Choosing Chicago's murder toll
Only in Chicago, where murder is a macabre civic pathology and an almost daily habit, would the slaughter of more than 400 people in 2013 be...
Editorial: Send a message to the mullahs
More than a month ago, Iran and the U.S. cut an interim deal on Iran's rogue nuclear program. Since then, Tehran and Washington look to have...
Editorial: Amateur hour in Asia
President Barack Obama had obvious political reasons for appointing Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as the next U.S. ambassador to China. His...
Editorial: When athletes whiff in the charity game
On Mother's Day 2011, the Chicago Cubs joined with the Alfonso Soriano Family Foundation in honoring the outfielder's late mother, Andrea,...
Editorial: Metra tries to change trains
Looking ahead to a happier New Year, the Metra board has launched a search for a new CEO, amid strong hints that the best candidate could be...
Editorial: Measuring the value of college
Higher education is one of the more expensive investments many people will ever make. The average cost of a year in college, including...
Editorial: As Christmas dawns
What is this day, this Christmas, that dawns with a chorus of joy? What river of love and magic speeds the message from that moment of...
Editorial: Obamacare teeters
If you were marauding at the mall last week, you may have missed yet another full-scale federal retreat from Obamacare, that massive lump of...
Editorial: The danger of using Twitter
Most people who use Twitter probably have experienced tweet regret: That tweet you thought was funny but crossed the line. The ornery...
Editorial: How to guard against credit card hackers
The cyber thieves who broke into the computer systems of giant merchant Target Corp. timed their scam perfectly. Beginning just before the...
Editorial: Politicians' income, assets too easy to hide
State and local elected officials in Illinois are required to disclose their outside sources of income each year, but they can get away with...
Medicaid surrender
Merry Christmas, AFSCME! You may get up to 520 new jobs in the state's Department of Human Services. A private contractor that has done an...
Campaign 'slush funds' tapped for luxuries
Ignore the cynical line that members of Congress don't do much. They're awfully busy raising and spending money.
Can the Chicago Housing Authority get on track?
The Chicago Housing Authority has had nothing but trouble in recent years.
Don't straitjacket the NSA
The world has dramatically changed for those whose job it is to keep Americans safe. The first line of defense is no longer boots on the...
Editorial: Tax policy shouldn't favor cars over transit
Good news for people who drive to work: The tax break you can claim for parking costs will go up in January. Bad news for people who ride...
Editorial: Illinois tax incentives and the next ADM
Chicago and Illinois officials traded high-fives Wednesday when Archer Daniels Midland made it official: The agribusiness giant will move...
Editorial: The Obamacare 10 Percent Club
Attention, last-minute insurance shoppers: There are only four days before P-Day, Dec. 23. That's the deadline for choosing a plan on an...
Editorial: The Fed should stop the easy money
Unemployment down? Check. Economic growth up? Check. Corporate profits strong? Check. Housing recovery underway? Check. Congress reaches a...
On Chicagoland expressways, the speed limit is 80
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, humor columnist Dave Barry relentlessly mocked the "national pretend speed limit" of 55 mph.
Editorial: More complaints from the Saudis
The Saudi Arabian government has been doing its best to let the United States and the world know it is terribly dissatisfied with...
Editorial: Punishing doctors who prey on patients
Bruce Sylvester Smith, a longtime Chicago gynecologist, was first accused of raping a patient in May 2000.
Editorial: Preckwinkle takes on a dangerous situation at Cook County Jail
Frustrated with years of overcrowding at Cook County Jail and a lack of consensus on how to fix the problem, Cook County Board President...
The City Council steps up
Bad and worse. Those could well be the choices facing Chicago aldermen when it comes time to pass the 2015 city budget.
It's their Chicago, too
Read the newspapers and you can conclude that Chicago's children are, as a group, vulnerable waifs in need of rescue. And many are: Horrific...
A request for your proposals
We invite you to help craft a new Plan of Chicago. This is the Tribune's RFP, a request for your proposals to address the intertwined...
FDA's trans fat ban is a good move
For years we've been told that artificial trans fats are bad for us. They raise our bad cholesterol levels while lowering the good. They...
How to combat income inequality
If you're a low-income African-American with a talent for braiding hair, you might have the idea of making money that way. You could start...
What students and teachers said
Remember that statewide education survey that Illinois officials refused to fully release because local school administrators protested...
'Kill switch' could curb smartphone thefts
Every time you pull out your smartphone in public, you're making yourself a target.
The fiscal whiff
Dial back one year, to December 2012. For lack of a deal on federal debt and deficits, Congress lurched toward the so-called fiscal cliff....
Illiana Expressway is a bad idea
For the second time, a regional planning body has the chance to spare taxpayers in two states from an expensive and risky venture: a 47-mile...
Why did Republicans reject pension reform?
"I am still not sure that the public has accepted the facts and understands the ramifications of not doing pension reform. ... If we...
City Council needs a finance team
The Chicago City Council is thisclose to passing a measure meant to signal the end of the rubber-stamp era. A vote is expected...
Broken bonds: The school edition
You couldn't ask for a better — or more infuriating — explanation for the financial implosion of Chicago Public Schools than...
Illinois plans for return of wildlife like cougars
Is there a future for mountain lions, wolves and black bears in Illinois?
How will UNO fare after Rangel?
Leaders who build successful organizations ultimately confront an uncomfortable question: How well will their organizations fare after...
Next for pension reform: Chicago
For Chicago lawmakers who thought Tuesday's pension vote was politically dangerous, just wait until next year. Then on the docket in...
Tamping down fire retardants
Last year, the Chicago Tribune exposed the serious health risks posed by ordinary household furniture that is chock full of fire retardant...
Will Ukraine resist the bully?
Vladimir Putin regularly buffs up his strongman image by stripping off his shirt for photographers while he hunts, casts for fish and...
Jobs for ex-offenders
We're holding out hope that the CTA and its union will figure out how to continue a program that has given hundreds of ex-offenders a chance...
Nelson Mandela, conscience of the world
"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have...
A cannon shot from Detroit
Union bosses who are furious at the Illinois General Assembly for passing pension reform can't wait to get into court to challenge the new...
Postage stamps for the email generation
If you're preparing to send out hundreds of holiday greetings in a single email blast, you probably missed the dust-up between the...
Editorial: China makes trouble with Japan
Asia is 13 years into the 21st century, but the conflicts of the 20th and 19th centuries are anything but history. Last week, China...
Obamacare deadline looms in 3 weeks
Over the weekend, the Obama administration announced that it had met its self-imposed deadline to fix its balky health insurance exchange...
Vote 'yes' on pension reform bill
Illinois lawmakers gather Tuesday for a vote that will define them.
Editorial: The Illinois reckoning
This week Illinois lawmakers may reform the nation's worst-funded state pension system. After Monday's deadline for candidates to file...
Editorial: State moves to oust firm that's scrubbing Medicaid rolls
A private contractor hired by Illinois has excelled in removing from the state's Medicaid rolls people who didn't qualify for the benefit....
One vote for the future of Illinois
The governor of Illinois and the four leaders of the House and Senate have agreed on a path to address the greatest threat to the economic...
McCarthy should properly honor the first Chicago policeman killed in the line of duty
"In 2007, a panel of seven professional historians from the Chicago History Museum reviewed all of the evidence in this case and...
Redskins should change name
It has been 21 years since Naperville Central High School changed the name of its sports teams from Redskins to Redhawks. Naperville Central...
Editorial: Egyptian military targets peaceful protesters
The Arab Spring swept across the Middle East in 2011 and with astonishing swiftness sent dictators packing. Chief among them: Egypt's...
Editorial: In defense of local stores
As if you haven't heard, this is Black Friday. Breaking news: Shoppers will rush out to the stores today to grab merchandise at bargain...
Faith, hopes and charity
Seven Sundays ago, we launched this quest for a new Plan of Chicago with a sense of urgency and a question mark as tall as Tribune Tower:...
When families struggle
"So we can talk all we want here in Washington about issues like education and health care and crime; we can build good schools; we can...
Curb crime. Save Chicago.
Ah, safe home Chicago: The murder rate has fallen by nearly half. Unless, that is, you live on the blood-drenched streets where...
A scorching jobs desert
A century ago, when Daniel Burnham was noodling his Plan of Chicago, he famously urged civic leaders to make no little plans....
Fixing schools to fix Chicago
In 1909, when Daniel Burnham issued his Plan of Chicago, city schools bustled with 300,000 children. Before the first day of...
A new Plan for Chicago: A challenge to Tribune readers
A century ago civic architect Daniel Burnham mapped a physical future for this city. He had intended to design social remedies as...
Surveillance in the war on terror
The disclosure of the federal government's hugely expansive monitoring of phone calls and online communications as part of its fight against...
Now Obama wants to protect the press?
If the news media were ever as smitten with Barack Obama as many conservative critics say they are, the president has been doing his best to...
Obama won't ground aerial strikes that kill terrorists. Good.
President Barack Obama has taken a lot of heat over America's targeting of terrorists overseas with lethal drone strikes. Critics argue that...
Obama and overreach
•Multiple White House claims about Washington's handling of the murderous raid in Benghazi stand exposed as false.
A bad case of Obamascare
The latest crack in Obamacare opened last week when Politico reported that leaders in Congress were negotiating how to exempt themselves and...
Pritzker knows commerce
When business leaders complain that President Barack Obama has been at best neglectful and at worst hostile toward the nation's job...
|
|
