• Catching up on Gregory Banks' dramatic testimony yesterday in the Burge trial.
• The search is on for a suspect in a West Lakeview sexual assault earlier this week.
• Bucktown bat attack victim Natasha McShane continues a slow but steady recovery.

• A Chicago Police commander has been charged with harassing her ex-boyfriend who is a fellow Chicago police officer.
• A suspect has been arrested in connection with yesterday's hit-and-run on I-80.
• Do not try to sell your wife over the Internet.

We look forward to seeing everyone tonight at Sheffield's! more ›

Insert your "ice cold like [Cub's player]" joke here and lace up the skates, kids, because there's another ice rink opening soon and it's opening at Wrigley Field. The rink, located in the parking lot across the street from Wrigley's west side (along Clark), will open next Tuesday and remain open until the end of February. Admission will be $10 for adults and $6 for kids. The $300,000 cost of the rink will be paid for by a $100,000 from the Chicago Park District, $100,000 from the company Westrec (which operates other rinks in the city), and $100,000 in private donations, including some from the Cubs' new owners, the Ricketts family. more ›

Gum seems to be quite the topic lately. The International Chewing Gum Association's website now features a pretty cool Flash site on how gum is made - both sticks and pellets. And you may have heard that chewing gum may help you drop some pounds or make you smarter. (By the way, our very own Wrigley sponsored that research...so take that as you will.) Mental Floss blogged about gum recently and devoted a couple of pages in its most recent issue on the chewy substance. It was this article's story about Chicago's own Wrigley Company that caught our eye. more ›

With the Cubs' 2009 home opener just hours away - weather permitting - one would think it's still too early in the season to let the cynicism that usually swirls around the Cubs rush in. But nope, some people just have to keep bringing up old shit. Depending on who you believe, police found either a goat's head or an entire goat on the Harry Caray statue outside of Wrigley Field early this morning, just as they did two years ago. And, just like two years ago, they're treating it as a prank and no investigation is planned. Though the fact someone is going around killing innocent goats just for the purposes of Cubs haterade is kind of disconcerting. (The CBN story on this has a link to a YouTube from the incident two years ago.) People, we can't say it enough: while there is such a thing as tired pitching, a crap bullpen, and highly-priced sluggers shrinking away in the playoff spotlight, there are no such things as curses. Leave the poor goats alone. Update: The Sun-Times had it right; it was a whole goat. [Chicago Breaking News, Sun-Times] more ›

A new ad for Eclipse gum has producer Wrigley coming under fire from both a competitor - Cadbury - and the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The ad claims Wrigley's Eclipse gum kills germs but the above organizations are calling "shenanigans." Information on the Wrigley website says: more ›

In spite of opposition from the Southport Neighbors Association, the Chicago City Council gave the Chicago Cubs permission today to hold three concerts at Wrigley Field this July. Neighborhood Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) signed the plan and promised to “minimize the concerns of the community at large.” Pop legends Billy Joel and Elton John are slated to play a pair of shows together at the stadium (July 16 and 21) and country group Rascal Flatts will squeeze a date in between (July 18). Part of the protest from the Southport Neighbors Association centered on the fact that the Rascal Flatts show is during the same weekend as their annual Summer on Southport festival. The concerts come during an 11-day stretch during which the Cubs will be off for the All-Star break and then on the east coast. [Tribune] more ›

The long-announced sale of Wm. Wrigley Corporation to Mars, Inc. (with a greasing of the skids courtesy of Warren Buffet and the fine folks at Berkshire Hathaway) was approved by shareholders during a special morning meeting at Chase Auditorium. The deal, in which Wrigley becomes a standalone company within the Mars empire, makes Mars the largest candy company in the world. [Sun-Times] more ›

Talk about your major deals. Mars, Inc. is set to buy the Wm. Wrigley Corporation for $22 billion. The deal is being fueled by some serious seed money from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. more ›

Baseball is always about statistics, numbers, charts and rankings, but this season of Cubs baseball is going to be all about one number. That number, of course, being "one hundred." Be prepared to hear about the hundred World-Series-Championship-free years at least a million times this season. So as the Lovable Losers get ready to tear the scab off of another season, we thought now would be an opportune time to look back at the park from when things like "naming rights" were a long time off. more ›

While we here in the Chicagoist offices have taken exception to the possible re-naming of Wrigley Field, we have a much bigger issue with the possible new ownership of the park. From the get-go, we have opposed the sale of Wrigley to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the state agency that owns and runs U.S. Cellular Field. more ›

Wrigley announced today at its shareholder meeting that it's redesigning its gum packaging for old-school stick gum (as opposed to pellet gum or tab gum). They're calling it a "slim pack;" it's envelope-style and it holds 15 pieces. more ›