The demand for tickets is sky-high, and the likelihood is slim that all who want a ticket to President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration in January will receive one. The only way to score one of the free tickets to the inauguration ceremony is from your member of Congress, who each get 198 tickets.

The windy, cold air didn’t stop about 40 South Side children from marching through the Woodlawn community Saturday asking for adults to step up and be responsible.

Local politicians from differing sides of the Chicagoland area put their muscle behind who they prefer to see succeed President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. Flanked by more than a dozen supporters, most from the West Side and west suburbs, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-7th) made it official that he wants Obama’s senate seat.

A missed opportunity for a boat ride along Fox River in the early days of a mentoring retreat led to the drowning deaths Friday of three West Side teens. Jimmie Avant, 18, Melvin Choice, 17, and Adrian Jones, 16, were among 31 male students from North Lawndale College Prep on an annual leadership retreat at Camp Algonquin.

The likelihood of the city building an Olympic Village in Bronzeville despite objections from many residents has caught the attention of international advocates following the debate.

Now that gas prices have dropped well below the $4.35 a gallon price it averaged during the summer, the Chicago Transit Authority Board has approved a fare increase that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2009.

On Tuesday, Hundreds of Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps students from city and suburban schools marched in the Chicago Defender Charities’ 82nd Annual Veterans Day Parade on King Drive to salute all veterans and the sacrifices they made for the country.

President-elect Barack Obama tapped U.S. Cong. Rahm Emanuel shortly after winning the Nov. 4 election, to be the White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel’s political career spans two decades and includes work on Paul Simon’s 1984 election to the U.S. Senate and senior advisor and chief fundraiser for Mayor Richard M. Daley.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.–The Blagojevich administration has stopped payment on most state-subsidized health care, asking a judge to clarify his order to shut down an illegal expansion of the FamilyCare program. Court documents indicate state reimbursement to doctors treating more than 500,000 FamilyCare patients stopped Oct. 15, the day Cook County Circuit Judge James R. Epstein ordered the administration to halt an expansion of the program to people with higher incomes.

The day after one Chicagoan made history as the first Black U.S. president, another historic Chicagoan died. Cirilo McSween was more than a franchise owner of 11 McDonald's restaurants–including the first Black-owned one downtown at 230 S. State St.