Metering is ON

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Mark Brown biography

Mark Brown is a local news columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times who writes about everything from political corruption to family life. Roger Ebert once called …Read More

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Tribute to street musician fills in gaps for daughters

Tori Svoboda never knew her birth father. She was an infant when her parents separated nearly four decades ago in Minnesota. Tori wound up in foster care and soon afterward was adopted. Over the years, she re-established contact with her birth mother, Judy Sajka, but …

  • Dems grapple with what to do with indicted Rep. Derrick Smith

    A group of Democratic ward committeemen met behind closed doors Friday in search of a strategy to clean up the Derrick Smith mess. You might have thought they would have opted to conduct their meeting in public given the scrutiny that has followed the indictment …Read More

  • Pappas not leaving,  just ‘downsizing’

    Maria Pappas was incredulous Wednesday that I would be calling to ask about her apartment instead of inquiring about her new website on local government debt that she considers the crowning achievement of her political career. What can I say? Sometimes a guy just gets …Read More

  • County fighting back vs. property tax cheats

    The tips arrive daily at the Cook County Assessor’s office. Some come via email and others by telephone. Most are anonymous. The accusations differ in their specifics, but the gist is usually the same: Such and such property owner is cheating on their real estate …Read More

    • Rep. Smith isn’t getting message: It’s time to go

    Somebody needs to start talking sense to state Rep. Derrick Smith, who in his first public comments Monday since his arrest on federal bribery charges gave indications he may have taken leave of his. It wasn’t Smith’s complaints about FBI “shenanigans” or his talk about …

  • Telling the sterile truth of the past takes talent

    Everyone has stories to tell about growing up. Telling those stories honestly without romanticizing or idealizing the past, well, that takes talent. Dennis Foley, author of The Drunkard’s Son, lets us know right in the title that his book about coming of age on the …Read More

  • Her tales of war are compelling, rare to hear women vets’ stories

    I don’t know about you, but when I think about World War II veterans, I never picture any women. I think about old men marching in parades or sitting around the bar at the VFW hall or just quietly going about their business at home. …Read More

  • Who trusts Rahm’s ‘trust me’ plan?

    With Gorbachev himself in town for that summit of Nobel Peace laureates, you would have thought at least one alderman would have stood up at Tuesday’s special City Council meeting and reminded Mayor Rahm Emanuel: “Trust, but verify.” That favorite Cold War line of Ronald …Read More

    • Jennifer Hudson fine until asked about brother

    The People vs. William Balfour, better known as the Jennifer Hudson trial, picked up the one element it had been missing Monday — a compelling defense. By compelling, I mean capable of maintaining one’s interest, not necessarily to be confused with convincing. After all, celebrity …

  • Is fixing Medicaid, pensions Gov. Pat Quinn’s purpose in life?

    There were snickers in the Thompson Center pressroom Friday when Gov. Pat Quinn pronounced of his plan to fix the state’s long-standing pension funding problems: “I know I was put on earth to get this done.” I may have snickered myself, and if not, only …Read More

  • IT’S ALL ABOUT  TRUST AT CITY HALL

    Remember how I said the effort to lift the ban on video gambling in Chicago would resume in earnest yesterday. Never mind. In my own defense, I wasn’t entirely wrong. The effort did resume with a rally by business and labor types in advance of …Read More

  • Battle over video gambling takes new twist

    After a two-year lull, the effort to lift Chicago’s ban on video gambling resumes in earnest today — with an intriguing twist that raises the stakes. In addition to trying to change the city’s municipal code to permit gambling machines, the coalition of business and …Read More

    • Why the rush to OK Rahm’s trust?

    I f nothing else, the Chicago parking meter debacle has provided us the benefit that some aldermen at least stop and think twice before forging ahead with urgent mayoral imperatives they don’t entirely understand. That didn’t prevent the City Council Finance Committee on Monday from …

  • State rep.’s arrest has unexpected repercussions for community

    The indictment of state Rep. Derrick Smith of Chicago on a federal bribery charge has set off unexpected repercussions for his constituents. I’d never really considered the possibilities before being contacted last week by Arloa Sutter, executive director of Breakthrough Urban Ministries, a social service …Read More

  • Jordan’s fadeaway long on nostalgia

    Michael Jordan is closing the Chicago business office he opened shortly after joining the Bulls nearly three decades ago, one more sign of the basketball icon severing his ties with the city where he gained his fame. By the end of this year, sources say, …Read More

  • Rahm gets his way, parents want a say on longer day

    Having previously decreed that all Chicago Public Schools students should spend 7œ hours a day in school, Mayor Rahm Emanuel compromised with himself on Tuesday, decreeing that elementary school students could get by with 7 hours instead. This was characterized by some as the mayor …Read More

    • Where have all the food trucks gone? Vendors say Chicago police cracking down

    If you’ve been seeing less of your favorite Chi­cago food trucks this spring, that’s because police have been cracking down and running them off their usual locations, food truck operators say. Some vendors say Chicago police have gone so far as to track their planned …

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