No Fair!

By Margaret Lyons in News on Dec 21, 2007 8:16PM

Maybe it's just that we're ready for the weekend (and ready for this site to say "yes"), but it seems like this whole day is just a jerk. Time: Move faster! Weather: Be a little nicer! World: Be more fair! Especially Illinois.

Fermi Lab is laying off 200 full-time employees--about 10 percent of its staff--due to cuts in the federal funding to the Department of Energy. Staff members who still have jobs will have to take unpaid leave, and some of the lab's projects will be brought to halt. The best part? Fermi Lab was totally blindsided. "Had I known it was coming, I could've done any number of things," Fermilab Director Pier Oddone said. Instead, say adios to the study of neutrinos. [Trib]

Party promoters who attract a largely black clientele say they're having a hard time finding clubs and bars willing to work with them. Here's our favorite paragraph from the story, or maybe any story:

Police, management said, had issued an edict barring the display of any live tigers at Michigan Avenue hotels that night.

(Two of the promoters mentioned in the story are planning a downtown NYE party that includes, yes, live tigers.) [Sun-Times]

It's not enough for Blagojevich to be lazy and awful at his job? He has to get free tickets to Hannah Montana and the Rose Bowl, too? At least he passed on the trip to Pasedena. But Senate President Emil Jones, House Minority Leader Tom Cross and state Senator Chris Lauzen all used their connections to get highly sought-after tickets. (Lauzen has since changed his mind.) [Trib]

Fermilab by Jawaspa