A small town Illinois bank was shut down last night by government regulators. The Western Springs National Bank and Trust was seized last night by The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Operations will resume as normal today with everyone’s account intact and insured. more ›

New York magazine got their hands on a copy of this year's James Beard award ballots (check it out for yourself here) and as usual, our city's restaurants are well-represented. more ›

One of the races that we've been watching this winter is the Democratic Primary in the 3rd Congressional District. Incumbent Dan Lipinski is hoping voters will send him back to D.C. for a third term, but he's facing a tough challenge from Mark Pera, an assistant county prosecutor from Western Springs. That challenge may have gotten a little tougher yesterday when Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool endorsed Pera. If you don't remember the 2004 general... more ›

Scientists announced that they have found a 4-mile-square fossilized rain forest near Danville, IL. They say it was preserved by a major ancient earthquake and that it has a bunch of big leaf impressions, trunks of extinct trees, and tree-sized horsetail plants. LaSalle Bank getting bought by Bank of America? Not so fast... HowToOpenThings is a new local online venture where site members have contests to get videos created that demonstrate how to open... more ›

A vehicular theme this week, plus a pistol-packin' mama, really expensive lettuce, an unfortunate time for a heart attack, and stoned dogs? Two suspects were being held for questioning as of Tuesday after somebody rammed a rental van into the front of a fur store and tried to rob the place. Someone had already stolen over 60 furs from the store on Saturday, but this time the would-be robbers were foiled by an off-duty police... more ›