Chicago

Noisy 20th Ward race boils down to turnout for Cochran, Rhymefest March 23, 2011| By John Byrne, Tribune reporter Only one of the remaining candidates in Chicago’s 20th Ward holds down a job as a rapper, but both contenders are falling back on a hip-hop adage as the contest enters …

Interim Chicago Schools CEO Terry Mazany Wednesday delivered bad news — followed by more bad news. The estimated Chicago Public School deficit for next school year is $720 million, Mazany said. That’s up $20 million from just before his predecessor walked out the door in late November. Mazany called for …

In announcing the 2011 concert schedule for Ravinia, president Welz Kauffman said the North Shore festival’s non-classical lineup features “something palatable to both baby boomers and babies.” Ravinia’s summer pop shows are certainly heavy on the boomers, including returning acts such as Robert Plant in June with his Band of …

Billed as an engineering marvel and national model, Chicago’s Deep Tunnel was designed to protect Lake Michigan from sewage overflows and put an end to the once-frequent practice of dumping human and industrial waste into local rivers. But nearly four decades after taxpayers started paying for one of the nation’s …

By Alan Purkiss – Mar 17, 2011 1:08 AM CT Radiation detectors at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports were triggered when passengers from flights that started in Tokyo passed through customs, the New York Post reported. Tests at Dallas-Fort Worth indicated low radiation levels in travelers’ luggage and in …

By DOUG FINKE A $1-per-pack hike in Illinois’ cigarette tax was approved by a state Senate committee Wednesday, as Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, also introduced legislation to repeal the legalization of video poker in the state. Poker was made legal in 2009 as a way to pay for the …

The Transportation Security Administration is re-analyzing the radiation levels of X-ray body scanners installed in airports nationwide, after testing produced dramatically higher-than-expected results. The TSA, which has deployed at least 500 body scanners to at least 78 airports, said Tuesday the machines meet all safety standards and would remain in …

Dan Sinker, a journalism teacher at Columbia College, says he was behind the fictitious Twitter account “@MayorEmanuel,” a foul-mouthed double of the real candidate and mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel. Sinker tells the Atlantic magazine his punk rock attitude and deep interest in Chicago politics led him to take on Emanuel’s persona. …

In upcoming sci-fi flick Source Code, an Iraq War veteran uses “time reassignment” technology to crack open alternate realities in an effort to stop a terrorist from blowing up Chicago. While the premise sounds outlandish, it’s actually based on principals of quantum physics, according to Source Code scribe Ben Ripley. …

-By Warner Todd Huston Rahm Emanuel hasn’t even officially set his first foot in the Mayor’s Office and he’s already had his first political misstep: He hired a transition team member that has ethics problems. Last year Judy Erwin was forced to resign as director of the Illinois Board of …

If you want to be on TV, don’t go to Los Angeles or New York. Come to Chicago, where your wish is certain to be fulfilled. In fact, you couldn’t avoid it if you wanted to, thanks to the nation’s most extensive network of police surveillance cameras. Anytime you walk …

Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell says he’s not political, but he’s happy to lead new council, offer input Melissa Harris Last week, Gov. Pat Quinn announced that Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell will lead his new Innovation Council. Coupled with Keywell’s plans to launch the first Chicago Ideas Week in October, the …

When random passengers step into Beth Melewski’s unmarked cab, interior disco lights start flashing and Melewski explains that they’ve stumbled into a game show. “You’d be surprised how few people go, ‘I’m going to be on TV!’” Melewski says. “The biggest reaction is usually, ‘Oooh, a woman cab driver!’” The …

By Ryan Haggerty Disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge’s pension is once again in jeopardy, just days after the city’s police pension board allowed him to continue to collect the $3,039 a month in spite of his criminal conviction. The board’s controversial decision led Attorney General Lisa Madigan to …

CHICAGO CBS — A waste of taxpayers’ money. That’s how former employees are describing jobs and office activities in the Cook Country Treasurer’s Office. Investigator Pam Zekman and the Better Government Association continue their investigation into how Treasurer Maria Pappas spends your tax dollars. Pappas once ran her office from …