Patch Flash: Chicago Architecture Boat Tour Crashes

At least nine people were hospitalized Monday evening when a Wendella Boat Tours boat crashed into a dock near the Michigan Avenue bridge on the Chicago River in downtown Chicago. The two-level boat lost power when it was pulling over and attempting to dock following an architecture tour. It proceeded to plow into a dock in the 400 block of North Michigan Avenue around 5:35 p.m.

 A federal court in Chicago on Monday denied George Ryan's latest appeal seeking his release from prison, dashing what was widely regarded as the former Illinois governor's last credible hope to cut short his 6 1/2-year sentence for corruption. Even though the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals complex, 16-page ruling didn't go in the 78-year-old Republican's favor, he doesn't have too much longer to wait behind bars. He is scheduled to finish serving his sentence at a Terre Haute, Ind., prison in mid-2013. Ryan was convicted of steering state contracts and leases to insiders as secretary of state and then as governor – receiving vacations and gifts in return. He also was accused of stopping an investigation into secretary of state employees accepting bribes for truck driver's licenses.

Chicago's brand new marijuana ticketing ordinance went into effect over the weekend, leaving 11 alleged pot smokers with a big bill to pay. Chicago police officers wrote 11 tickets since the ordinance became enforceable on Saturday.  All those ticketed over the weekend will be forced to pay a fine of at least $250 under the ordinance approved 43-3 by Chicago's City Council earlier this summer. The ordinance allows officers to write a ticket for up to $500 for possessing as much as 15 grams of marijuana, or about 15 marijuana cigarettes.

The FBI has joined an investigation into allegations that DuPage County Forest Preserve District contracts were steered to a Chicago-based technology firm, benefiting two former district employees. The DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office has been looking into the matter for months, but now officials confirm the federal law enforcement agency’s involvement, the Better Government Association has learned.

, according to a release from Gov. Patrick Quinn. Walgreens already employs 5,000 people at its Deerfield campus and surrounding offices. It is the world’s largest drugstore chain.

Northbrook alerted its residents recently that the Glencoe Public Safety Department has received reports of a large cat-type animal resembling a cougar near the Lake Michigan bluff/shoreline. The first sighting occurred on the morning of April 15 on the bluff below the Hazel Avenue overlook in Glencoe. The most recent sighting was on July 26 in Glencoe. Cook County Forest Preserve District also received two unconfirmed cougar sightings in the Skokie Lagoon area over the past two weeks.