Last Resort: Gossip Girls—The Message is in the Massage

As close friends have done for ages, we swear to keep secrets we ultimately share with other friends, then make those friends swear to keep secrets that they end up hearing back from somebody else we already told and swore to secrecy—and what a surprise the secret isn't a secret anymore. If …

Gary to offer free tax preparation assistance

GARY | City residents can potentially receive millions of dollars in earned income tax credits this tax season thanks to a partnership between the city and other entities, Gary's mayor announced Tuesday.

University of Chicago, former Mayor Daley team up to help Gary

Former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, distinguished senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy, talks Tuesday about a new partnership between the school and the city of Gary during a news conference at the University of Chicago.

University of Chicago, former Mayor Daley team up to help Gary

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, distinguished senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy, talk about a new partnership between the school and the city of Gary during a news conference Tuesday at the University of Chicago.

CHICAGO SCENE: Chicago bags bodacious Bunny series

Break out your bunny ears, babies.

Daley: Asphalt plant part of 10th Ward resurgence

CHICAGO | When Richard M. Daley became mayor in 1989, the Wisconsin Steel mill at 106th Street and Torrence Avenue had been shuttered for nearly a decade.

It's easy being green on parade weekend

Arrive early to stake your place Saturday for Chicago's 56th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Challenges still tools of political trade

CHICAGO | When Rahm Emanuel's eligibility to run for mayor was called into question, talk turned to who had orchestrated the attack.

Richard M. Daley

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley speaks during a news conference Monday after discussing gun laws at the Homan Square Police Warehouse in Chicago. Daley said he want Police Superintendent Jody Weis to stay on the job for two more months until Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel takes office in May.

MARK KIESLING: Emanuel's election holds promise of quick action

Will Rahm Emanuel be good for Chicago, and will his election mean anything for his neighbors in Northwest Indiana?

New crime series exposes Windy City's wink-wink politics

"Chicago ain't ready for reform yet," Alderman Paddy Bauler slurred in 1955. Writer-producer Shawn Ryan ("The Shield," "Terriers") is banking on it as "The Chicago Code," his hour-long, Chicago-based crime series, bows at 8 p.m. Monday on Fox.

Richard M. Daley

Mayor Richard M. Daley looks on during a news conference at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications while addressing the city's response to the blizzard in Chicago Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011.

MARK KIESLING: Let voters, not judges, decide Chicago mayoral race

To remove Rahm Emanuel from the ballot for the Feb. 22 mayoral race in Chicago is to do an end run around the city's voters.

Firefighter Corey Ankum laid to rest

CHICAGO | Firefighters from as far away as Seattle and Washington, D.C., converged Thursday on the South Side to pay tribute to Chicago firefighter Corey Ankum, a former Lynwood resident who was killed last week while on duty.

Blagojevich verdict voted top state story of 2010

SPRINGFIELD | The highly anticipated trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich -- with its lone guilty verdict that set up a repeat trial in the coming year -- was 2010's top news story in Illinois, according to members of The Associated Press and the wire service's staff. The ongoing saga over a…

Suburbs mourn TF South grad killed battling Chicago fire

Officials in Lynwood and Lansing are among those mourning the death of Corey Ankum, a Chicago firefighter and one-time region resident who was killed Wednesday when the roof of a burning building collapsed under him.

Church, state often have intersecting missions in Chicago

Chicago has a long history of politically charged clergy. Though some speculate it began with the Catholic Church and an Irish Catholic mayor, the overlap of church and politics has become customary in the city of Chicago.

Meeks' residency questioned in Chicago race

According to legal papers filed with the Chicago Board of Elections, state Sen. James T. Meeks may be better qualified to run for mayor of South Holland than mayor of Chicago.

CPS tests longer days at five schools

CHICAGO | Five Chicago public schools began a test program on Monday that extends one of the country's shortest school days by 90 minutes, but many are wary of the program's oversight and shelf life.