The rise of mixologists has livened up the city's bar scene and made our restaurants more exciting as well. But the options for the sober remain, for the most part, the same. Read more
The economy is in terrible shape, but unemployment is still lower than it was during a comparable point in Ronald Reagan's first term, a year before "morning in America." Read more
Well, there are a lot of reasons: the Great Speedup, job insecurity, student-loan debt, cynicism about public institutions, and stalled incomes. But in our depression is our salvation. Read more
A chart from the Civic Federation shows not just the impact tax increment finance districts have had on the city coffers, but how that impact has greatly increased in the past five years. Read more
If CTU acquiesced to a longer school day, an already cash-strapped CPS would have to pony up a lot of money. From where? Jean-Claude Brizard has an answer, but the cuts would have to be substantial. Read more
The school-day stretching came pretty quick on the heels of the new school year, meaning it's clearly not going to be widely implemented. Even if you are a proponent, that's probably not a bad thing. Read more
The battle between the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools has culminated in a lawsuit over teacher hours and pay. Here's a long look at the difficulties of getting good information, and a look at the Japanese and KIPP approaches to the school day and year. Read more
Doug Oberhelmen laments that his company can't find qualified employees despite high unemployment. He's not the only person to make the point, as the debate over "structural unemployment" continues. Read more
On Labor Day, the young women of Ottawa who died of radium poisoning from their work at Radium Dial were memorialized. Chillingly, they were the second Radium Girls: an identical case made an identical furor in New York ten years prior, but it took years for the science, and the law, to make it to Illinois. Read more
In October 1933, a plane bound to Chicago from Newark via Cleveland exploded in the skies over Chesterton, Indiana. It's cited as the first incidence of American airline terrorism... but it's still a mystery. Read more
