Chicago

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Michelle Tapped Longtime Pal, Mentor as Staff Chief

Longtime friends worked together in Chicago

(Newser) - Looking for change, Michelle Obama turned to longtime mentor and friend Susan Sher to serve as her chief of staff, the Chicago Tribune reports. They met when Obama dropped off a resume at Chicago’s City Hall; Sher, then the city’s No. 2 lawyer, was immediately impressed by the...

Willis What? Sears Tower Changes Names

Insurance company gets naming rights

(Newser) - An insurance company no one's ever heard of is suddenly a big name in Chicago.  Starting today, the Sears Tower—the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere—becomes Willis Tower, after Willis Group Holdings, the Sun-Times reports. Chicagoans grumbling about the name change, which Willis earned by leasing just...

Destiny's 'Third' Child Hits London's West End

Michelle Williams plays Roxie in Chicago

(Newser) - Often labeled “the third one” in Destiny’s Child, Michelle Williams is swinging the spotlight her way, the Independent reports, playing Roxy in a production of Chicago in London’s West End. “People just think I’m the quiet one. Or not talented,” Williams says of comparisons...

Ooops: Chicago Schools Not the Miracle Obama Claimed

(Newser) - Arne Duncan isn’t quite the miracle worker Barack Obama made him out to be, according to a new study from a Chicago civic group. When Obama introduced his nominee for education secretary, he boasted that Duncan had boosted elementary school test results “From 38% of students meeting the...

Babies' Graves Vanish From Ill. Cemetery

(Newser) - Police declared the whole of Burr Oak cemetery in the Chicago suburbs to be a crime scene last night, after hundreds of families reported empty or missing graves, including an entire section of the cemetery called Babyland, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Relatives will be barred from the site for about...

It's Official: Burris Won't Run

(Newser) - Roland Burris made it official this afternoon: He won't run for a full term next year, the Chicago Tribune reports. “I love serving the people of Illinois,” the current holder of President Obama's old Senate seat said. But “political races have become far too expensive in...

Emmett Till's Casket Found 'Rusted, Battered'

Locals search for loved ones' graves at desecrated cemetery

(Newser) - As Chicagoans mourned the desecration of a historic cemetery, the casket of civil rights icon Emmett Till was found rusted in a shack amid garbage and gravestones, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “When we opened it up trying to find what we have, a family of possums ran out,”...

Burris Won't Run for Re-Election

(Newser) - Roland Burris won't run for re-election to his Senate seat, both Chicago papers are reporting. The Illinois senator intends to stay in office through the end of his term in January 2011 but figures he can't raise enough money to mount a re-election campaign. In fact, he's raised a measly...

Step Up to New 'Ledge' at Sears Tower

Glass balconies jut 4 feet into the air

(Newser) - The view from Chicago’s Sears Tower just got more vivid. Starting tomorrow, visitors can step into glass enclosures that extend 4 feet out from the building’s 103rd floor and see all 1,353 feet straight down, the Tribune reports. Designed by the original architects of the soon-to-be-renamed Willis...

I'm a Celebrity Voters Boot Patti Blagojevich

(Newser) - Patti Blagojevich survived 23 days in the Costa Rican jungle, but she won't be a reality TV champ, reports the Chicago Tribune. Viewers voted Blagojevich off the NBC series I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here tonight. The wife of Illinois' notorious ex-governor took her husband's place on the...

Rio's Olympic Bid Picks Up Steam

(Newser) - With 3½ months to go, Rio de Janeiro has picked up significant momentum in the race for the 2016 Olympics. The Brazilian city emerged with the most buzz among the four competing cities during presentations yesterday in Switzerland to International Olympic Committee members. Chicago, Madrid, and Tokyo are the other...

Gun Used to Kill Dillinger Up for Auction

It's expected to get around $10k

(Newser) - The Colt revolver that killed John Dillinger is being auctioned next month in Chicago, reports the Sun-Times. Gangster aficionados should be ready to fork over between $8,000 and $12,000 for the gun fired by Indiana cop Timothy A. O'Neil in front of a Chicago theater 75 years ago....

Obama: Health Care a 'Time-Bomb'

(Newser) - The current health care system is a “ticking time-bomb” for the federal budget, Barack Obama told the American Medical Association today, speaking before a crowd of doctors in Chicago. He sharply criticized the current system, which pays doctors for each test or treatment provided, saying it “has taken...

US to Return $10M Stolen Art Stash to Italy

'Treasure trove' of looted antiques uncovered in Chicago home

(Newser) - A huge stash of stolen artifacts found in a Chicago home will be returned to Italy by US authorities, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The artifacts—including letters written by kings and popes, and Etruscan works thousands of years old—were discovered by the homeowner's heirs after his death, and are...

Blues Queen Koko Taylor Dead at 80

Blues world mourns loss of Chicago legend

(Newser) - Koko Taylor, a sharecropper's daughter whose regal bearing and powerful voice earned her the sobriquet "'Queen of the Blues," has died after complications from surgery, the AP reports. She was 80. The Memphis-born singer died at a Chicago hospital about two weeks after surgery for a gastrointestinal bleed,...

Peterson Calls Radio Show to Joke About Prison

(Newser) - That Drew Peterson is quite a card. In prison on charges of murdering his third wife, Peterson called a Chicago radio station this morning to crack jokes about prison life, reports TMZ. Among other things, Peterson told the Mancow & Cassidy show on WLS-AM that they should run a “...

Burris Offered Blagojevich a Personal Check

FBI tape reveals offer, but the future senator never sent money

(Newser) - The Senate Ethics Committee will have an interesting conversation to ponder as it considers whether Roland Burris engaged in any shady business before being appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. In an exchange secretly taped by the FBI between Burris and Blago's brother before the gubernatorial scandal...

'Bueller? Bueller?' Film House Hits Market

(Newser) - The Chicago-area house immortalized in a glass-breaking, Ferrari-plunging shot from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is for sale, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald reports. “It’s spectacular inside,” said the realtor offering the glass-walled modern home at $2.3 million. “It’s like living in a tree...

Waterboarded Shock Jock Mancow: 'Absolutely Torture'

(Newser) - A Chicago radio host submitted himself to a waterboarding demonstration to prove it isn’t torture, but it didn’t work out that way, NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV reports. “Way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Erich “Mancow” Muller said. “I...

Chicago to Springer: Good Riddance
Chicago to Springer: Good Riddance
OPINION
May 19, 2009 1:22 PM CDT

Chicago to Springer: Good Riddance

Jerry's trainwreck talk show never felt like part of the Windy City

(Newser) - Jerry Springer tapes his last show in Chicago today, before heading for the pastures of Connecticut, made greener by a bunch of tax breaks. Well, Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune would like to wish him this fond adieu: “Don’t let the chair flying toward the door hit...

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