Fast & Furious: The blame game

You've probably heard about the ATF operation called Operation Fast and Furious. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives...

A new deal at O'Hare

The giant Westfield Group knows food courts. It knows shopping centers. It doesn't, however, know Richard M. Daley, at least not as well...

Bonus time!

Good news from the state capital.

The end of 'Men'

If you are a man of a certain age — not young, not ancient — then you know there's not much on television devoted to your...

Rewrite that bill, governor

Last year, Gov. Pat Quinn refused to sign a bill that pretended to set limits on the General Assembly friends-and-family scholarship scam....

Don't go away mad …

A discredited school superintendent in west suburban Cook County resigns, apologizes to his community … and walks away with a $100,000...

Text at your own risk

Cellphones might cause cancer. One thing we're sure they cause: distractions. Those distractions can range from mildly irritating...

Exposing crooks

Secrecy and anonymity are becoming relics of a bygone age. Anyone living in modern America has gotten used to the unblinking stare of...

Get this monstrosity vetoed

The people of Illinois might go along with some limited expansion of legalized gambling — most notably a Chicago casino to separate...

Rahm to labor: Choose

Do work rules trump workers?

The Rocket's reprieve

Words can come back to bite you. Former Boston Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette was mocked for years over the famous "twilight" line...

Back from the brink

One more time:

The Girl

Hello, Norma Jeane! We'd know those legs anywhere.

• Marilyn on the Mag Mile

The other Transformers

July is usually the time for blockbuster action at the movie house, not the schoolhouse. This summer is different.

In the dark, again

This will come as a shock to the thousands of area residents who had to throw away their spoiled food and sweat the night away in the dark...

Write on!

We compleatly unnerstand if incomming high skool juniors arond the state are heigh-fivving each other these deys. They've herd the news thet...

Fix them while you can

Let's all keep stipulating that, unfortunately, the United States needs to raise its debt ceiling so it can keep borrowing more than $4...

Military exemption

The defense budget has been growing at a brisk pace in recent years, one reason the federal deficit is so big. But fiscal realities are...

Realtor reality check

The Illinois Association of Realtors has admitted to peddling inflated sales prices in its latest report on Chicago condos and houses, and...

Hands off: The TSA can be smarter about its patdowns of passengers

When you read last week that terrorists have discussed surgically implanting explosives in passengers so they could blow up airliners, did...

Quinn broke the wrong promise

Take a stroll Tuesday and you might encounter "informational picket lines" at 75 state work sites across Illinois. The demonstrators, many...

'We're not Cook County here'

DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba's deputies have helped circulate his nominating petitions, passed out fliers, staked out his campaign...

No, corruption isn't 'just politics'

June 27, 2011: Jurors convict Rod Blagojevich on 17 counts of public corruption. In essence, those jurors reject the defrocked governor's...

Blaming the jury

Somewhere along the way, the American viewing public mistook the Casey Anthony trial for an episode of "American Idol." If the audience...

Behind the jobs malaise

The private sector learned the hard way over the past 30 years that ignoring economic downturns only makes things worse. To control the...

Sad day for data hogs

Verizon Wireless, the nation's biggest mobile-phone service provider, stopped offering unlimited data plans for new smartphone customers...

Get this done

Sunday dawns in Washington with a chance that, by nightfall, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders will cut a grand deal to...

Just a taste, thanks

Funny to hear about how Taste of Chicago turned into a big flop this year.

Gobsmacked!

Even if you've never heard the word, you know exactly what it means.

Salvaging Cook County: Leader Toni Preckwinkle details her plans

Since approximately the Pleistocene Epoch, the rocky outpost known as Cook County government has behaved as if guided by a citizen-...

What jurors didn't know

The Florida jurors who acquitted Casey Anthony of murdering her 2-year-old daughter didn't spend a lot of time agonizing over their verdict....

Come on, baby

Birth rates often fall during steep economic downturns, and in many nations the financial crisis of 2008 turned a modest baby boom into a...

Go, Marshall: Chicago's schools turnaround strategy is working

Tribune reporter Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah recently introduced readers to Kenyatta Stansberry, aka "The Marine." She's the tough new principal...

Public pension rescues

Public employee unions and their protectors in the Illinois Legislature share a theory about retirement benefits that boils down to this:...

Vaccine roulette

Most parents keep close track of a child's vaccinations to protect him or her from preventable diseases such as measles or whooping cough.

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...

Fresh air" width="187" height="105" class="headlineThumb"/>

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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' "What's Your Problem?": 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...