The Author of the New 'Burger Bible' Picks Her Top 5 Chicago Burgers [Chicago Suntimes]:'Let the Debate Begin. Am I Biased? Wildly Subjective? Untrustworthy Even? Therein Lies the Joy of Our Collective Burger Obsession.'By Maggie Hennessy | WBEZ Apr 1, 2026, 5:30am CDT
Article in yesterday's Sun-times:
DePaul University Lays Off 114 Staff Members:
"The Lincoln Park-based school [i.e. Depaul] said it’s facing financial headwinds due to a significant drop in enrollment among international graduate students, an increased demand for financial aid and the rising costs of benefits."
Chicago Sun-times (12/15/2025)
Disturbing discussion of what looks like the current administration's intention to "cut federal funding for libraries and museums":
"Libraries are strong, trusted institutions, and it’s really unfortunate to hear that the federal government would think otherwise," said Cindy Hohl, the [library] association's president. "We have 125,000 libraries in this country, and that's more libraries than McDonald's restaurants. That's how prevalent and important they are. And so when we see that attacks on libraries are happening, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Americans love their libraries." [link]
Gen Z Is Drinking Less — And It's Changing Chicago's Social Scene Chicago was once dubbed the “Greatest Drinking City in America” by GQ magazine. But Gen Zers are putting down the booze and seeking out nonalcoholic options instead. (Link)Psss, don't tell anyone but as teens, the only way we could acquire alcohol was to hang out in front of the liquor store and ask people going inside if they could buy us a bottle. Eventually someone would say 'yes'.
The Chicago Suntimes ran a rather disturbing article on the decline of newspapers, 'As Newspapers Close Across The U.S., Study Finds Illinois Is Hard Hit' (link).
Some of the disturbing information:
Since 2005, more than one-third of U.S. newspapers — 3,300 outlets — have closed. In that time, Illinois has lost 36% of its newspapers, or 232 outlets, and Cook County has lost 40% of its newspapers.
Illinois has also lost 54% of its newspaper workers, or about 4,600 positions, in the decade ending in 2023.
There are a few positive developments including a "net increase of 81 stand-alone digital news sites" -- still it's clear: one of our most valuable resources is running into serious difficulties.
Surprising and not-to-mention disturbing article about the lack of librarians in the Chicago Public School system: 'CTU Pushes for Libraries, Librarians in Every CPS School'. We get the count in the subtitle: '... just 107 librarians for more than 500 schools'.
Lemme do some math: So we're talking about almost four fifths of Chicago's public schools without access to research help? Disturbing!
From yesterday's Chicago Sun-times:
In an Age of Misinformation, Why Are There So Few Librarians at Chicago Public Schools?
The nation’s third-largest public school system with 290,000 students in 513 district-operated, non-charter schools, CPS has only about 90 schools with full-time librarians.
Librarians -- whaddya need them for? The article goes over a few good examples including:
"Leslie Westerberg, one of those recently laid off, said librarians also help students with research projects and finding accurate information online."
Worth a read.
Well-known columnist/blogger, Rich Miller, has an interesting article in Friday's Sun-Times, 'If I'd Caught the COVID-19 Bug, It Would Have Been On Me. I Walked into the Crowded Room'.
In it, he says:
"The State Fair is such an integral part of our state’s political culture that I think many of us desperately wanted to latch on to some sort of normalcy last week after a year and a half of nothingness. But this clearly ain’t over — though Illinois is doing much better than the southern states — and many of us should’ve known better."
"Integral part" -- I totally agree. It's also a whole lot of fun! There's bar-hopping in the evening; then all the activities at the Fair itself the next day. It really really is a great time! But this year, personally -- no way. Decided to stay home. That said, looking forward to 2022!
Binny's Closed! Now what?
Update (6/3/2020): "Binny’s Pledges to Reopen 11 Damaged Stores" (Sun-Times)
Update (6/11/2020): Yup, got drinks for the weekend!
Interesting front page from today's Chicago Sun-Times. (And yes, I subscribe to their 'digital' edition.) More info here...
[Original Link (no work)]
[h/t CapitolFaxBlog]There are lots of ways to improve failing schools. Charters are one way, but so is investing in traditional schools by offering smaller class sizes, better teachers, financial incentives for teachers and a longer school year. There is no single solution. Pretending otherwise is just as harmful as pretending that scores have gone up miraculously when we know they have not.
I wanted to leave the following comment on an article about MillerCoors [MGD] moving its headquarters to Chicago:
"Well, it's not the best but what the hell, reason enough to order another MGD for me."
Unfortunately, the word 'hell' appears to be too hot for the prudes over at the Chicago Sun-Times since I got the following error (in red no less):
"Please edit or remove the following word(s), then resubmit your content: hell."
UPDATE: Doomsday averted. Praise the Lord!
