Chicago

Chicago Fines Aim to Kick Smokers' Butts From Beach

Chicago Tribune  |  Jun 18, 08 11:43 AM CDT

(Newser) - Chicago will fine smokers who toss cigarette butts on the beach—or within 15 feet of one— up to $500. The new law is aimed at cutting the cost of cleaning up after smokers, who have been forced outside by smoking bans, reports the Chicago Tribune. Millions of tons of butts are cleared from beaches every year.  More »

Obama Shifts DNC Power to Chicago

Politico  |  Jun 13, 08 11:01 AM CDT

(Newser) - The Democratic National Committee is moving its field operations to Chicago as part of Barack Obama's strategy to centralize the party and streamline efforts for the general election. The move has been welcomed publicly by the DNC, even though it clearly shifts power from Washington to Obama's unassuming headquarters in the Windy City, Politico notes. Chicago hasn't had such national political focus since the 1968 convention. More »

Note to Right: Hyde Park Is Neither Liberal nor Elite

Wall Street Journal  |  Jun 11, 08 1:23 PM CDT

(Newser) - With the right cranking up to use Obama's Chicago neighborhood as a weapon against him—the Weekly Standard depicting it in a long piece as an liberal elitist bastion —Wall Street Journal columnist (and former Barack neighbor) Thomas Frank says it’s complete bunk. Not only do Hyde Park-ers have a median income below the national and Chicago medians, but if the college town has a political legacy, it’s a conservative one! More »

What Hyde Park Tells Us About Obama

Weekly Standard  |  Jun 9, 08 7:37 PM CDT

(Newser) - "It is the most racially integrated neighborhood in the nation's most racially segregated city," Andrew Ferguson writes in the Weekly Standard of the area in south Chicago Barack Obama calls home. It's a college town, a lefty enclave where the moneyed mix with boho bookworms, and "NPR announcer" types  walk the streets wearing wire rims and backpacks. But Hyde Park isn't an ordinary college town, it's an unusually isolated one—an island in the middle of a slum. More »

Sam Zell: Saving Newspapers, or Burying Them?

New York Times  |  Jun 9, 08 5:58 AM CDT

(Newser) - Sam Zell and his Tribune Company announced last week that they would trim 500 pages of news each week from the conglomerate's dozen newspapers, including the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune . But is a paper split 50-50 between news and ads the solution for an industry in crisis? The New York Times looks at the viability of a radical plan. More »

Honey, I'm Shrinking the Tribune Papers

Chicago Sun-Times  |  Jun 6, 08 4:42 AM CDT

(Newser) - Publisher Sam Zell has announced he'll quickly slash pages and more editorial jobs to offset huge debts and  a larger-than-anticipated decline in advertising revenue at his newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune . An 80-page edition of the Tribune could be sliced to 48 pages, reports the Chicago Sun-Times . The papers have already lost a significant number of staffers to buyouts. More »

Former Obama Pastor in Church Power Battle

Time  |  Jun 5, 08 2:39 AM CDT

(Newser) - Barack Obama's former Chicago church is in turmoil over a battle to retain power by firebrand preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Time reports. A rift has opened between Wright, who was supposed to retire from the church he nurtured for 36 years, and his hand-picked successor, whose qualifications he's now questioning. More »

At Chicago's Field, 'Ancient Americas' Exhibit a Bust

Weekly Standard  |  Jun 4, 08 5:10 PM CDT

(Newser) - Revisiting Chicago’s Field Museum—an institution enshrined in loving childhood memories—for its “The Ancient Americas” exhibit is a sore disappointment, PJ O’Rourke writes in the Weekly Standard . Once a bastion of public scholarship so solemn it contained a section devoted to useful varieties of wood, the Field now panders unabashedly to the most intellectually lazy, politically correct misconceptions of the lives of the original Americans. More »

Rezko Guilty on 16 Counts of Fraud, Corruption

ABC News  |  Jun 4, 08 4:56 PM CDT

(Newser) - Chicago developer Tony Rezko was found guilty today of 16 federal counts, including wire fraud, mail fraud, corrupt solicitation and money laundering, WLS-TV reports. Rezko, whose links to Barack Obama have brought the Democrat some controversy, also has fundraising ties to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich; witnesses said Blagojevich OK'd giving state contracts to key donors. More »

Chicago Makes Final Four in 2016 Olympic Bid

Chicago Sun-Times  |  Jun 4, 08 12:20 PM CDT

(Newser) - Chicago is still in the mix to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, the Sun-Times reports, as the International Olympic Committee today winnowed the field of candidates to four. Vying against the Windy City are Madrid, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro. More »

Obama Quits Trinity Church

Politico  |  May 31, 08 6:01 PM CDT

(Newser) - Barack Obama quit his longtime church today in an apparent attempt to quell its latest pulpit controversy, Politico reports. Obama resigned by letter to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where a reverend accused Hillary Clinton this week of acting "entitled" to the presidency because she is white. Last month, Obama denounced Trinity's Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his heated racial sermons. More »

Obama Repudiates Preacher Over 'White Tears' Slam

MSNBC  |  May 30, 08 3:27 AM CDT

(Newser) - Barack Obama has had to apologize for another troublesome preacher at his home church, reports MSNBC. The Rev. Michael Pfleger—a white Catholic priest widely known as Chicago's "renegade" priest for his liberal social activism in the city’s black community—mocked Hillary Clinton in a guest sermon, saying she squirted tears on the campaign trail because her sense of white entitlement had been punctured by Obama's success. More »

NHL Headed For Friendly Confines

Chicago Tribune  |  May 29, 08 4:00 PM CDT

(Newser) - It appears Chicago’s famed Wrigley Field will host an outdoor NHL game next year, after competitor Yankee Stadium was deemed unsuitable “for a variety of reasons,” the Tribune reports. The hometown Blackhawks would play the rival Detroit Red Wings in the third edition of the open-air contest, played in 2003 in Edmonton and this year in Buffalo.  More »

Chicago Mayor a 'Letdown,' Grads Moan

Chicago Tribune  |  May 29, 08 2:01 PM CDT

(Newser) - Some Northwestern University seniors are disappointed the “extremely well-known person” promised as graduation speaker is no one more significant than Richard Daley, Chicago’s mayor. Graduating students have called the revelation “lame” and a “letdown,” the Tribune reports; John McCain and Barack Obama were recent speakers. Speculation about this year’s grandee had run from Tony Blair to the Dalai Lama. More »

Chicago Train Derails

Chicago Tribune  |  May 28, 08 12:39 PM CDT

(Newser) - A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train derailed this morning, the Chicago Tribune reports. Although the train came off the elevated tracks, it did not fall all the way to the ground. Using ladders and baskets, firefighters rescued 39 people from the Green Line train on Chicago’s south side, but only 10 required medical attention. More »

For Sale: Stadium Seating, Lightly Used

Guardian (UK)  |  May 27, 08 10:45 AM CDT

(Newser) - If Chicago wins its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, it might follow more closely in London 2012's footsteps than expected. The cities have begun discussing the possible sale of large parts of London's new stadium to Chicago, the Guardian reports. The deal could result in 55,000 seats crossing the Atlantic for reuse in a new Windy City arena. More »

Wreck Flattens Oreos; No Trace of Girl Scouts

Chicago Tribune  |  May 19, 08 4:38 PM CDT

(Newser) - An Illinois freeway got an unscheduled repaving this morning when a truck crash dumped 20,000 pounds of Oreos onto I-80, the Chicago Tribune reports. Police are still investigating what caused the big rig to hit a median, so no word on whether the driver (who was unhurt) had eaten more than his share of the treats—or if he'd been ambushed by Girl Scouts. More »

Chicago Ducks Foie Gras Ban