• Parents of students at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen held a sit-in to protest the proposed demolition of the school's field house.
• A South Side man was shot twice today and survived both times.
• Shareholders for both Continental and United Airlines approved the airlines' proposed merger.

United and Continental Airlines finally reach a deal to merge into the world's biggest airline with its headquarters based out of Chicago. more ›

• The SCOTUS will consider Michigan's request to reopen the 1922 lawsuit in conference tomorrow as the Asian Carp fight continues.
• That Blago subponea request for President Obama? Turns out there's some redacted info that you can still view. Rich Miller cracked the code.
• Julio Huertas, a Navy SEAL from Blue Island, was acquitted today by a military jury in the beating of an Iraqi prisoner.

• A community organization on the South Side is fighting for the right of local commuters to get access to Metra's inbound South Shore train which city commuters are currently prohibited from boarding.
• Authorities are blaming a space heater for a fire that killed two and injured two in the Austin neighborhood.
• New evidence and charges in the murder of Melissa Bridgewater.

It's good that with a weak economy we have another villain to give the stink eye. Many of the country's major airlines, including Chicago-based United, have doubled surcharges on flights taking place around the holidays. Usually $10 each way, the surcharges will now be $20 each way. Of course, when you're already paying $400 for a round trip flight, what's another $20? [Crain's] more ›

• The man charged with stalking and making those peephole videos of ESPN's Erin Andrews has been released on bail but ordered to home confinement.
• Chicago in 2040: still no jet-packs but more CTA.
• Those who fear the next Hamthrax outbreak can mark your calendars: the first shipment of the H1N1 vaccine are due to hit Chicago on October 15, but those first doses will be limited to certain demographics.

If you're booking flights for travel around Thanksgiving or New Years and you're flying American or Chicago-based United Airlines, be prepared to tack on a small fuel surcharge of $10. Crain's reports the fees were added earlier this week. more ›

• Mayor Daley and Governor Quinn are defending the $16 million price tag on the state's tourism spending. If gubernatorial opponent Dan Hynes thinks that's steep now, wait til October 3rd when we might add roughly $4 billion to that.
• Officials downstate are investigating a brutal quintuple homicide in which a couple and three of their children were shot dead in Beason; a 3-year-old girl survived the shooting, but police haven't released any additional details on her condition.
• Investigators have ruled that the fire-related deaths of a couple in their Des Plaines-area home was a murder-suicide.

Mega-airline United Airlines is looking at a relocation to the Willis Tower and the City is doing everything it can to lure the new business into downtown. To help lure the business (and its nearly 3,000 workers) from its current Elk Grove digs, the City is also putting together around $25 million in incentives. No details have been discussed publicly. Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) - who's ward includes the Willis Tower - told the Tribune, "The final numbers haven't been presented to me." According to Fioretti, that incentive money would come from - where else - a TIF fund. [Tribune] more ›

Seems United has got things churning again out at O'Hare as the check-in kiosks are back online. But it'll take some time to untangle from today's earlier mess so we still highly recommend you check your flight status online if you're flying the friendly skies. [CBN] more ›

• Major airlines are set to do the hokey pokey at O'Hare on June 1 and United will be sharing space at Terminal 1 with Continental.
• Michael Norton, owner of Norton Sweet Shop - a West Side convenience store - was shot and killed in an attempted robbery last night.
• More change coming to Chicago's parking meters: by the end of the year, 3,000 cash-free payment boxes - on which you can use credit cards - will be installed.

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 had runway grand openings today. Supporters are promising that the new runway will help alleviate O'Hare's well-known delays.

Synonymous with air-travel angst for decades, O'Hare's delays persist despite a more than 8 percent fall in traffic this year. Mother Nature has been the airport's main vulnerability because when bad weather reduced visibility, controllers could land just two planes at a time -- reducing capacity by a third. more ›

Adding to yesterday’s economic news of jobs leaving to the economy, oil prices reaching new highs, and the Dow dropping 400 points, hometown airline United announced they have reached a buy-out agreement with their flight attendants. more ›

Sometimes, naming-rights deals for parts of stadiums make a fair amount of sense by pairing a sponsoring brand that corresponds to the use of the area and the demographics of the fans. The Bud Light bleachers at Wrigley Field is a good example. more ›

Less than two years after receiving over $15 million in TIF money and fuel tax breaks, rumors are flying (heh) that United may merge with Delta, creating uncertainty if our hometown airline will remain based for the long term in its Wacker Drive digs, or if it will leave and take their 325 full-time jobs with them. Fortunately, as part of the financial deal, United's "successor entity" would be locked into the space for about another eight years. But after that, it's all up for grabs. more ›