Illinois news

• Best cannabis community-building organization

  22-02-2024 23:59 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Stoners can all agree that weed has a special way of bringing people together. Strangers quickly turn into friends as ideas are shared along with a joint.  High Focus Media is a Chicago organization that uses regular pop-ups to capture the magic of these simple human interactions in a way that’s accessible to everyone. Led […]
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• Best place to be queer and country

  22-02-2024 22:43 via chicagoreader.com
  
  “Silence is deadlllly!” chided a man in cowboy boots and leather harness as he tossed a pointed look at the DJ. The DJ, good-natured, shouted something back. Even with a lull in the music, it was still raucous inside Charlie’s bar. Outside, it was 14 degrees, but inside, paper fans beat the air, and condensation […]
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• Best 14th-inning stretch

  22-02-2024 22:09 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Nothing prepared me for the peculiar ennui that settled into my bones as I watched my favorite Chicagoland minor league baseball team fail to bring their first championship game to a decisive conclusion on a crisp September evening. The Chicago Dogs of Rosemont won the American Association of Professional Baseball’s east division on Thursday, September […]
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• Kamala Harris hosts exclusive in-person interview with the Courier

  22-02-2024 21:00
  
  VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS SPEAKS WITH COURIER EDITOR AND PUBLISHER ROD DOSS, FEB. 20, 2024. (PHOTO BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)
   She’s proud to invest in clean water for minority communities; says ‘Allegheny County voters’ reason why ‘I am the Vice President’
   
  Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, spent about 10 minutes on Tuesday, Feb. 20, speaking to a crowd of supporters at the King­sley Association in East Liberty, adamant about replacing l
  
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• Review: Io Capitano

  22-02-2024 20:57 via chicagoreader.com
  
  The film explores the many faces of migrant exploitation, from small-time grifters operating fake passport rackets to human trafficking and onward into the pitched depths of human evil.
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• Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season one)

  22-02-2024 20:57 via chicagoreader.com
  
  The adaptation hits the major plot points from season one and keeps all your favorite battles. But whether or not the show succeeds at keeping the heart of the source material is up for debate. 
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• Black Women Are Murdered 6 Times More Than White Women

  22-02-2024 20:57
  
  Photo by South_agency via Getty Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
  by Alexa Spencer
  Black women are, on average, six times more likely to be murdered than white women, according to a new report. The rates are even higher depending on where the women live and during what time period. 
  The analysis, conducted by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, analyzed two decades of homicide trends for women ages 25 to 44. Published in the Lancet on Feb. 7, the study include
  
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• STEAM heat

  22-02-2024 20:56 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Here’s what Cook County treasurer Maria Pappas told the Chicago Sun-Times when 800,000 tax bills she recently sent to property owners understated the city’s unfunded pension debt by 37 billion dollars: “S— happens.”  Not precisely her words, but that’s how the Sun-Times reported it, confident that no one would be puzzled by the missing letters, […]
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• ‘Climate deception’ lawsuit, proposed TIF changes, Raymond Lopez’s congressional bid

  22-02-2024 20:41 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Chicago sues fossil fuel companies The City of Chicago is suing six oil and gas companies, as well as the industry’s largest trade association, for “deceiving Chicago consumers about the climate dangers associated with their products,” Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office announced on Tuesday. Named in the suit are BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, and […]
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• Best place to put down your fucking phone

  22-02-2024 19:17 via chicagoreader.com
  
  I barreled into the Gallery Bookstore, off Belmont and Clark, with earbuds in, backpack on, and eyes to my phone—unaware that there would be consequences. An ornery voice sounded over my Ween playlist. Behind the front counter was an old man with a snow-white beard, his arms crossed in dissatisfaction. He barked the store’s ironclad […]
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• Seeking Arrangement Review: Does It Work in 2024? Can You Find a Real Relationship? Here’s the Lowdown

  22-02-2024 19:10 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Looking for a no holds barred review of Ashley Madison? We tried the famous site and can tell what works, what doesn't, the best and worst parts. Continue reading!
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• Best Chicago comedian documenting their cancer journey on TikTok

  22-02-2024 18:55 via chicagoreader.com
  
  If a TikTok from Toeknee hit your “For You” page within the last year or so, it was probably a video of actor and comedian Anthony “Toeknee” Corrado expressively dancing in his northwest-side apartment, or maybe causing mild chaos around Chicago from “acting up” and “just playin’” too much. It might’ve been a skit in […]
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• Best place to pick up cute flora and clean up the neighborhood

  22-02-2024 18:50 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Located near the busy, dirty, car-ridden intersection of Archer and Loomis is a little slice of paradise. The warm space, with large windows and a collection of plants, is a life-size terrarium.  Ivon Rodriguez first opened Node Plant Shop on April 23, 2023, for Earth Day weekend after realizing that her nine-to-five corporate job was […]
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• Best place to find actual and affordable modern furniture and accessories

  22-02-2024 18:32 via chicagoreader.com
  
  I stumbled into Velvet Goldmine, at the corner of Division and Damen, after failing, for the second time, to outlast the breakfast line at Kasama, a few blocks south. (That’s another, less happy, story.) It was August and witheringly hot outside, but inside this vintage building with its Moorish fantasy keyhole windows, the vibe was […]
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• Best place to upgrade your wardrobe

  22-02-2024 18:17 via chicagoreader.com
  
  It’s common to hear that Chicagoans lack style, that we privilege a midwestern asceticism and conformity over distinguished taste. I don’t think that’s true, but I understand why it feels true, especially as someone born and raised in the heartland who lost years struggling to feel at home in my body. I also used to […]
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• Jhariah grapples with the music-industry pressures of the content age

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Jhariah has become one of the freshest-sounding artists in indie rock by pairing their imaginative ear for pop with their ability to reflect the music industry back on itself. Their music resists tidy categorization but leans heavily on pop punk, funk, gospel, show tunes, and video-game music that recalls the simplicity of an NES menu […]
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• Best weekday show series for artists and patrons alike

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Whether you’re a performer or a patron, if you’re headed to the famous Tuesday Dollar Beer Night at Sleeping Village, chances are you’ve been looking forward to it—no matter who’s on the lineup. When I go, I often don’t even check first to see who’s playing. The formula for a perfect weeknight show is simple. […]
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• Best ways to use the $20 floaties you bought for Friday Morning Swim Club

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  When my roommates and I attended our first Friday Morning Swim Club last summer, we unknowingly committed a faux pas.  As we approached Montrose Harbor, inflatable fruits, animals, and colorful designs were everywhere in sight. By showing up empty-handed, we disobeyed the unspoken rule to bring a floaty. Rookie mistake.  I vowed to never make […]
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• Best way to practice your precision kickline skills while channeling your inner vintage vixen

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  “A one and a two and a three!” Inside the comfortable and well-appointed Ravenswood Loft, vintage social dance expert Nicolle Wood has produced swing, Lindy Hop, Charleston, and Balboa events since the explosion of interest in the dance forms in the late 90s. As the entertainment director for the Galaxie (once housed in a 10,000-square-foot space […]
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• Best union for Chicago cultural workers

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Since 2021, workers at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) and the School of the Art Institute (SAIC), Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry (MSI), Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Newberry Library, and suburban libraries (including Niles, Oak Lawn, Waukegan, and St. Charles) have formed worker organizations, each affiliating with the American Federation of State, […]
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• Best time to jump alone into Lake Michigan with an illegal floatie

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  I’m anti-fun, hate mornings, and don’t want anyone to show me their cool mug when I’m jumping into a freezing cold lake just to feel something. If you make your way to the very end of Montrose Harbor on a weeknight at sunset, everyone else feels the same way. The winding green patch in the […]
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• Best TikTok presence setting the record straight about Chicago culture for a national audience

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  In January 2023, @nairabills aka Chima “Naira” Ikoro posted a video asking men with loud opinions about women’s hair and makeup, “Aren’t you supposed to be building a house? You worried about the wrong stuff. . . . Men used to be artisans, used to be craftsmen—go shine a shoe, bro.” The TikTok, now liked […]
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• Best (sort of) secret bakery

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  On any given Sunday, you’ll find me in a line of people on Lincoln Avenue waiting to pick up my weekly dark chocolate treat from a walk-up window. Inevitably, a passerby will stop, eye the line, and ask, “What’s going on here?” What’s going on is Au Levain, a weekly bakery run by chef Angel […]
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• Best secret venue to see noisecore or hyperpop

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Between venue closings, tour cancellations, and an increasingly unclear virological situation, it’s been a depressing year to look for a new, comfortable live-music experience. Mostly I’ve been relying on the hallowed and impressive venues I already know, which on the whole are a bit more commercial than I’d like. In one case, though, I’ve actually […]
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• Best route for a pre-movie edible come-up

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  There are certain times and places when downtown Chicago, for all its grit and grayness, really preens around its more hospitable and picturesque side. For me, one of the more special ones is about 15 minutes before showtime, walking along the Ogden Slip and down to the river.  The route: starting at the southeast corner […]
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• Best rapper who also collects luchador masks

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Chébaka has created his impressive repertoire of multifaceted hip-hop by experimenting with field recordings, samples, and creatively recorded vocals and raps. He tops off his aesthetic onstage by performing in whimsical outfits that incorporate an element of his cultural heritage—he invokes the sport and spectacle of Mexican wrestling, aka lucha libre, by obscuring his face […]
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• Best pug life in Chicago

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  For eight years, Parker the Pug lived a life of luxury and celebrity. In 2016, the then-manager of Park Hyatt Chicago adopted the five-year-old rescue pug and made her the latest hotel employee. She gained a posh lifestyle and attracted the attention of the national media, her hiring making headlines on the Today Show, in […]
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• Best pro-liberation DJ collective and dance party

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  The dynamic DJ duo of Nanoos and QuJo created the roving party series Go Baba! Worldwide to fill a void in Chicago nightlife. They aim to provide a welcoming space for people in the African, Arab, and Caribbean diasporas and harness the liberatory power of music for Black and Brown people, enabling freedom of self-expression […]
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• Best plastic cup of wine I had all year

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Would you believe me if I told you the best glass of wine I had all year (the Domaine La Bohème G&M) was served in a plastic cup and enjoyed from a stool at one of Pilsen’s oldest dive bars? No? Well, let me and the Los Naturales boys make you a believer. Pick a […]
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• Best place to shockproof a date

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  How do you like your gelato? Nutty? Fruity? In Italy? Me too! But when I can’t scoop it up in Milan, my next favorite place is at Sideshow Gelato, where every scoop of their in-house artisan gelato palette comes with a side of sideshow history and action—and on weekends, with an actual sideshow. This quirky […]
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• Best place to remind yourself print isn’t dead

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Many coffee shops now function primarily as coworking spaces for the laptop-bound, but City News Cafe in Portage Park is still unabashedly devoted to the printed word, with racks upon racks of magazines, both famous and obscure. There are magazines for serious photographers, budding musicians, and fans of fashion and fine art. Comics and graphic […]
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• Best place to learn salsa, bachata, and mambo for free

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Pier 31 is out under the open sky, with no cover charge, and offers a full food and drink menu. You can ride your bike there or even dock your boat there. No shirt, no shoes? No problem.  Located at 31st Street Beach, Pier 31 Restaurant hosts events seven days a week, including DJ sets […]
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• Best place to hear Gregorian chants by Benedictine Monks

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Nestled two miles from downtown Chicago in Bridgeport, a neighborhood that once had the most churches in the entire city, is the Monastery of the Holy Cross.  Holy Cross is the only urban monastery in the country. The eight monks live according to the Rule of Saint Benedict, which encapsulates a quiet, solitary life in […]
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• Best place to channel your inner Olympian

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  When I think of my small hometown in northwestern Illinois, one of the more idyllic memories I can conjure up is of learning to ice-skate on a frozen creek in our local park—a tributary of a tributary of a river that eventually flows into the mighty Mississippi at the Illinois–Iowa border. Most winters when I […]
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• Best place to buy incense from actual hippies

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  With the demise of Lakeview’s Waxman Candles last year, finding quality incense in the city got a lot more challenging. Sure, the creepy, sterile, kratom-hawking head shops offering crappy bulk incense from Amazon will do in a pinch. But that assumes you can tolerate five minutes of excruciating fluorescent lighting and navigate past an alarming […]
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• Best place to build a movement

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Art collective, social movement incubator, union meetinghouse—the Chicago Liberation Center wears many hats but its goal is always the same: to build community among Chicago’s working class.  Not much larger than your average Chicago bungalow, the Center is tucked away in an old storefront in Little Village. Founded in 2021 by members of the Chicago […]
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• Best place to brush up on your swordsmanship skills during Renaissance Faire offseason

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Self-described as “Chicago’s most unique martial arts studio,” Forteza Fitness has got you covered if you’re interested in fencing, swordplay, archery, or many other antiquated “battle sports.” It boasts a full schedule of classes every weeknight and all weekend long, kids camps in the summer, and conditioning for all of the above. Forteza is unique […]
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• Best place to be absolutely anyone you want to be with a sexy Art Deco flair and maybe a martini

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Sometimes we all need to escape reality, and there are a million ways to do it. Some of us turn to TV, others to music. Me? I turn to candlelit rooms full of interesting people and good cocktails. Originally established in 1927, the Sparrow cocktail lounge in the Gold Coast is by far my favorite […]
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• Best online coalition that consolidates Chicago organizing efforts for Palestine

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  If you’re looking for Instagram pages to keep you plugged into U.S.-based organizing and protesting efforts that support the Palestinian people—more than 25,000 of whom have been mercilessly slaughtered by the U.S.-funded Israeli military since October 7—there are a couple accounts I can recommend—but none better than Students for Justice in Palestine Chicago (@sjpchicago). Arab […]
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• Best of Chicago: Tell Us Why You Love This City

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  If there’s one Chicago Reader special issue guaranteed to elicit considerable commentary, it’s the Best of Chicago issue. That’s to be expected when attempting to capture what is especially notable in such a large, vibrant, dynamic city as Chicago, and yet it’s still a surprise to witness the depth of thought and feeling that readers […]
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• Best of Chicago 2023: Sports & Recreation

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
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• Best of Chicago 2023: Music & Nightlife

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
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• Best of Chicago 2023: Food & Drink

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
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• Best of Chicago 2023: City Life

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
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• Best of Chicago 2023: Cannabis

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
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• Best of Chicago 2023: Buy Local

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
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• Best of Chicago 2023: Arts & Culture

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
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• Best ode to Wicker Park in the 90s

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  “You know about Wicker Park?” asks a character in Nathan Hill’s 2023 novel Wellness. “Take the Blue Line six stops and it’s a completely different world.”  “Different how?”  “Primarily, it’s real. It is a place of substance. That’s where the real art is happening. . . . And real music too.” It hardly needs to […]
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• Best new metal album to pair with staring into your cheap whiskey while your ex moves out of your condo

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  OK, so maybe I didn’t experience this exact scenario when my ex and I parted ways last year, but it was close—and on their fifth and latest album, 2023’s The Glass Garden, Chicago progressive doom band Flesh of the Stars capture the tense restraint of such a departure. Though the record opens with one of […]
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• Best new legislation that supports freelance workers

  22-02-2024 16:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Freelance workers have historically had few rights in the state of Illinois. The treatment of freelancers—broadly, self-employed independent contractors who get paid per task or project—has been more or less up to the client’s discretion. For example, clients could take months to pay for completed work, and workers had little recourse if their clients failed […]
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