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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 …

The Obama administration is urging Congress not to adopt legislation that would impose constitutional safeguards on Americans’ e-mail stored in the cloud. As the law stands now, the authorities may obtain cloud e-mail without a warrant if it is older than 180 days, thanks to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act …

As a lawyer, you know it’s going to be bad when a federal judge summons you to his courtroom at nine in the morning to talk about your “ill-considered lawsuit” that has “abused the litigation system in more than one way.” Federal judge Milton Shadur, who keeps a “Now, 3 …

Posted by Ray Long and Todd Wilson at 4:41 p.m. SPRINGFIELD — House lawmakers today defeated a measure that would have taken away Chicago’s ability to regulate how people store guns, a prelude to an expected spring showdown over a push to allow people to carry concealed weapons. The debate …

Rep. Keith Farnham, an Elgin Democrat, has sponsored legislation that would require offenders convicted of drug offenses to cover the police’s cost to bust them. SPRINGFIELD — State lawmakers are advancing a new proposal that could force people convicted on marijuana and meth charges to pay fines to cover the …

Residents will still get mail and the federal court system will remain open thanks to filing fees they collected, but the IRS might need to suspend processing for paper-filed tax returns. The Federal Housing Authority also might not be able to guarantee new home loans, and the Small Business Administration …

Carjackers, drug dealers, cop shooters. What have they all got in common? They’re now working for the City of Chicago. I’m wondering how much time Obama pal Tony Rezko has left to serve in prison. No doubt Mayor Rahm will do his old boss a favor and hire him when …

By JAMES WARREN Published: April 7, 2011   Jeffrey Colman, a Chicago lawyer, got a collect call Tuesday from a convicted murderer at Menard Correctional Facility in downstate Chester. A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of Chicago and the surrounding area for The New York Times. If only …

Neil Gaiman has long had a fascination with cities. What got him started was an encounter with Free Live Free, Gene Wolfe’s complex novel set in Chicago. It got Gaiman thinking how cities, too, can be characters in a story. “Gene made Chicago somewhere magical,” Gaiman said. “That was the …

By Judith Graham, Tribune reporter6:27 p.m. CDT, April 7, 2011 Day after day, the delivery trucks arrived at the building on Chicago’s North Side, bringing walkers, hospital beds and wheelchairs to residents. But there was a problem: Most of the older men and women getting the equipment were healthy and …

SPRINGFIELD — House lawmakers today defeated a measure that would have taken away Chicago’s ability to regulate how people store guns, a prelude to an expected spring showdown over a push to allow people to carry concealed weapons. The debate put on display the Capitol’s traditional regional fight over gun …

Fear mongering is the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end. If the federal government shuts down this Friday, few Illinois residents are likely to feel an immediate impact, but certain key services could still be halted. Testing for some heavy metals …

Homeland Security outreach facing criticism The Associated Press 4:28 p.m. CDT, April 6, 2011 chibrknews-homeland-security-outreach-facing-criticism-20110406 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is “taking it to the streets.” Or at least that’s the motto behind a new pilot program aimed at combatting the negative image that some community groups have about …

By Fabrice Coffrini | AFP News US physicists are to announce Wednesday that data from a major atom smasher lab may have revealed a new elementary particle, or potentially a new force of nature, the New York Times reported. A spokeswoman from the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator …