News Chicago Business, Info & Events

CHICAGO — In light of the crisis in Japan, Illinois needs to review the size of evacuation zones around its six nuclear power plants and ensure there is a sufficient stockpile of potassium iodide pills, U.S. Sens. Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin said Friday during a forum on nuclear safety …

By Robert Sanchez The DuPage Housing Authority improperly spent more than $5.8 million in federal money and failed to adequately document another $4.7 million, according to the latest federal audit of the embattled county agency. The audit, obtained by the Daily Herald, was prepared by the inspector general’s office of …

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 …

April 5, 2011, CONSOLIDATED GENERAL ELECTION – PROPOSITIONS Read the DuPage Libertarian’s 2011 DuPage County Voter Guide

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 …

Fewer Illinois school districts are in serious financial trouble this school year — but apparently at the cost of more than 2,600 fewer teachers. The Illinois State Board of Education released data Wednesday showing that even counting the fact that the state has been as much as $1 billion behind …

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. …

You know it’s tough out there for a P2P lawyer when even some random, anonymous, non-lawyer defendant is the more convincing party. That strange scenario unfolded yesterday in Illinois, where divorce-attorney-turned-porn-copyright-lawyer John Steele had his entire case against 300 defendants thrown out completely. The case involved CP Productions, “a leading …

The accusation was explosive and unambiguous: A top general in Afghanistan used illegal “information operations” to influence visiting U.S. Senators. But military documents obtained by Danger Room show that at least one Army lawyer deemed the work legal. What’s more, the alleged information operator’s bosses repeatedly told him that he …

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. …