Editorial: Spare 21 of 54 schools facing ax
Fifty-four Chicago public schools are on the chopping block, to be consolidated with 55 other schools this summer. In total, the lives of 30,000 students will be changed forever if the board of education approves these closures on Wednesday. That’s a record number for the …
Editorial: Judge should step aside
The writer Nelson Algren had a rule for life: Never make love to a woman whose troubles are greater than your own. Might we suggest a similar rule for criminal court judges: Never preside over a trial involving questions of ethical misbehavior when you yourself …
Editorial: How to enjoy a drink without driving drunk
If you were a 120-pound woman and drank more than just a single beer within 90 minutes before hitting the road, would it be fair if the cops charged you with drunken driving? What if you were a 160-pound man and drank more than two …
Editorial: The hollow promise of a better school
In deciding whether to shutter Manierre Elementary School near the old Cabrini-Green housing project, the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools was given a long list of considerations she was allowed to take into account — or ignore. There is, for one, a multi-generational history …
Editorial: Questions galore on McCormick arena plan
Should Chicago do more to attract conventioneers and tourists? Sure. We see great promise in that. Is McCormick Place a notoriously cold space with a Goldilocks problem — sometimes too big or too small — that could use some warming up, beginning with a couple …
Editorial: A fair draw on guns
No one is happy with a bill permitting the concealed carrying of weapons that passed out of the Illinois Senate Executive Committee Thursday by a 10-4-1 vote. But the bill — the result of a months-long effort by state Sen. Kwame Raoul to find a …
Editorial: Hazing doesn’t happen if adults do their jobs
Hazing in high school athletics, whether relatively minor or rising to the level of criminal assault, happens only when adults fail at their jobs. In a healthy culture of student sport, principals and coaches send a constant message that every athlete is to be treated …
Editorial: CPS invited lawsuits
The vote to close 54 Chicago public schools hasn’t even happened yet and the first lawsuits already were filed in federal court on Wednesday. No surprise there. What is surprising is how willingly CPS invited these suits. For months, this page has argued that no …
Editorial: Angelina Jolie uses her celebrity to promote option of making informed choices
Is Angelina Jolie a hero? No. But she never set out to be one, which makes her choice to go public about double mastectomy in a New York Times op-ed on Tuesday that much more admirable. Jolie, who revealed she underwent the preventive surgery this …
Editorial: Right call for the CTA’s Red Line
Back in the 1990s, all 20 miles of the Green Line were shut down for a year and four months of rehabilitation. That puts the upcoming five-month partial shutdown of the Red Line’s Dan Ryan branch into perspective. The work is scheduled to be finished …
Editorial: Check out all abuse claims against one cop
In Brooklyn, the district attorney’s office has ordered that about 50 murder cases — all linked to one detective — be reviewed because of questions about the officer’s tactics. Cook County, which also has a number of controversial cases linked to a single detective, should …
Editorial: IRS outrage must be investigated
When the Internal Revenue Service singles out certain groups for special scrutiny based on their political leanings, right or left, that’s a frightening abuse of power. Congress has every right, even an obligation, to investigate why that happened at an IRS office in Cincinnati, how …
Editorial: Fact and fiction on medical marijuana
For seriously ill folks looking for relief, a big moment has arrived. Here’s hoping the Illinois Senate doesn’t blow it. A bill legalizing medical marijuana likely will come up for a vote this week. The bill already has passed the House. In years past, less …
Editorial: An equality gut check on gay marriage
Somewhere in the Illinois House, we believe, there are at least five members who have yet to say it out loud but know in their gut that gay people should have the right to get married. These are legislators who abhor discrimination. They think of …
Editorial: Tapping your inner doggie for a healthier life
We can learn a lot from our pets. How to play without holding back, how to thoroughly enjoy a good meal, how to love unconditionally. Dogs and cats live blissfully in the moment while we humans stress about the evils in the world around us, …
