1 Violence near Safe Passage route
At Dulles School for Excellence in the Greater Grand Crossing area, teachers hustle kids out the door at the end of the day in an effort to limit exposure to neighborhood violence. [Sun-Times]
2 Twitter files for IPO
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, a veteran of the Chicago improv circuit, has led the company to more than $500 million in ad revenue and a valuation that one of its investors put at $10.5 billion last month. We’ll see if that holds up when the bell rings. [WSJ]
3 A Kickstarter for funerals?
The recession didn’t just change the way we lived — it changed the way we died. A third of Americans who get cremated do so because it’s cheaper. Local startup Graceful Goodbye is trying to provide relief by applying the crowdfunding logic of Kickstarter to the funeral industry. [Grid]
4 Free flights for everyone!
Someone at United pushed the wrong button yesterday afternoon, and for a couple of hours on the airline’s website it cost precisely nothing for a ticket to anywhere. Jury’s still out on whether or not they’ll honor the tickets. [Sun-Times]
5 Look back in anger
Chicago makes an appearance on Businessweek’s five-year retrospective of the financial crisis. More specifically, our enormous money pit does. Reminisce on the doomed legacy of the Chicago Spire. [Businessweek]
6 Interrupters interrupted
CeaseFire, the widely praised gang mediation program, has shuttered its North Lawndale office after city funding dried up. The Woodlawn office is slated to close at the end of the month unless it finds more cash for operations. [NBC5]
7 Stop eating that man’s chocolate
In the latest edition of Grid’s workplace advice column, we tackle old chauvinist pigs with candy and the downsides of unlimited vacation time. [Grid]
8 Downtown department makeovers
Saks, Neiman Marcus and Macy’s downtown department locations are all planning to trot out new amenities for fall. [Crain’s]
