Editorial: A primer on what’s at stake at NATO Summit
If you live or work in Chicago, you may be shocked to learn that the NATO Summit this weekend is about more than protesters and traffic headaches. OK, maybe not shocked. Chicagoans know that leaders from 60 countries and organizations around the world are descending …
Editorial: This is no time for Republican legislators to delay reforms
With a little more than two weeks to go in Illinois’ legislative session, there’s talk that some Republicans are trying to delay major reforms in hopes of getting more leverage. Don’t do it. This is a rare moment in Springfield. Lawmakers, led by Gov. Pat …
Editorial: Background check firms must face accuracy test
Anyone out of work knows how discouraging that can be. So imagine the discouragement if you learned you didn’t get a job because of an erroneous background check that said you had criminal record. It happens. One Illinois man was denied a job because of …
Editorial: Mayor Pit Bull’s year of straining forward
We mean this as a compliment: At his toughest, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is like the most ferocious pit bull you’ve ever encountered. He goes for the flesh and doesn’t let go until he draws blood. Lucky for Chicago, this pit bull is on our side. …
Editorial: Tugga Bear’s short life of love and danger
We can’t help but wonder what the future might have held for Julian King had he not been killed at the gentle age of 7. What chance, we must ask, did little Julian have of growing up safe and healthy, on the right side of …
Editorial: Building up trust in the police
The effectiveness of a police force relies so much on the trust of the community it serves. Chicago is helping to boost that trust by using mediation to resolve some disciplinary charges against police officers. Mediation concludes cases more quickly and is more likely to …
Editorial: Hands off school money
It’s nice to have friends in the right places. Usually, someone facing a $444,500 tax bill would worry. But not state Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago). On Tuesday, the Illinois House passed a bill that would wipe that tax bill right out. How convenient. The tax …
Editorial: Obama champions gay marriage, Golden Rule
When America elected a black president, racism did not magically disappear. In the same way, President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday that he now supports same-sex marriage will not bring a quick and easy end to discrimination against gays and lesbians. But, oh, what a day. …
Editorial: The mayor who kicked pension hornet’s nest
There’s nothing like showing up. In a bold and gutsy move, Mayor Rahm Emanuel flew to Springfield on Tuesday to argue for deeply unpopular, but wholly necessary, cuts to the city’s pension systems. “Whatever political capital I have earned, I am willing to invest in …
Editorial: Dohrn is on the board! Horrors!
For years, this page has championed alternatives to prison for most kids and teens who break the law, convinced by a wealth of research that locking them up just makes them worse and costs a fortune. We generally favor, then, efforts to promote this goal, …
Editorial: What’s in the water at Loyola?
Let’s hear it for the students of Loyola University, and for the Jesuit principles that guided them, for doing something pretty smart: Banning the sale of bottled water on campus. Beginning this fall, in response to a student vote last week, the university no longer …
Editorial: Lineup of jobs and perks doesn’t pass smell test
Sometimes something just smells. Legal or illegal, who cares? It smells. Case in point is the cozy arrangement of jobs and perks Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) and his family have worked out, all at taxpayers’ expense. Ald. Beale is on the City Council. His wife, …
Editorial: Herrera’s a cop only in his dreams
‘I don’t have my star or my gun, but I’m still a cop.” That’s what Keith Herrera told Katie Couric in a “60 Minutes” interview two years ago. Still a cop? Only compared to the wild man he helped put away. But at least, having …
Editorial: Lesson of crummy meter deal? Go slow.
Nothing has unified Chicagoans in recent years like the collective outrage over the privatization of the city’s parking meters. It was rammed through the City Council in 2008 with little scrutiny or debate, and rates have skyrocketed and collection hours have expanded dramatically. Then, to …
Editorial: Sen. Mark Kirk comes fighting back
Sen. Mark Kirk has left the hospital and gone home. Excellent news. And the sooner he returns to Washington, all the better. The Capitol remains in short supply of thoughtful legislators willing to work across the aisle. In the meantime, we’d like to express admiration …