It is hard sometimes to keep up with the ups and downs in the government and politics of Chicago’s rookie mayor Brandon Johnson who is trying very hard to quiet and remove from office Pedro Martinez, CEO of our public schools who was hired three years ago by Mayor Lightfoot and since then has been […]
My computer this morning, along with everything else I’m reading, is loaded with news about Donald Trump creating a new White House administration. What I’m not reading, because it’s not being reported anymore, is news about how the newspapers and those talking heads on television helped Donald Trump get reelected. For the end of his […]
Maybe it’s good news, that vote for President. Maybe it’s bad. Depending on whom you voted for, you’re happy or sad. But finally, at long last, we all now know who will be the next occupant of the White House. But we don’t know, and what I am worried about, is who will win the […]
I walked around my neighborhood early this morning before catching the bus that brings me here and I’m still thinking about the Halloween things I saw. Chunky things they seemed to me. Ugly, fake skeletons, coffins, and graveyards dug into charming little gardens alongside the sidewalks in front of some beautiful apartment buildings and private […]
It’s three days now into the Mike Madigan trial and the headlines are in big print on the front pages of Chicago’s biggest newspapers. In the Tribune, for instance, “The Michael Madigan Trial” alongside a big picture of Madigan, his briefcase and his lawyers leaving the courthouse, what they’re calling racketeering case underway. Competing with […]
With happy smiles, beautiful balloons, and tooting trumpets, more than 1,000 people gathered on State Street three days ago to celebrate the Columbus and Indigenous People Parade. Some of them to watch it, others to watch and join the parade. The Columbus people have been hoping, and waiting, and waiting for City Hall to return […]
It’s been 2 1/2 years since Mike Madigan was indicted by a federal grand jury on 23 counts of criminal behavior during 36 years as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. One of the most, if not the most, powerful and popular Chicago politicians ever. For 2 1/2 years, he’s been ever-so-painfully awaiting his […]
I have some bad news to report this morning. The great New York Times – The uppity, uppity New York Times – is once again beating up on Chicago in its most popular Sunday edition. This last Sunday, The New York Times delivered to the world a special section entitled The Restaurant List. Twenty pages […]
So, in Chicago, those now well-known ShotSpotters have run out of time. Their contract with the city has expired and Mayor Johnson says he will not renew it. But there’s a chance it may be back anyway because some members of the City Council are working on bringing it back. The ShotSpotter is a multi-million-dollar […]
The news about who won the presidential debate in Philadelphia last week is getting old. So, let’s start considering something new. A debate in Chicago City Hall this week. It’s getting hot. It’s about Mayor Johnson’s Director of Internal Affairs, Kennedy Bartley, an outspoken young Black woman who’s been interviewed on national television about the […]
For me, it was an OK debate. A lot of emotion and a little bit of anger. But nothing new from either one of the two. How they spoke and what they said is common this late in a campaign game. They were cautious candidates, very cautious to avoid trying a Hail Mary because if […]
The news in the news is moving so fast it’s difficult sometimes to keep up with it, and even more difficult to decide what to say about it. A good example of that is the story about a popular radio talk show in Chicago and the two on-air people who host it. The well-known hard-right […]
Now that both political conventions have come and gone, how about thinking back to those magical days of the Olympics on TV, the amazing athletes, their skills and sportsmanship and friendships in picture-perfect Paris. Just what we needed to interrupt that terrible news about war in Ukraine and Gaza. The wildfires in California. Unbearable heat […]
The night before the Democrats convened their presidential convention in Chicago, there was a civil rights Rainbow PUSH convention going on in honor of the Reverend Jesse Jackson of Chicago. An event not as spectacular as the Democrats. But for me, something extra special to think about because, in Chicago politics, Reverend Jackson and I […]
Just four days now until the Democrats begin their presidential nominating convention in Chicago. Many months after City Hall in Chicago has been agonizing over what may happen here next week, hoping it’s not what happened during the Democrat convention here in 1968, 56 years ago. Horrible things that still hurt to remember but are […]
Thanks, but no thanks, to Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and to the Olympic athletes in Paris who are causing me to watch a lot of television that is clarifying for me a trick of the television trade to make money. More and more money. We’re all watching that trick. You know, those never-ending television […]
Oh, so wild are the politics of campaigning for president. If you’ve had enough of it by now, you might turn your attention to the US Supreme Court and some good news you may be missing. The court has declared it will not rule, or even consider, a request by the national gun lobby to […]
The shock and terror of an attempted assassination of Donald Trump and another weekend of gun violence in Chicago. I’m trying to find something good to think and feel about. How about the 20th birthday of Millennium Park, also known as Millennium Campus? It’s been 20 years since it all began and has now become […]
In our windy, wonderful Chicago, the only thing more powerful than a politician is a newspaper. Specifically, the Chicago Tribune being read every day by hundreds of thousands of people. Which means that what the Tribune says matters. A lot. Three days ago, on page one of the Tribune’s opinion section, its columnist Laura Washington, […]
Summertime is trouble time and a good time to say “bravo” to a Chicago Alderman trying to prevent trouble. That’s Alderman Brian Hopkins of the 2nd Ward, which includes part of the downtown business district and West Loop, River North, and Streeterville. Hopkins has proposed an 8:00 PM curfew for children under 18 walking those […]