The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary findings in its investigation of a January plane crash in West Virginia that killed all six people on board, all from the Chicago area. The NTSB found that a flight plan hadn't been filed and that the pilot mostly ignored requests from air traffic control. The NTSB also noted that the flight was originally consist of five passengers, not six. more ›

Six Chicago area residents, including four members of the American Polish Aero Club of Chicago, died Friday when their small Piper PA-34 plane crashed near Kenova, West Virginia. According to other members of the club, the members who died in the crash were Kazimierz Adamski (Morton Grove), Wieslaw Dobrzanski (Niles), Irenevsz Michalowski (Des Plaines), and Stanislaw Matras (Chicago). Also on board were Monika Niemiec, a reporter for a local Polish radio station, and her father, Stanley Niemiec. The plane had left McHenry County and was headed for a stopover in Charlotte, North Carolina before heading to Clearwater, Florida when the crash happened Friday afternoon. A thousand people attended a memorial service yesterday at St. Constance Catholic Church and friends and family members gathered at the club to remember their loved ones. As of yesterday afternoon, officials in West Virginia had still not identified who was on board, but the names were released by the club. [Trib] more ›

If you were anywhere near a television last night (or in a bar), you watched Hillary Clinton win a convincing victory in West Virginia last night. more ›

Chicagoist is always going on and on about stupid people, and sometimes we forget how stupid animals can be. Like deer, for instance. Some of them don’t even know the difference between a feed bag and a jack-o-lantern. Seriously, they’re that dumb. And that’s not even the worst of it. more ›

At some point, everyone gets the urge to “stick it to the man.” Whether it’s law enforcement officials, parents, bosses, teachers – they all need to be stuck sooner or later. We here at Chicagoist fully support your right to said sticking, but we urge you to be smart about it. Otherwise, things just get sticky. more ›

A favorite theory of many JFK assassination buffs is that the mob, led by Chicago boss Sam Giancana (pictured right), ordered a hit on the president as payback for double-crossing them after they helped him win the 1960 presidential election. When Kennedy won Illinois, many Richard Nixon supporters claimed that then-Mayor Richard J. Daley's political machine in Chicago had fixed the city election, thus helping Kennedy carry the state. But others, most notably investigative reporter... more ›

It’s the first week in January so most news organizations are combating the winter doldrums by gangbanging any news story that looks at them sideways. (This notion might be the only explanation why the story of the West Virginia miners—a legitimately newsworthy and tragic event—showed up on CNN’s Showbiz Today last night just before a story on Lindsey Lohan’s publicity st…er, bulimia and drug use). more ›

After the crystal clear days we've had in Chicago this week, it's hard to believe that the EPA has put us on a national list of smog offenders, but yep, they did. In 1997 new rules were enacted as part of the Clean Air Act and cities across the nation were given seven years to comply. Apparently that wasn't enough time for us. more ›