Jason Bitner (born Glen Ellyn, Illinois) is an author and project producer currently living in Chicago, Illinois. He is the co-creator of Found Magazine, a show-and-tell project celebrating found notes, letters and other ephemera; the creator of Cassette from My Ex, a storytelling project about love and mixtapes; and producer for the documentary movie La Porte, Indiana , based on Bitner's book of the same title. [1] Bitner's work has been widely published and reviewed, and has been featured in print, web, radio, and television appearances including The New York Times , [2] The Chicago Tribune , [3] The Boston Globe , [4] National Public Radio, [1] and The New Yorker . [5]
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion, which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
LaPorte County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2020, the population was 112,417. The county seat is the city of La Porte, and the largest city is Michigan City. This county is part of the Northwest Indiana and Michiana regions of the Chicago metropolitan area. The LaPorte County Courthouse is located in the county seat of La Porte and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Calumet City is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 36,033 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
La Porte is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States, of which it is the county seat. Its population was estimated to be 21,341 in 2022. It is one of the two principal cities of the Michigan City-La Porte, Indiana metropolitan statistical area, which is included in the Chicago–Naperville–Michigan City, Illinois–Indiana–Wisconsin combined statistical area.
Michigan City is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States. It had a population of 32,075 at the 2020 census. Located along Lake Michigan in the Michiana region, the city is about 45 miles (72 km) east of Chicago and is 40 miles (64 km) west of South Bend.
The Medill School of Journalism is the journalism school of Northwestern University. It offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It frequently ranks as the top school of journalism in the United States. Medill alumni include over 40 Pulitzer Prize laureates, numerous national correspondents for major networks, many well-known reporters, columnists and media executives.
The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as the Greater Chicago Area and Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities. Encompassing 10,286 square mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hinterland, that span 14 counties across northeast Illinois, northwest Indiana, and southeast Wisconsin. The MSA had a 2020 census population of 9,618,502 and the combined statistical area which spans up to 19 counties had a population of nearly 10 million people. The Chicago area is the third largest metropolitan area in the United States and the fourth largest metropolitan area in North America and the largest within the Midwest, and the largest in the Great Lakes megalopolis. Its urban area is one of the forty largest in the world.
Rod Blagojevich, often referred to by his nickname "Blago", is an American politician, political commentator, and convicted felon who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. He was impeached, removed from office, convicted, and incarcerated for eight years on federal charges of public corruption. A member of the Democratic Party, Blagojevich previously worked in both the state and federal legislatures. He served as an Illinois state representative from 1993 to 1997, and the U.S. representative from Illinois's 5th district from 1997 to 2003.
Harold Lincoln Gray was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the newspaper comic strip Little Orphan Annie.
The South Shore Line is an electrically powered interurban commuter rail line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) between Millennium Station in downtown Chicago and the South Bend International Airport in South Bend, Indiana, United States. The name refers to both the physical line and the service operated over that route. The line was built in 1901–1908 by predecessors of the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, which continues to operate freight service. Passenger operation was assumed by the NICTD in 1989, who also purchased the track in 1990. The South Shore Line is one of the last surviving interurban trains in the United States. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 1,406,900, or about 5,000 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Daily Northwestern is the student newspaper at Northwestern University which is published in print on Mondays and Thursdays and online daily during the academic year. Founded in 1881, and printed in Evanston, Illinois, it is staffed primarily by undergraduates, many of whom are students at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
Found Magazine, created by Davy Rothbart and Jason Bitner and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, collected and cataloged found notes, photos, and other ephemera, publishing them in an irregularly issued magazine, in books, and on its website. Items found and published have ranged from love letters to homework assignments, and they are contributed by people who find them in a variety of public places, all over the world.
Belle Gunness, born Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth, nicknamed Hell's Belle, was a Norwegian-American serial killer who was active in Illinois and Indiana between 1884 and 1908. Gunness is thought to have killed at least 14 people, while some sources speculate her involvement in as many as 40 murders making her one of the most prolific female serial killers in history. Gunness seemingly died in a fire in 1908, but it is popularly believed that she faked her death. Her actual fate is unconfirmed.
Perkins&Will is a global design practice founded in 1935. As of 2022, Perkins&Will had 28 offices and over 2,500 employees. In the same year, Perkins&Will generated $572.47 million in earnings, making it the second largest architecture firm by revenue in the United States. Phil Harrison has been the firm's CEO since 2006.
Tom Matlack is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author.
Andy Cowan is an American writer and script consultant for television and other media. He is the creator and host of the comedy/therapy podcast, The Neurotic Vaccine, launched in 2022 from Benztown + McVay Media Podcast Networks. The Neurotic Vaccine wound up landing among the top comedy interview podcasts in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, and Romania, and in 2023 was a multiple final Quill (podcasting) Award nominee for Best New Podcast and Best Comedy Podcast. From 2010–2011, he co-hosted his radio comedy therapy talk show, Up & Down Guys, on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles.
The 1898 Dartmouth football team represented Dartmouth College in the 1898 college football season.
Katie Rich is an American comedian, writer, producer and actress known for her work on Saturday Night Live.
Maxine Bliss Jennings was an American actress.
Chaz Ebert is an American businesswoman. She is best known as the wife and widow of film critic Roger Ebert, having been married to him from 1992 until his death in 2013.