If the coyote population in the suburbs were simply content with grabbing a toasty sub once in a while, the western suburb of Wheaton might not have decided to hire a trapper to catch and kill -- er, "euthanize" -- the coyotes wandering around their village. Citing safety concerns, Wheaton officials want to cull the number of coyotes, despite the fact that the only victims so far are pets, not humans. Councilman John Prendiville was a dissenter, telling the Daily Herald that if "a particular animal attacks or actively threatens humans, [he] would take action against that animal... Revenge for the death of a pet is not sufficient reason for killing coyotes." more ›

The CTA trains are another story, but if you use Metra and Amtrack trains to get around Chicagoland area, your ride may soon get a little faster. more ›

Whenever we venture out to the Neo-Futurarium for the long-running - but always changing - Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, we can be certain of just two things: whether the pieces we see are intellectual, poetic, incredibly silly or politically charged, the performers will never pretend the audience isn't there, and every piece will be completely honest. When a cast member tells a story about her/himself, chances are it actually happened. We've seen some people get quite uncomfortable with this, not knowing what to make of such personal performances, both in proximity and story. If you're one of those people, you probably won't like I Am A Camera. If, like us, you find the Neo-Futurist style to be exciting, often cathartic and always refreshing, we think you will, even if it feels a bit drawn-out. more ›

We love Menya. The trio from NYC creates terrific original electro-pop, and their flips of popular pop tunes are always tops.(One of our faves is their evisceration of 3OH!3 in "Ho's Revenge.") their latest takes emo-pop tyke Justin Bieber's innocent "Baby" and sexes the hell out of it. After watching it we recommend you download Menya's latest disc The Sleepover Series (vol. 1) for free. more ›

Non-Western rhythms have throughout music history shown up as influences in the work of American and European artists. The Beatles, Paul Simon, the Rolling Stones and Rusted Root all nodded to worldly locales from India to South Africa, at some point in their careers. Modern indie artists have followed suit, co-opting world music, particularly pan-African influences, in a recent fever that suggests a budding trend. Fool's Gold, jj, Tanlines, The Very Best and Vampire Weekend are some of the forerunners utilizing African percussion and instrumentation to infuse pop/rock with the exotic flavors of faraway lands. more ›

Last Fall, we took a look at some of the communities and abandonments on the far South side and in Northwest Indiana. While the weather hasn't been amenable to walking the City of the Century, David Tribby has shared some of his photography of Gary with us. This week, we'll be looking at some of the notable abandoned buildings there. For a more in depth look at the architecture of the once-great city, check out his book, Gary Indiana, a City's Ruins. more ›

In which we take a quick look at a few recent musical releases. more ›

In effort to expand its presence in the Northeast, Walgreens will buy Duane Reade drugstores in the New York metropolitan area for $618 million, plus $457 million in debt, to become the largest U.S. drugstore in New York City. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, CEO Jeffrey A. Rein stated at the recent annual meeting that his team was "working hard" to expand the company's presence in the West and the Northeast region which has been dominated by rival CVS Caremark Corp. Located on high-traffic corners throughout the city, Duane Reade will continue to operate under its brand name and Walgreens expects to retain the employees at its stores, pharmacies and distribution centers and "many members of Duane Reade's senior management team" following the acquisition closing in August. more ›

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At first the notion of a Pavement "best of" album made no sense to us, but then we realized not everyone owns every single thing the band put out like we do. in Pavement's ten years as a working band it's fair to say they birthed the final wave of the truly independent movement in music and it's hard to understate their influence on the generation that followed. more ›

If you’ve already been working on your taxes, you’ve probably noticed the “tax check-off” charity options on your Illinois state returns. If you are doing your taxes on paper, these are found in Schedule G - if online, they come somewhere near the end of the state section. One of the donation options on the list is particularly close to our hearts - the “Feeding Illinois” option. more ›

We feel the best way to get to know where your food comes is to begin working with it and going straight to the source. So, we've been excited to start up our series of cooking class reviews to fine-tune our skills, share with you and get a little more knowledge on what goes into what we eat. With this week's review, The Greenheart Shop exceeded our expectations on the educational front. more ›

Spoiler Alert: He gets the girl. more ›