Next Saturday, Nov. 21, the Chicago Force women's football team is holding the first of two tryouts. "NO FOOTBALL EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! We are looking for dedicated, competitive athletes who want to play football."

Right now, as the city I love mourns its way through yet another deadly weekend of gun-related violence, our youth far too often get caught in the crossfire. While the national media attention has receded, somewhat, from the tragic loss of life of 16-year-old Derrion Albert, an honor student at...

Cook County prosecutors continue in their relentless attempt to discredit the work of the students of Medill Innocence Project in their efforts to exonerate Anthony McKinney, whom they believe to be innocent. The prosecutor initially subpoenaed the personal records of the students on the grounds that the students were more...

Looking back on it, I just don't know how I made it in.

Growing up at Addison and Lincoln there was no question where I wanted to go to high school: the gorgeous, ivy-covered walls of Albert G. Lane Technical High School up the street at Addison and Western.

The...

It's last call at two fine dining landmarks in downtown Chicago, the 90-year-old Don Roth's Blackhawk and the 32-year-old Nick's Fishmarket.

According to reports in Chicago newspapers, the Blackhawk, famous for warm hospitality, great service, steaks, seafood and its "spinning salad bowl," will close the downtown location at the end...

I am shocked and but again, should I really be? Yesterday the Illinois GOP issued a press release baselessly accusing CAIR, a respected civil rights Islamic organization, of being anti-Semitic. The Illinois GOP's open vilification of Muslims, and organizations that dare to have an independent opinion when it comes to Palestine and Israel, is frightening to...

Okay, all you Barack Obama partisans who can't stand the thought that Roland Burris, of all people, sits in our president's former U.S. Senate seat.

And, hold-on, all you Democratic Party cheerleaders, who think there was a great, Democratic Party leadership victory for the American people Saturday night;...

No matter what the soccer moms say, Chicago will not fall into Lake Michigan if Big O packs up her self-help circus and heads to LaLa land. Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker gives the scoop on what people are saying about Oprah's diabolical plan to sell out Chicago and cuddle with...

To a Representative, nothing is more important than her constituents and their well being.

As a child, I don't remember going to the doctor very often. My mother fought breast cancer, and finding affordable insurance after she beat cancer was very difficult for my parents, because my dad was a...

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago Board of Commissioners last Thursday got a pasting from financial analyst Daniel Kaplan and candidate Todd Connor -- who is aiming to join the board's ranks -- over a botched bond deal that cost Cook County area taxpayers $68 million.

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Anita Alvarez is a menace to your freedom.

That's why you should care about Alvarez's bid to force my Medill colleague David Protess to open his grade book to prosecutors as they attempt to -- well, I still haven't figured out what Alvarez and her cohort...

I am not sure that I am very good at it - but conflict resolution is something that from time to time has to be dealt with. I think that the secret must be to somehow persuade the most die hard and determined to recognize that "accommodation" is not a...

Now, I have always thought of myself as an advocate for democracy. As Cook County Clerk since 1991, I have spent 18 years pushing measures to improve access to voting. I fought for the Motor Voter law to simplify voter registration. I initiated Early Voting to make it more convenient...

Lately, we have experienced a surge of violence around youth -- in the realm of sports, and beyond. It is time we consider how coaches, parents and school administrators can shape the youth and high school sports experience to heal communities, prevent violence and develop character in youth.

Here...

It's been about a year since I last wrote about women's economic advancement and diversity initiatives in the context of the Great Recession.

Things were starting to get rough back then and they're still not great. Despite some nice indicators of national economic health, for the most part,...

It all felt wild and uncontained, like on the playground. I was the outsider kid, wrong jacket, wrong hat. Or maybe I just stepped out of my car at the wrong time. With a whoop they were on me, surrounding me, laughing. What great fun.

Then one of them shoved...