CHICAGO — Prosecutors in Rod Blagojevich’s corruption case have asked a judge to bar defense attorneys from arguing at the former Illinois governor’s upcoming retrial that playing all the hundreds of hours of secret FBI recordings would prove his innocence. Blagojevich and his lawyers have complained for years that the …

April 11, 2011|By Josh Noel It wasn’t celebrating the $38 million acquisition of his family’s brewery by Anheuser-Busch – it was just a birthday party. But it ended with a bartender saying that Goose Island brewmaster Greg Hall urinated into two beer glasses while standing at the bar and Hall …

Chicago cops have been involved in too many investigations that led to false charges against innocent suspects: James Newsome, falsely convicted of murder; Leroy Orange, Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley and Stanley Howard, all tortured by Jon Burge’s detectives into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit; John Willis, imprisoned for nearly …

The decision by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office not to charge a nephew of Mayor Daley in the one-punch death of 21-year-old David Koschman in 2004 hung largely on the fact that witnesses couldn’t positively identify the nephew, Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, in a police lineup, according to prosecutors. …

They may be clamoring for Wal-Marts on the South Side, but on the North Side on Monday night, the “smiley faces” were few and far between during a meeting to discuss a proposed store in Lake View. About 250 people filled Lake View’s Wellington Avenue Church, many of whom don’t …

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Chicago – The SMILE Conference to be held May 9-11, 2011 The SMILE Conference brings together a widely respected group of law enforcement professionals, public information officers and neighborhood watch members to help add another vital weapon to their arsenal – social media. Additionally, SMILE attendees will receive the latest …

BY STEVE WARMBIR A local school board president in Cicero has ties to a notorious large-scale drug dealer as well as a ranking member of a motorcycle gang who is a trusted associate of the Chicago mob, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Jeff Pesek, 38, president of the Morton High …

The Associated Press NEW YORK — The former president of a Chicago-based private equity firm has been sentenced in New York City to more than 13 years in prison after admitting he misspent millions of dollars in investor money. Steven Byers was head of WexTrust Capital. He pleaded guilty last …

Instead, for Thiel, the bubble that has taken the place of housing is the higher education bubble. “A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” he says. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. …

To encourage healthful eating, some Chicago schools don’t allow kids to bring lunches or certain snacks from home — and some parents, and many students, aren’t fans of the policy A Little Village Academy student cringes at an enchilada dish served at his school. Many students throw away their entrees …

Hydrofluorosilicic Acid is deadly, and it’s an ingredient in most U.S. fluoridated water municipalities. Fluoride spill at water facility literally burns holes in parking lot cement Ethan A. Huff Natural News (NaturalNews) A recent chemical spill at a water treatment facility in Rock Island, Ill., required the assistance of an …

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. The bank’s $368.7 million in assets and deposits …

Former meatpacking plant poised to become aquaponic farm, with startup food firms, brewery planned Melissa Harris John Edel is turning a former meatpacking plant on the edge of Chicago’s old Union Stockyards into an indoor farm. In the basement, microorganisms are eating tilapia waste, converting it into fertilizer for the …