For the first time since Chicago switched to non-partisan mayoral elections in 1996, Chicago will have a runoff for the mayor's office. The two remaining contenders are Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia and incumbent politico Rahm "Voldemort" Emanuel.
Emanuel held many advantages to help avoid a runoff and secure early victory: name recognition, connections, a wide array of endorsements, the lowest turnout in recent memory, and a budget far greater than the combined opposition to pay for the saturation of Chicago's radio and TV airwaves with dubious advertisements. But Chicago voters were slapped around by Rahm's policies, including sweeping mental health clinic closings, the largest school closing in American history, the maintenance of a draining Tax Increment Finance system, and a criminal police apparatus. Voters denied Rahm his majority to win.
Garcia is a former Chicago alderman, member of the staff of former mayor Harold Washington, and current Cook County commissioner. Garcia has nowhere near the business connections that Emanuel has, which Garcia has touted to his advantage, and has received the endorsement of the Chicago Teachers Union that defeated Emanuel in the CTU's famous 2012 strike. Garcia has the potential to fuse the votes that didn’t go to Emanuel, that could shape the majority needed to win. As the Chicago weather is bound to warm up, the number of voters heading to the polls in a runoff are expected to increase, thus improving Garcia's chances.
Political commentators are mixed regarding the outcome, and early polling has deemed the race a “dead heat” with nearly a fifth of polled voters deemed undecided.
UPDATE: Emanuel may have had his first public meltdown moment.
Chicagoans have taken to the streets to protest the effective acquittal of police officers in Ferguson, Missouri (in the Michael Brown case) and New York City (the Eric Garner case).
September, 1, 2014 marks Labor Day in the United States, and it also marks the debut of the 100th episode of Chicago Independent Television, the monthly TV program of Chicago Indymedia. The 100th episode debuts at 11PM on September 1, 2014 on 
After 20 months in jail, three NATO defendants -- Brian Jacob Church, Jared Chase and Brent Betterly -- finally go to trial in the coming days on trumped-up, politically motivated accusations and a ‘crime’ wholly created and instigated by undercover cops engaged in police entrapment. In the run-up to the May 2012 NATO meeting in Chicago, officials militarized the city and clamped down on the freedom to protest. A linchpin in officials' justification of that state repression was the arrest and demonization of the NATO defendants, just days before the biggest purveyors of violence in the world -- NATO officials -- gathered in the Windy City. Opening arguments reportedly scheduled now for January 21. 
From the newswire - The blog of the website Privacy SOS featured a blogpost headlined "Is Facebook going to let cops block you from posting about protests?", with a particular focus on the Chicago police. Quoting from the post:
In a victory for free speech, activism, and education rights, an Illinois appellate court supported the free speech rights of a Chicago professor after her university tried to slander her using an Illinois law intended to shield citizens from powerful interests.
On the evening of Friday, August 16th, 
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) "brings together major U.S. corporations and right-wing legislators to craft and vote on 'model' bills behind closed doors. It has come under increasing scrutiny for its role in promoting 'stand your ground' gun laws, voter suppression bills, union-busting policies and other controversial legislation. Although billing itself as a 'nonpartisan public-private partnership,' ALEC is actually a national network of state politicians and powerful corporations principally concerned with increasing corporate profits without public scrutiny." [