation is down. Circulation is down 2.6 percent across all major US daily newspapers, with the Trib faring worse than other papers, falling 2.9 percent over the last six months to a paid weekday circulation of 559,404. That makes the Trib the eighth biggest......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

Now we know why Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak kept quiet for so long about who told him CIA Agent Valerie Plame's name; he needed to save that information (at least until 2006) so he could one day publish a tell-all book. Well done, Novak, well done. Novak's book, The Prince of Darkness, (which should not be confused with the Ozzy Osbourne box set of the same name) chronicles Novak's 50 years of work as a......

An interesting tidbit caught our eye in Friday's Tribune. After decades of patronage and questionable hiring practices in the city, Daley is now planning to outsource municipal hiring. Recent hiring scandals here have included the placement of a politically connected teenager in a building inspector position (which requires more job experience than he had working years). Along with this came the conviction in federal court of four close Daley aides for conspiring to rig the......

We're used to the Reader throwing out a curve ball now and then and rubbing some people the wrong way, but nevertheless we raised our eyebrows after reading its four-star review of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. If nothing else, it takes a certain amount of chutzpah to put a Cartoon Network-derived feature right up there with A Woman Under the Influence or even A History of Violence. Despite the controversy......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

At the after party at the Hideout for the 2007 Chiditarod, the teams that were beaten to a pulp by first-place winners the Corporate Dalliance knew one thing: This team cheated. They just didn't know how. One budding, future Pulitzer Prize-winning Northwestern student has posted a video expose of the ordeal that demonstrates the team's methodology, proving they always planned to play dirty. On a whim, Medill Journalism student Matthew Bigelow embedded himself with this......

Tony Kerasotes, of Kerasotes Theatres, said he didn't want to show Stomp the Yard in any of his Springfield thaters because it could attract gang members. He's since had a change of heart and will show the movie starting on Friday at more than 40 Kerasotes-owned locations. If you couldn't afford Chicago's most expensive restaurants before, you really won't be able to afford them now. The Chicago-based Johnson and Lee architecture firm will be......

Well, it's been an interesting couple weeks for CTA watchers. We won't touch another argument about operating budgets with a ten-foot pole, but there really have been a lot of interesting, hilarious, and downright upsetting news regarding the agency lately. Really, the best (and worst) has been the RTA movie snafu. A rather embarassed head of the Regional Transit Authority apologized today for a video that was shown to Metra officials last week that was......

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! Austinist was all about controversy as new construction to increase urban density ran rampant in 2006, as did threats to the city's image from gigantic corporations looking to set up shop in town, leading......

Here at the Chicagoist offices, we have an entire staff dedicated to gathering all the news and information about elections for you. In all of the craziness of this election season, we want to remind you that going out to vote is more than just a right, it's your civic responsibility. Selecting who will make all the big decisions that will affect your life for the next few years is really important. And if you......

As we sat down to write this week's Best of the -ists post, a car blaring "21 Questions'" passed by our house. And that started us thinking about how some of the best -ist posts out there have at their hearts questions, some of which are answered, and some of which are left open. Check out the Best of the -ists from this week, and see if you agree. Londonist answers the questions "How much......

With Lollapalooza this weekend, it seems only right that we revisit the dance craze that was OK Go’s “A Million Ways” video. The choreography had its first public performance during an early set on the first day of last year’s Lolla and went on to be a viral video phenomenon. Chicagoist spotted this new video yesterday on YouTube for “Here It Goes Again” and it’s been making the rounds on the local morning news......

When we heard the new Bucktown/Wicker Park library was opening, we knew we had to go see it for ourselves. We don’t know what we were expecting - some kind of church-like haven for the Borders' battered and beaten down. What we found was a lovely, tiny, friendly library that looks just like every library we’ve ever seen. Our first thought when we rode up on our bike was, where’s the bike rack? Alas! There......

Phillyist notes a fistfight between local pols that leaves one man down for the count. Jehovah's Witnesses get a Philly contributor out of bed, things get a little geeky with a film festival and geeky gets taken to a whole new galaxy when they talk with the Dragon Queen of the Dark Kingdom. Shanghaiist gets all excited this week over a new nightclub in the city unfortunately named "Snatch" and Mike Tyson is scheduled to......

It's not like we haven't talked about Marshall McGearty here. It's in our city. But McGearty has gotten plenty of press... and now press *about* the press. First, the New York Times did an article in January (in archive, you must pay for whole article). Then yesterday, the Washington Post ran an article about Marshall McGearty. And to top off the weird circle of circles, Wonkette ran a post comparing the Times piece to the......

Though we're tight with some folks in our nation's capital, we’re always a little distrustful when another town waxes rhapsodic on Chicago. We felt that ol’ chip on our shoulder again this afternoon while reading an article about Judith Miller’s perp walk by Washington Post staff writer Robin Givhan. As it happens, both Lil’ Kim and NYT reporter Judith Miller were both sentenced to jail time last Wednesday: Kim for perjury and Miller for doing......

If you've got Comcast for your Internet connection, you've probably noticed lately an unbelievable fall-off in service. Many of Chicagoist's editorial staff use Comcast, and it's contributed to the lack of articles over the past two weeks. It's hard to work from your home office when you've got no Internet. Surprisingly, this story has completely evaded the Chicago media. When power or phone service goes out, or (God forbid!) a television station goes off the......

A couple days ago Chicagoist noted how horribly wrong national columnists can go when talking about us folks in the Middle-West. Yesterday two more national publications took a swipe at defining Illinois politics, and this time they seemed to have gotten it a little more right -- just a little. Yesterday's Washington Post Style Section Front Page, the premiere place to be if you're an upwardly mobile politician, featured an in depth story on Illinois'......

Colin Powell seemed to step out of line with the administration's official platform on Iraq yesterday, admitting on ABC's "This Week" that the insurgency in Iraq is getting worse. Powell's statement comes a day after the top American commander, Lt.Gen. Dave Barno, delivered similar news about the insurgency in Afghanistan. Remember Afghanistan? [Cue old-timey banjo music.] The good old days when most of our European homies had our back? Barno said that violence will "more......

� World famous architect Helmut Jahn is designing environmentally friendly housing for the poor � State of IL to get an official beverage � The Bears lose their season opener � Oprah gives away free cars to audience members � The Pixies add another Chicago date � Six Flags is expanding to include a water park � Roger Ebert gets a new site, adds a funny photo of himself......

Helmut Jahn is now going to be designing environmentally friendly housing for the poor in Chicago. Scheduled to be built next year on a vacant lot near Cabrini-Green, Jahn's building is environmentally friendly and made of stainless steel and glass. Its shape will be like a Twinkie, very similar to the Illinois Institute of Technology dorms he designed (pictured at the left). It will have rooftop wind turbines and solar panels, as well as a......

That's all everyone seems to be talking about in Chicago news today (here too). He's the shining young star of the Democratic Party this election cycle with the looks of Denzel, the speaking style of Martin, and the cutest and most supportive family this side of the Cleavers. And man, he�s getting news coverage � but mostly from Chicago media. Despite the fact that Obama made the convention prime-time address, a spot that traditionally is......