Illinois Never Met a Tax it Didn’t Like: Sneakers? Really?

The cost of a new pair of basketball shoes could jump by 25 cents under a proposal floated this week by an Illinois lawmaker. State Rep. Will Davis, D-Hazel Crest, wants to create a new tax that would generate an estimated $3 million annually for a youth job...

Bacteria Creates Microscopic Gold Nuggets

Among the more peculiar organisms that inhabit our Earth exists a bacterium that turns water-soluble gold into microscopic nuggets of solid gold, scientists said Sunday.  … The answer, suggest researchers in Canada, lies in a molecule excreted by the microbe...

Red-Light Camera Co.’s Chicago Corruption

The chairman of the Australian company behind Chicago’s red-light program resigned this week and trading in the company’s stock was suspended amid an intensifying investigation into allegations of corruption in its Chicago contract. Redflex Holdings Ltd....

No Warrant Required: The G Knows Everything About You

… by law, utilities must hand over customer records — which include any billing and payment information, phone numbers and power consumption data — to the DEA without court warrants if drug agents believe the data is “relevant” to an investigation. So the...

Wanna See Our Future?

Hundreds of people jostled for free vegetables handed out by farmers in a symbolic protest earlier on Wednesday, trampling one man and prompting an outcry over the growing desperation created by economic crisis. Images of people struggling to seize bags of tomatoes...

What Quinn Didn’t Say

“Yes, we are going to continue milking Illinois taxpayers like a dairy cow…” what Gov. Quinn didn’t tell you State of State Address February 6, 2013 Word cloud of State of State Address (what we heard) Yesterday, Gov. Quinn gave the...

15 y/o Arrested 19th Time After Armed Robbery

A 15-year-old boy with nearly 20 arrests on his record has been charged with armed robbery after he held up a man near his home, police said.It was Jesus Castaneda’s 19th arrest, according to police, and his second gun-related charge. He was last arrested in August...

New Manufacturing Institute Coming to Chicago

Gov. Pat Quinn will announce today in his State of the State speech that the Urbana-Champaign school, in partnership with its National Center for Supercomputing Applications and private companies, will be forming an Illinois Manufacturing Lab likely to be located in...

Quinn’s Motto: Move Your Business Out

Today’s Local Bad News: Illinois companies warned in January that they may lay off as many as 1,200 workers in the next two months, according to filings with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. viaChicago Tribune. The economy sucks and...