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8 Stories You Might've Missed This Week

By DNAinfo Staff | August 29, 2014 7:15pm
 From new lakefront sculptures to a City Hall scandal, here are some of the stories you may have missed.
From new lakefront sculptures to a City Hall scandal, here are some of the stories you may have missed.
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DNAinfo

A new set of lakefront sculptures, an honor for a former mayor and a scandal surrounding an aide to another, and a chess player with no arms...DNAinfo Chicago staffers pick some of the best stories you might have missed this week.

Have you seen the newest sculptures lining the lakefront?

Three new sculptures that look like a cloud of paper caught in a sudden gust have appeared on the south lakefront trail.

The Chicago Park District is finishing installation of three new bright white aluminum sculptures by Alice Aycock on the lakefront between 46th and 48th streets.

Though the sculptures seem very much at home a buffeted by gales next to the crashing waves of Lake Michigan, they were originally designed to speak to the tireless churn of people in New York.

• When the founder of the Chicago Chess Club encountered a chess player born without arms, he knew he had to do something.

Now Joseph Ocol is raising $25,000 for 12-year-old Mary Joy Tuboro to get prosthetic arms.

• Chicago could host the 2016 Bingham Cup, the world's largest gay rugby tournament.

If successful, about 45 teams from across the world and 2,000 fans would descend on Washington Park for three days in late June 2016 during the Chicago Pride Festival weekend.

Cecilia Butler, president of the Washington Park Advisory Council, said the tournament could bring some needed activity to the park, which is already popular among rugby and cricket players on weekend mornings.

“The park is made to be used,” Butler said.

• If Jefferson Park seems a bit weirder this week, there's a good reason for it.

The Chicago Fringe Festival started amping up the weirdness Thursday at this summer's fifth-annual fiesta of avant garde and do-it-yourself performance art.

The festival will feature 50 shows and 200 performances in five venues throughout the neighborhood. Scheduled acts include a rap musical, a science-fiction radio play and a performance by drag entertainers from Utah.

• ISIS has been making headlines for its brutal tactics in taking over parts of Iraq and Syria, and on Wednesday, a man flying an ISIS flag from his car took police on a chase before threatening them with a bomb.

• A media campaign to honor former Mayor Jane Byrne has resulted in not only a park near the Water Tower being named after her, but also the Circle Interchange. Gov. Pat Quinn bestowed the honor on Byrne Friday.

• A former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $100,000 from Chinatown organizations. But now Gene Lee's attorney's are pleading for leniency, blaming Lee's foibles on blinding loyalty to the public and bad bookkeeping.

• Chicago's comedians are under the gun: They're tasked with writing 30 sketches in 30 days as part of National Sketch Writing Month. Their biggest nemesis? Writer's block.

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