• Alderman Lona Lane really wants those chickens out of your backyard. After failing to get a city-wide ban on the practice a few years ago, she’s hoping to at least ban the birds in the 18th Ward. [CNC]
• Here’s a novel idea: To help feed the hungry, Illinois has placed the Asian carp on the “Target Hunger Now!” list. Cooking demonstrations will be held next month to teach people how to cook the bony fish. [Trib]
• Well, here’s a frat boy’s literal wet dream: A big rig carrying cases of Bud Light flipped over on a Sacramento highway, sending beer everywhere. [CBS Local Sacramento]
• Ruth Reichl on the next big topic in food politics: “The real issue is those people out there in the fields, surrounded by pesticides for their entire lives … The real issue is the fact that agriculture in this country can’t operate without illegal labor.” Come to think of it, neither can restaurants. [Inside Scoop/SF Gate]
• Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, the country has spent $3.4 billion protecting the food supply, a fragmented system where “nobody’s in charge,” as one official says. [AP]
• No doubt in a last desperate effort to at least make someone pay for music, record labels have become way more vigilant in the past few years about forcing restaurants to pay for background music. No word about whether they crack down on hold music. [HuffPo]
