How to stop the next Blagojevich

It was bleeping golden, and a whole lot more. Jurors who convicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich of 17 corruption counts said they might...

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Fresh air"> Fresh air

When Christine Lagarde begins her job as managing director of the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday, she will step into one of the most...

Heat and light over incandescent bulb ban

Four years ago, Congress had the not-so-bright idea to tell Americans what kind of light bulbs they could buy.

Taking the long view

As Illinois lawmakers prepared last year to take a historic vote on whether to allow civil unions, Rep. David Reis, R-Willow Hill, raised...

Refreshing Navy Pier

The new design doesn't yet exist. Whether attendance will rise from the current 8.7 million per year to a hoped-for 12 million is still...

Rahm, Toni and the truth

Early Wednesday afternoon, Toni Preckwinkle stood in the wide, warm corridor outside her fifth-floor office and faced west. Because the Cook...

The housing clearance sale

Bank of America on Wednesday announced an $8.5 billion settlement for investors who bought its toxic mortgage bonds before the housing...

The corruption agenda

"The only way to protect the public from the ongoing problem of public corruption, and to promote respect for the rule of law, is to...

Avoiding Greece's tragedy

On the surface, the economies of the U.S. and Greece have almost nothing in common. One's big, the other small. One's diverse, the other...

Maddie's choice

Making a name for yourself can be a tricky business when you share that name with someone powerful. Maddie Poshard learned that the hard way...

Peter Fitzgerald v. Illinois corruption

One night in 2001, a Tribune editorial writer thrust a declarative question at U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill.: "You'd rather get some...

After Blagojevich

"Today's verdict proves that no one is above the law. And just as important, it proves that government is supposed to exist for the...

Naming wrongs: Rename Balbo Drive

In downtown Chicago, street names generally aren't too hard to understand. Most east-west avenues are named for presidents. Clark Street...

Conventional wisdom

We're thrilled that the G-8 and NATO will come to Chicago next year. But we'd be even happier if the Car Care World Expo would come back...

Pass/fail/fail/fail

Credit where it's manifestly due: Excellent teachers turbocharge learning in thousands of Illinois school classrooms.

Out of the shadows

Jose Antonio Vargas is doing something illegal immigrants don't usually have the opportunity or inclination to do. He's revealing his...

ATF adrift

The operation was called Fast and Furious. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stood by as hundreds of guns were...

Class-action sanity

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday in a case alleging sex-discrimination at Wal-Mart prompted a predictable reaction over the course...

Commodity trader in chief

President Barack Obama hails from Chicago, so maybe that explains his surprising impulse to play commodity trader.

Burke's perk

Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, says he's entitled to keep his taxpayer-funded security detail because a judge said so…in...

do drive employers' decisions on jobs">A Democratic discovery Taxes do drive employers' decisions on jobs

Well look at this: On Thursday the top two officials of the Illinois Legislature all but admitted that their Democratic caucuses have been...

A high-speed deal

When AT&T; announced its $39 billion buyout of T-Mobile in March, a lot of people groaned. It sure sounded like the second coming of Ma...

Lights out

Commonwealth Edison wants $2.6 billion to upgrade the electricity system with "smart grid" technology. Wouldn't it be smart to use some of...

You owe, you owe

Washington lawmakers have driven the federal share of Americans' total public debt to more than $14 trillion. In Illinois, legislators and...

Leaving Afghanistan

President Barack Obama took perhaps the greatest political risk of his presidency in late 2009: He announced that 30,000 more U.S. troops...

What others are saying

Jon Huntsman likes to call himself the "margin-of-error candidate." It is not an accidental phrase. In the seven weeks since the former Utah...

For Chicago: Olympic flameout

Build a casino, trim the municipal payroll, privatize services, lure employers. It seems like Chicago has explored every option under the...

A Libya stalemate

The war that tugged the U.S. and its allies into Libya is in its fourth month. NATO warplanes have flown more than 11,500 sorties against...

A grudge match minus the grudge

It seems like only yesterday — and the day before, and the day before — that American John Isner and Nicolas Mahut of France...

City, meet county: Working together

The newbie leaders of local government, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, decided early on that...

Extreme drinking means extreme danger

The recipe for Jungle Juice calls for two kinds of schnapps, four bottles of wine, 9 liters of gin/vodka/rum and a liter of Everclear,...

Make them start over, Governor

Legislators frantic for new state revenue have passed a gambling expansion bill that, at more than 400 pages, deserves to fall over of its...

A tale of two congressional maps

In political circles, the congressional map drawn by Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly is widely viewed as a masterstroke.

temporary">Remember, Senate Dems: You said temporary

Democrats in the Illinois Senate tried to take a hostage at the end of the just-completed legislative session in Springfield. They wanted...

This is no time for the 'S' word

"We could easily strike because of this."

This Weiner isn't done

One odd thing about U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner — OK, there are many odd things about Weiner, but one odd thing about him is the apparent...

The feds de-friend business

Last year a salesman at Karl Knauz BMW in Lake Bluff was miffed that his dealership served bargain-brand hot dogs and bottled water for...

Stop this train

The Obama administration has showered Illinois with about $1.6 billion for high-speed rail and other upgraded service, part of its vision...

Sobriety day at CPS

On Monday, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a tremendously important school reform law and everyone was happy in educationland.

TMI?

The great thing about "crowdsourcing" Sarah Palin's emails is that we didn't have to spend our weekend reading them to find out there's...

What others are saying

If Israel continues to settle the West Bank, and the U.S. refuses to take any concrete action to stop it, or is revealed as having no...

Uncle Sam's burden

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is unhappy with our European allies, and he went to Brussels last week to let them know it. NATO, he...

Gotta eat

When President Barack Obama made corn-based ethanol a centerpiece of his energy policy, he took a chance on the weather.

Checkbook justice for Ryan LeVin

Ryan LeVin's checkbook got him out of a prison sentence in Florida. There's no other way to look at it.

What others are saying

Giving policymakers more information doesn't mean that they'll believe it or act on it. In the years leading up to the financial crisis...

Obesity and surgery

Banish soft drinks from school vending machines. Cut down on Happy Meals. Load school lunches with fruits and vegetables. Pull the plug on...

It's a boy!

Congratulations on the birth of your son! Are you planning to have his foreskin removed? If you think that's none of our business, then be...

What others are saying

Democrats have much greater faith in centralized expertise. Republicans (at least the most honest among them) believe that the world is...

Feel the power

Illinois needs a smart grid, the digital system for transmitting electricity in efficient, 21st century style. It also needs more sensible...

Exit ahead

First Navistar International threatened to go. Then Motorola Mobility. Then Sears Holdings. Now CME Group is the latest signature company...

Rahm on the spot over youth mobs

Rahm Emanuel won over Chicago voters with his well-articulated plans to address many of the city's long-standing challenges. Nobody...

Nice work you can't get

Gov. Pat Quinn has handed another plum job to another former legislator who voted for the governor's 67 percent income tax increase.

What others are saying

Members of the Deficits Forever club are intellectually lazy when they assert that the U.K. economy is growing slowly because austerity...

Peru looks left

Ollanta Humala, once (and perhaps still) a protege of Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez, was declared the winner of Peru's...

The right way to lift the federal ceiling

Many things that go on in Washington are too obscure or arcane to capture the attention of the American people, and the debt ceiling...

Mag Mile mobs

The flash mob phenomenon has taken an alarmingly dark turn on Chicago's Near North Side.

Senate Democrats try a maneuver that's too cute by half

This message is brought to you by the Illinois Department of Too Cute By Half:

Oh, just go away

Remember Rep. Christopher Lee? You might not recall the name, because three months ago the married Republican congressman from New York...

Cleaning out the coal-fired clunkers

The Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants on the Southwest Side are relics from the 1950s. For years, residents in the Pilsen and Little...

Lincoln Park do-over?

The Chicago City Council by tradition gives great deference to individual aldermen on development issues in their wards — even when...

Goodbye, Third of July

Nothing says God bless America like the Third of July fireworks and a pickle on a stick. That's summer in Chicago, where the city's...

CHA drug tests?

The Chicago Housing Authority is in the midst of a transformation that has rescued its residents from high-rise hells and allowed them to...

Power outage: Libya war shows limits of War Powers Act

Under the War Powers Act, President Barack Obama had until Friday to get congressional authorization to continue U.S. military operations in...

Daley's decades

"… And as we enter this new season, it's time to leave behind old setbacks, disappointments and battles. Because in the campaign...

Obama gets in the game

At a press conference Feb. 15, President Barack Obama defended his reluctance to offer a long-range plan for curbing the federal debt. To do...

Obama's case for war

One of the main problems with the Obama administration's policy on Libya has been its confusing incoherence. Americans have been given...

Obama and Libya

For the Obama administration, the crisis in Libya represents more of a risk than an opportunity. Moammar Gadhafi has always been a tyrant,...

Ticketgate

By now you're probably familiar with the plight of Mark Geinosky, who got 24 bogus parking tickets in 14 months. The Tribune's What's Your...

• Jon Yates: Two years later, ticket case keeps ticking

Marital spat

Attorney General Eric Holder surprised many people, and provoked a few, when he said the administration will no longer fight in court to...

Tacking right

President Barack Obama had been readying himself for Tuesday night's State of the Union address since the Nov. 2 election, the electorate'...

Judicial arrogance

With startling arrogance and audaciously twisted reasoning, two appellate judges ignored more than 100 years of legal precedent, invented a...

Low blow

After watching a race between horses, dogs or Pinewood Derby cars, spectators don't ascribe the outcome to the superior character of the...

… for e-tailers, too

It's nostalgic to recall the early days of e-commerce, when forcing online retailers to collect sales tax would have threatened their...

Curb free rides …

Rod Blagojevich didn't do the math before decreeing that senior citizens should ride the buses and trains for free. His only calculation was...

Call the health vote

Republicans swept to control of the U.S. House in November with a bold promise that resonated with voters: "We are here because we heard the...

Just a Quinncidence

On Wednesday this lame-duck legislature quacks its last. Don't be astonished if, in coming months, you read exposes about exiting...

Thanks, Lois

Chicago Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg, the only remaining member of Mayor Richard M. Daley's original cabinet, announced...

Sounds of silence

Back when we were in fourth grade, Miss Luhman had a very effective method for controlling a class that grew too rowdy.

Speak up

In 2005, a judge deemed Seung-Hui Cho "an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness," and ordered him to undergo mental...

The Davis file

With all the talk of financial crises in Illinois governments, it would be easy to overlook the $1 million that Chicago Public Schools and...

Drop this lawsuit

Hard to imagine United Airlines and American Airlines filing a joint lawsuit against Chicago if their booster-in-chief weren't retiring in...

Mayor Chainsaw

Different times call for different mayors. Mediator, manager, uniter, developer, good cop, bad cop, salesman, visionary … in 21 years,...

Meet the landlord

All the bluster on Capitol Hill about punishing China for suppressing the value of its currency misses the bigger picture: We and the...

Lockdown, pay up

Here's something to digest with your big new Illinois income tax increase:

Tequila uprise?

Many Latinos have grown frustrated by the failure of Democrats and Republicans to craft a comprehensive reform of national immigration...

The power of a teacher

A few weeks ago, we asked readers to tell us about the one adult other than a parent who most profoundly affected their childhood. Not...

Chicago's next mayor

Beyond the challenges that face every U.S. metropolis — uneven schools, violent crime, job shortages and more — you already know...

What others are saying

We have a news media that is psychologically ill-informed but politically inflamed, so it naturally leans toward political explanations....

Freedom falters

This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got a chilly reception when she told a conference of Arab leaders in Qatar of the urgent...

Snarl of the Tiger Mom

Abusive? Hypercompetitive? Dictatorial?

Shake, shake, shake

If Gov. Pat Quinn really wants to vacuum up all the money he possibly can for the state, he needs to take more careful aim.

Obama's challenge

Barack Obama showed a talent for political strategy in 2008, upending the favorite, Hillary Clinton, in the Democratic primaries and...

Bedbug U.

Good night, sleep tight. Try not to think about those bloodsucking little Cimex lectularius pests, coming soon to a mattress near...

In Illinois, bilingual learning for non-English speakers now starts in preschool

With his navy slacks and dress shirt still creased from his mother's iron, 4-year-old Edenzoe Diaz reported for his first day of preschool...

CPS report card shows many schools struggling

By Chicago Public Schools' own reckoning, about a quarter of its elementary schools and more than 40 percent of its high schools are...

Move it, Washington

Looking closely at your 401(k) has been painful lately, and it's going to get even worse.

Obama, Bush and terror

President Barack Obama took office 16 months ago with a clear anti-terror mission: Don't be Bush. Obama generally avoided the George W. Bush...

The education president

Rhode Island's Central Falls High School faces a world of problems. Not quite half of the freshmen class of 2005 went on to graduate last...

Price controls?

In anticipation of the bipartisan health care summit he has called for Thursday, President Barack Obama said last week that he was asking...

Obama's decline