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November 20, 2008

2008_11_20_ee.jpg
Photo by sliz.c

2008_11_20_dpete.jpgGun charges against Drew Peterson stemming from a semi-automatic weapon police seized were dismissed this afternoon after prosecutors refused to cooperate with a judge's ruling. The judge had ruled that prosecutors had to turn over to the defense all documents they compiled before they arrested Peterson on the gun charge. Attorneys for Bolingbrook's Most Notorious Ex-Husband™ claim the charge was a case of vindictiveness. So it looks like we will be prevented from seeing the awesomeness of John Travolta testifying on behalf of Drew.

Not that it was all good news for Peterson today. The law allowing hearsay to be admitted in murder trials, dubbed "The Drew Peterson Law" was passed last night by the Illinois House after previously being passed by the Senate.

Will County State's Atty. James Glasgow, who's sought the law for months, said, "This is a bill that will help prosecutors across the state to utilize the statements made by murder victims . . . that previously would have died with them."

Glasgow declined to comment on whether the law directly pertains to the Peterson case, but did say that he would "use it aggressively wherever it applies."

The House voted 109-0 on the bill, which allows hearsay evidence into court in first-degree murder cases if the prosecution can prove to the judge at a pretrial hearing that there is a preponderance of evidence the defendant killed a witness to prevent his or her testimony. The House vote followed Senate approval a week before.

Essentially, Drew's "current" wife - for now, anyway - Stacy apparently told her priest that Drew admitted to her that he killed wife #3, Kathleen Savio. This is now potentially admissible in a court of law. As much as we loathe Drew, we this new law seems...we don't know...dangerous and illegal? Either way, Drew has yet to be charged with anything and is still free man as of today, so...yeah.

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November 20, 2008

Governor Blagojevich suffered a setback today as the Fourth District Illinois Appellate Court ruled in favor of releasing to the public federal subpoenas his administration has received. The Better Government Association sued the Governor to release the documents under the state of Illinois' Freedom of Information Act claiming they wanted to see how extensive the corruption investigation of Blagojevich has become. In the ruling,......

Continue Reading "Blago Loses Battle Over Subpeonas"
D.C. Honoring Obama With Transit Card; Your Move, CTA

Courtesy of our sister site DCist comes the news that D.C.'s mass transit system, Metro, is issuing special commemorative SmarTrip passes (similar to CTA's Chicago Card) for Obama's upcoming inauguration. This has us wondering if the CTA can think of a way to one up D.C. Maybe relabeling all Orange lines with the signature Obama "O"?

Today marks the completion of the first stage of the O'Hare expansion as its new $450 million runway opened for business. The first flight to land on the runway (the first new one in the city in 37 years) was welcomed by Mayor Daley as well as U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Federal Aviation Administration chief Bobby Sturgell. Washington D.C.'s Dulles and Seattle's airports also......

Continue Reading "As New O'Hare Runway Opens, Airlines Fight More Expansion"

More art in store for y'all -- see Tuesday's Go Look! installment for additional choices (but don't get option paralysis): 65Grand presents Daniel Johnson's Sweet Dreams and Garbage, which runs from Friday, November 21 through December 20. Johnson's first solo show with the gallery is comprised of a dozen color photographs; frequent subjects are the discarded stuff of the street-man-made tangles of earplugs, scraps of paper,......

Continue Reading "Go Look!"
More Details on Izard's New Eatery

Following up on the upcoming Stephanie Izard restaurant she mentioned in her "Re-Grills" is a name for the venue and partners. Time Out Chicago has the scoop (fitting, since they're also trying to hook her up, as well) that the Drunken Monkey Goat is pairing Izard with Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz of BOKA, Perennial and Landmark fame. It's still casual and affordable, in Wicker Park, and conservatively slated to open in summer 2K9. [TOC]

We bet you thought the only people that cared about Kids in 2008 was MGMT, but apparently Intonation thinks about the little tykes too. Most folks thought Intonation basically disappeared after they stopped throwing summer music festivals, but in fact they've been busy building an after-school program for kids creating community through teaching guitar, bass, drums ... y'know, actual rock band type stuff. Tonight they're throwing a......

Continue Reading "Intonation's All About the Kids"

Mayor Daley’s unofficial city council floor leader, 40th Ward Ald. Pat O’Connor, says he’d like to run for Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s seat but only if the mayor gives him the thumbs up. Receiving Daley’s blessing would be a major bonus for any candidate competing in the special election for Emanuel’s soon-to-be-vacant House seat. So far, six other Chicago aldermen in have expressed some interest in the seat. Those......

Continue Reading "Alderman to Daley: Pick a Candidate, Any Candidate"
Obama Helping Out With Chicago 2016 Bid

As Mayor Daley heads east to join Pat Ryan in Turkey today to lobby the European Olympic Committee on behalf of Chicago 2016, the pair will be joined by President-Elect Barack Obama. Sort of. Obama has recorded a message which will be played at the meeting supporting Chicago 2016's efforts. Daley is hoping that at next year's final presentation in Copenhagen, the real Obama will join the Chicago delegation.

The FBI says that the number of bank robberies in Chicago this year (220 to date) is on pace to surpass 2007 numbers (226), but probably won’t surpass the record number set in 2006 (284). They also reported that the number of robberies has spiked in the last two to three weeks, and the incidents are becoming increasingly dangerous. Apparently, it’s no coincidence that the number of bank robberies is on the rise......

Continue Reading "Bank Robberies on the Rise"

Low Vs Diamond make us wanna wave lighters in the air, drink pints of lager, and make out with Brits in the discotheque, so imagine our surprise when we learned they were based in California. They mine Muse and The Killers for their sound, which ain't all that surprising considering they were discovered by the same dude who signed The Killers. Low Vs Diamond is in town tonight to play Subterranean, so check......

Continue Reading "Thursday Afternoon Diversion: Low Vs Diamond Give Us A Heart Attack"

Aaron Pena, a 22-year veteran with the Chicago Police Department, has found himself out of a job after he was charged with stealing a bag of trail mix worth $1 at a Walgreens on West Cermak. Pena, who according to Chicago Police Board testimony was dubbed the "Mayor of 26th Street" by local residents, is alleged to have been caught on security video going into the store to......

Continue Reading "Veteran Cop Fired for Stealing Trail Mix"

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