Mitt Romney's dog problem; Obama's Muslim problem; Republicans' Illinois problem; Chicago's voting problem; Derrick Smith's FBI problem; and more from election day. Read more
Chicago's startup tech scene gets some new national attention thanks to the incubator 1871, but it wouldn't be a Trend without someone from not-flyover country giving us the what-for. Read more
Travels through Chicago on a particularly warm and inebriated St. Patrick's Day, when a broad swath of the city agrees on a date in early spring to lose all control. Read more
Public transportation use in Chicago has hit levels not seen since the 1990s, mostly because of rising gas prices and employment. It's up throughout the U.S., though the increase is mostly in rail rather than buses. Read more
Plans move forward for a mixed-use development at the Polish Triangle on the old Pizza Hut lot; the Bloomingdale Trail and its gateway parks grow closer to reality; and more on development and urbanism. Read more
This time, the Illinois presidential primary matters. But it's not looking like a close contest, with Mitt Romney expected to pick up a substantial victory over Rick Santorum, with the Mormon picking up the Catholic vote and the Catholic courting the state's evangelicals. Read more
Chicago's storied tradition of turning the river a crazed day-glo nuclear green was the inadvertent result of cleaning up the river for the 1960s construction boom, and the brainstorm of one of Mayor Daley's powerful friends. Read more
TAL pulls its most popular episode podcast—and devotes this week's show to the aftermath—after fabrications by monologuist Mike Daisey are revealed by a Marketplace reporter. Read more
The proposal for the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, recently presented to City Council, is making news as America's first civic infrastructure bank. But it's a familiar idea overseas, as a response to familiar fiscal crises. Read more
It's accepted wisdom that crime gets worse in the spring and summer. But the relationship between crime and temperature is even closer than that, and the questions are many: does heat make you angry and stupid? Is there a point where it gets too hot to commit crime? And what happens after the heat wave? Read more
