The news was very bad on Friday when state and Federal agencies admitted that tests show invasive Asian carp have evaded an electrical barrier intended to prevent the fish from gaining access to Lake Michigan, and eventually...

Did you ever try to get reimbursed at work for business travel expenses? It's usually not too complicated. You turn in your receipts. You fill out a form with some basic information about your trip. You get the proper person in the office to sign off on the document. And...

Twenty-one lives. Somebody had to pay.

And it might even seem like common sense for a housing court judge to sentence E2 club owners Dwain Kyles and Calvin Hollins to serve an unprecedented two years in prison for the tragic deaths of those club-goers on Feb. 17, 2002. Anybody who...

The Fort Hood massacre committed by Major Nidal Hassan was a national tragedy that took us all by surprise. It was quickly and widely condemned by the American Muslim community who were as shell-shocked and dismayed as anybody else, and who were additionally concerned about a potential backlash against...

It sounds pretty arrogant--"I'm going to find a new way to write about politics" -- but that was my objective with Destiny Calling: How the People Elected Barack Obama. My sense was that the old hierarchy -- newsroom elites deciding what was important, reporters following orders and each day filing...

By Johnathon E. Briggs and John Peller

With the ongoing economic recession, Mayor Richard M. Daley and City Council members unquestionably face agonizing choices to balance the city's 2010 budget.

While funding cuts and other budgetary reforms will undoubtedly be needed, some essential city services are too important to...

"I was walking last week in Arlington Heights, and the first three homes I visited had at least one family member unemployed. At one home, both the husband and wife were unemployed and couldn't find work. She was so upset that she could barely talk about their situation," wrote Dan...

Dear good people of Illinois:

I understand that you will have a measure on the ballot next year for your approval that would give you a process for recalling a governor.

Given that your last governor was arrested on federal corruption charges and his predecessor is serving time in federal...

My former journalism professor would be disappointed in me right now.

Mr. Jensen taught us to separate the emotional self from the story and/or its subjects. You are on the scene to report, to relay the pertinent facts, to practice the ABCs of journalism -- Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity...

And so it will happen. This week, powers that be in Chicago will demolish a little work by Mies van der Rohe. A small part of his extraordinarily important campus for the Illinois Institute of Technology will bite the dust.

Another small piece of when Chicago ruled the architecture and...

I read with interest all the stories this week about the late Studs Terkel and his FBI file. To my dismay, they pretended to discover the ironic revelation that Terkel actually applied to work for the FBI in the early 1930s.

I scratched my head, waiting for someone to...

We have been awash with an array of unhappy water stories in this region of late. On the surface they are unrelated ... scary fish ... E. coli contamination ... improperly regulated...

For some reason, the State of Illinois thinks I'm qualified to teach history.

I didn't major in history, or even political science. Though I did take a couple history courses in college, they had titles like, "The History of International Institutions" and "The Hindu Novel in the 20th Century"...

It's always rewarding to see a rock solid painting exhibit by one of Chicago's finest artists. Jim Lutes' exhibition of new work at Valerie Carberry is refreshing after having seen a survey exhibition of his work at the Renaissance Society, which was solid, but by definition, backward...

What's far scarier than the thought of Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspects cooling their heels behind maximum security bars in Thomson, Illinois?

Fear-mongered people -- already stretched to the limits due to the ravages the economy has inflicted -- acting out against anyone who looks like a foreigner because the TV...

Michael Scott was a colleague of mine for 26 years. We first met when my man won and his man lost. My man was Harold Washington, my mentor; his was Richard M. Daley, his mentor.

No matter. After the election, we worked together. Michael doing his part, I doing mine....

The Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), IFT/AFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has successfully ended a two-day strike against the university administration. The GEO walked out on Monday morning, after nearly seven months of negotiations during which the administration refused to sufficiently guarantee tuition waivers. On...

"Washington's administration broke with the traditional Chicago growth machine on various issues ... [T]he administration killed plans to revitalize Navy Pier and for a World's Fair."

Dominic A. Pacyga, Chicago: A Biography

This is a great book on Chicago. I'll definitely devote a posting or two to its Chicago...

In a word, Michael Scott mattered.

His life was the ultimate world-class success story. Michael was a staunch Westsider who embraced the finer things yet reached back, went back, and, in fact, never left his roots or his commitment to society's invisible ones.

The invisible ones -- the disenfranchised...

The political climate in Illinois is nothing less than a national embarrassment. Last January, we impeached and removed our sitting governor from office. Come next June, he will face trial on charges that will likely lead to imprisonment, making him the fourth of the last seven Illinois governors to go...