Secret adviser has a nose for what Blago should say
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, like many convicted felons awaiting sentencing, is in a box: When addressing the court he will need to...
Get the full story >>One city block club vs. thug life
Whatever you do, don't use my name, said the 83-year-old widow, and the fear in her voice was palpable.
Get the full story >>Defense cuts?
Politicians often rail against government spending, except when it goes to the military. Conservatives believe there is no such thing as too...
Get the full story >>Sometimes justice is hard to take
As much as I tried to avoid being taken in by the drama of the Casey Anthony trial, I was jerked alert by its conclusion, the most...
Get the full story >>Quotable: Casey Anthony juror Jennifer Ford
"I did not say she was innocent. I just said there was not enough evidence."
Get the full story >>Who will bat against 'Alibi' Obama?
"If he popped up in the pinch he should of made a base hit and the reason he didn't was so-and-so. And if he cracked one for three...
Get the full story >>Plugging the loophole
So how much did you enter on Line 22 of your IL-1040 state income tax return?
Get the full story >>Romney fumbles the economy
Any candidate for president can fall victim to occasional stumbles, lapses, gaffes and clunkers. But Mitt Romney has a shot at raising...
Get the full story >>Best Tweets Obama didn't answer
Why is so little being done for the 6.2 million long-term unemployed? Why have 99ers been abandoned by Congress and White House?
Get the full story >>A teacher's view of a gathering storm
After discussing feudalism with my class one day, an inquisitive fifth-grader asked me: "What kind of government do we have?" I told him...
Get the full story >>'That's racist' as a punch line
It is the sort of thing those darn kids today say to make fun of their aging Gen X and baby boomer parents.
Get the full story >>The 'Twitter Town Hall' that so really wasn't
Barack Obama is the cool president. He listens to Jay-Z, you guys! He fist-bumped Michelle!
Get the full story >>A freebie: Keeping Navy Pier afloat
One more thing, about the Navy Pier makeover. There are good ideas in the $155 million plan, but I've got some better ones that are a lot...
Get the full story >>At the hands of predators
In some dusty book of legal lore there must be mention of a principle in danger of being overlooked in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case....
Get the full story >>QUOTABLE
"I'm so sick and tired of being in the system. I'm not going to play the game anymore."
Get the full story >>Back-seat driving in the name of safety
Now that Gov. Pat Quinn and his accomplices have enacted legislation to require passengers in the back seat of vehicles to buckle up, as...
Get the full story >>Some scandals won't sit still
It's hard for a social commentator to keep up with all of the legal, moral and political lessons offered up by the still-unfolding Dominique...
Get the full story >>Bin Laden's efforts to rebrand al-Qaida
One thinks of that scene from "The Wizard of Oz" where Toto pulls back the curtain and the "great and powerful Oz" is revealed to be only an...
Get the full story >>Gay marriage across the land: Not so darn fast
The recent legalization of same-sex marriage in New York proves that it's no longer an issue in the United States, right? Gay marriage...
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"You need to be here. I've been here. I've been doing Afghanistan and (Osama) bin Laden and the Greek crisis. You stay here. Let's...
Get the full story >>Supreme Court's continuing defense of the powerful
The U.S. Supreme Court now sees its central task as comforting the already comfortable and afflicting those already afflicted.
Get the full story >>A marriage unraveled
One afternoon in the late winter of 1961, while Hadley Richardson was vacationing at a ranch in Arizona with her second husband, she got a...
Get the full story >>Michele Bachmann the believer
If I had a dollar for every time a Sarah Palin supporter accused me of not taking her seriously because I'm jealous of attractive women who'...
Get the full story >>Greece ties Europe in knots
How did a marginal, misgoverned little nation push all of Europe to the brink?
Get the full story >>How Obama's stimulus failed
Mired in excruciating negotiations over the budget and the debt ceiling, President Barack Obama might reflect that things didn't have to...
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"President Chavez is recovering well from his surgery. His enemies should stop dreaming and his friends should stop worrying. "
Get the full story >>Another whack at Illinois' culture of corruption
A federal jury appeared to end former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's long-running drama when it found him guilty Monday on 17 of 20...
Get the full story >>Mommy, Daddy, am I really bipolar?
In the autumn of 1994, a novel idea was afoot in my profession. At the annual conference of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent...
Get the full story >>Cartoon caption contest
Tribune editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis will create an original sketch each Wednesday...
Get the full story >>Teacher training days a boondoggle
Sorry, but CTA buses and trains won't be running tomorrow.
Get the full story >>Who takes us to war?
WASHINGTON — Is the Libya war legal? Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, it is not. President Barack Obama has exceeded the 90-day...
Get the full story >>Breaking up
It just felt so cliche. You would think it would be more dramatic, like catching him in bed or discovering a hidden letter in an overstuffed...
Get the full story >>Big Brother gets really ugly
It's not unusual for the federal government to provoke widespread retching among its citizens, but it rarely does so intentionally. The...
Get the full story >>Anti-gay bullies are no joke
Americans seem to find a lot of entertainment value in watching celebrities destroy themselves. Witness, for example, the initially brisk...
Get the full story >>Navigation skills: A mom who 'likes' too much
OK, I'm going out on a limb here.
Get the full story >>Onward, you citizens of the world
Now, as you have explained to your grandparents, my name is Stephen Colbert, but I also play a character on TV who is named Stephen Colbert....
Get the full story >>Another Texas Republican for president?
The Republican presidential field looks less like an assemblage of candidates than a collection of fatal mistakes and irreparable flaws,...
Get the full story >>Dressed for public distress
Like other women before her, Huma Abedin is quiet about her husband's scandals — but says much with her wardrobe.
Get the full story >>Fans and The Passion of LeBron James
On a recent episode of the NPR show "Fresh Air," documentarian Liz Garbus discussed her new work, "Bobby Fischer Against the World." At...
Get the full story >>Failure is now fashionable
Nothing succeeds like success, but don't sell failure short.
Get the full story >>All sex offenders are not equal
I wish I could tell Walt Teichen not to worry, that common sense will surely prevail in the sad, scary story of his son.
Get the full story >>An experiment too expensive for consumers
Last month, as the Illinois General Assembly's spring session rushed to a close, ComEd, Ameren and their army of lobbyists were able to...
Get the full story >>Resolving our fiscal disaster
Last November, voters went to the ballot box with a message to Washington: Stop the spending binge that's driven our national debt to record...
Get the full story >>Game changer vs. time to do a name changer
One might think my last name would have been ripe for a change at Ellis Island. The clerks there could have easily changed it to Gardner...
Get the full story >>The heartbreaking sight of a WWII icon in flames
I was dumbfounded and grieved to see news photos of the Liberty Belle, the B-17 bomber that force-landed and burned near Chicago last week.
Get the full story >>10 things you might not know about fictional fathers
From "King Lear" to "Leave it to Beaver," works of fiction have featured memorable dads. Here's a Father's Day sampler:
Get the full story >>Life after Weinergate? It happens
Hope is still alive for former Rep. Anthony "the Twitter" Weiner. In today's America, failure is only the first step to your next success,...
Get the full story >>When trust goes out the window
I grew up in a family of teachers. My parents both taught in the Chicago Public Schools system, and they taught me early on that there's...
Get the full story >>The obsolete alliance
Defense Secretary Robert Gates went to Europe recently to announce that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may have a "dismal future"...
Get the full story >>QUOTABLES
"I'm tired of Republican, Democrat politics; I'm tired of blowhard radio people, blowhard television people, blowhard newspapers. They...
Get the full story >>Why a father has more than rights; he has responsibility
We don't celebrate Father's Day at our house. My three sons dread the advertising-soaked holiday the way many singles loathe Valentine's...
Get the full story >>So easy to forget
The amnesia sticks are kicking in. Already the distant past is lost to me, the recent past no more than a blur.
Get the full story >>Move over, Madison County
Illinois is known for a few things that make it unique among all states: the tallest tower in America; Chicago-style deep-dish pizza;...
Get the full story >>Wrong way to support businesses
As a small-business owner, I know the impact of the corporate tax increase the state imposed. The tax rate of 9.5 percent is the fourth...
Get the full story >>Are you smarter than a scam artist?
To judge from my inbox, London is a perilous place. In the last several years, I've received dozens of anguished emails from friends...
Get the full story >>Republicans vs. the environment
Kicking off her recent bus tour, Sarah Palin attended a motorcycle rally and took a deep breath. "I love that smell of the emissions," she...
Get the full story >>Cartoon caption contest
Here's your chance to branch out into the world of cartooning. Tribune editorial cartoonist ...
Get the full story >>Dump the war on drugs
When David Simon, creator of HBO's late dramatic crime series "The Wire," heard that Attorney General Eric Holder wanted to see the...
Get the full story >>What Illinois CEOs want
You might assume the Illinois business community has more than enough influence to get its way with state and local pols.
Get the full story >>QUOTABLE
"We're going to obliterate that gang. Every one of their locations has to get blown up until they cease to exist."
Get the full story >>Who wouldn't want a drug-free neighbor?
The idea of testing Chicago Housing Authority tenants for illegal drug use is drawing the usual, tiresome objections from the usual,...
Get the full story >>Gridlocking the lives of the jobless
Welcome to the miserable world of no-way-out politics.
Get the full story >>Illinois: The new leader in education reform
On Monday, Gov. Pat Quinn signs what might be the most important piece of education legislation ever passed in Illinois. Unlike our...
Get the full story >>Guess what? So far, so good
The new top cop is — guess what? — striking the right tone.
Get the full story >>When the handwriting is on the wall
I just found out a few days ago that the summer intern I hired has trouble reading.
Get the full story >>Keeping it simple for the Blagojevich jury
Last year, critics complained that the case against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was too complicated. Jurors got lost in the legalistic...
Get the full story >>Inside Blago's mind — hypothetically
There's some sentiment out there, even among some of my friends in the media, that it looked like former Gov. Rod Blagojevich held up OK...
Get the full story >>Elections via the Madigan Way
It's time to revive the idea of a constitutional amendment that will defang House Speaker Michael (The Real Governor) Madigan and his...
Get the full story >>She's just not that into to you. Really.
An Australian demographer has found a malady that makes some middle-aged men think they are more attractive to women than they actually are.
Get the full story >>What the indicted John Edwards has already lost
Hard cases make bad law, an old legal saying goes. So, I suppose, do sad cases. The sad case of John Edwards could lead to sadder law.
Get the full story >>Gambling myths
Illinois is on the verge of a major gambling expansion, and citizens are being pelted with competing claims. The advocates envision a gusher...
Get the full story >>Men behaving badly
Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York is a very busy man. He sits on several important committees. He's newly married to a high-powered wife. He's...
Get the full story >>A Libya war fit for a king
Remember back in your high school civics class when you were taught about the constitutional division of authority in matters of war? When...
Get the full story >>Weeding out some of the GOP hopefuls
It's too soon to engage in the media fetish of covering the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, but it's never too early to tell the...
Get the full story >>Busting water myths by the gallons
NEW YORK — In a slender essay titled "Here Is New York," E.B. White wrote about the implausibility of the great city, mentioning among...
Get the full story >>Why is the president belittling Israel?
WASHINGTON — Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs...
Get the full story >>Fast brain versus uh, uh, uh
Apparently, a lot of people consider President Barack Obama to be bumblingly inarticulate. "The guy can't talk his way out of a paper bag!"...
Get the full story >>Run, Paul Ryan, please run
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' announcement that he can't play in the presidential primaries because his wife and daughters say he's not...
Get the full story >>Gay marriage gains, but fight isn't over
America now has a gay-rights majority. Gallup reports that for the first time ever, most people — 53 percent — favor...
Get the full story >>Apocalypse, oops: Again
Harold Camping, the religious broadcaster who said Judgment Day would come last weekend, now says he doesn't want to talk about that...
Get the full story >>What price America's principles?
"I would find myself trussed up and left for hours in ropes, my biceps bound tightly with several loops to cut off my circulation and the...
Get the full story >>Obama adopts the Bush Doctrine
WASHINGTON — Herewith President Barack Obama's May 19 Middle East speech, annotated:
Get the full story >>Make college worth the cost
It's hard to say which is more remarkable about Kayla Heard, that she is graduating from Washington State University at age 16 or that she...
Get the full story >>Moralizing against McDonald's
Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, we can turn our attention to another remorseless enemy who for years has sown death and destruction...
Get the full story >>Can this party get its groove on?
Donald Trump departed from the 2012 presidential race, which he never actually entered, in typical Trump style, supremely confident that...
Get the full story >>The Chicago Way got kicked to the curb
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's recipe for "change" is so unlike The Chicago Way it's hard for this native to believe in it as much as I would like to....
Get the full story >>Demagoguery 101: The Obama touch
"I'm going to do my part to lead a constructive and civil debate on these issues."
Get the full story >>10 things you might not know about elephants
The popularity of the movie "Water for Elephants" provides an excuse for this parade of powerful pachyderm facts:
Get the full story >>