Lawyers for victims of two 20th-century terrorist bombings are trying to force the sale of a cache of 2,500-year-old Persian tablets currently on loan to Chicago's Oriental Institute. Read more
From December 2008: For two years, Kitty Kelley, America’s most notorious celebrity biographer, has been tracking Oprah, a notoriously private subject. The multimillion-dollar game of cat-and-mouse promises to play out in an epic cultural showdown Read more
The former Channel 5 news reporter Amy Jacobson saw her career and personal life derailed after a video showed her in a bikini at the home of a man under investigation after his wife’s disappearance. Now she hopes her lawsuit against Channel 2—the rival station that turned that visit into a sensational news story—will win her a measure of redemption Read more
By the time Bill Wirtz died last fall, his once-proud Chicago Blackhawks had turned into perennial losers playing before dwindling crowds. His son Rocky took over and quickly opened a new era for the team—by repudiating almost everything his old man held dear Read more
Between the world wars, a beautiful, artistic woman named Bobsy Goodspeed stood at the heart of Chicago's social and cultural scenes. Now, prompted by a salacious if glancing remark in a recent book, this forgotten woman re-emerges and opens the door on a vanished era peopled by painters and pianists, plutocrats and politicians—and an irresistible force named Gertrude Stein Read more
The silver lining behind the residential real-estate collapse is the opportunity for housing bargains. Here are 14 up-and-coming Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs where prices are relatively low and the promise for future growth is strong Read more
One connection led to another, and then the Chicago architect James Nagle began collaborating with a Michigan couple to design a serene house for a prime lakeside site Read more
In the 100 years since the Cubs won a World Series, the underachieving team has managed a single unmitigated triumph: inspiring the play Bleacher Bums. On this centennial, we look back at the creation of that memorable drama. Read more
Is Barack Obama the second coming of that other "elitist" Democratic presidential candidate from Illinios, Adlai Stevenson? Read more
For years, Laurence Booth, one of the city's most widely acclaimed architects, championed low-scale buildings and decried "antihuman" high-rises. Now he has designed three towers and has a fourth under construction. Why? "We have to make some huge changes in this country," he says. Read more