T-minus 8 days

It’s beginning to hit me that in almost exactly 8 days, my plane (if everything runs on time) will be pushing back from a gate at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to whisk me across the Atlantic Ocean to Dublin. From there, I’ll catch another plane to fly me to London’s Heathrow Airport.
One of the [...]

Starstruck

One of the cool things about my job is that I get to talk to people most folks never would. I’ve talked a couple times with U.S. Senator Dick Durbin. I’ve had former U.S. Senator turned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the phone. I’ve spoken with any number of Illinois state senators and representatives [...]

This isn’t what Methods of Mayhem meant

There’s a certain irony in the fact there are now at least three lawsuits pending against Chicago Public Schools alleging that students were forced to take their clothes off as part of a search of their person. After all, most schools have dress codes designed to make sure students wear more clothes, rather than fewer.
In [...]

The right solution for now

It’s a shame that there are a lot of kids in the Chicago Public Schools system who don’t feel safe in their own school. A school should be the one place a kid should go and feel safe. Perhaps even sadder is that some of the kids who don’t feel safe in their own school [...]

Kiyanna Salter did not deserve to die

Kiyanna Salter did not deserve to die.
She did not deserve to die at the age of 17. She did not deserve to die while taking the bus home from visiting her sick aunt. She did not deserve to at about 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday night on a CTA bus. She did not deserve to [...]

Mayor Daley’s fighting the law

I’ve always been a big fan of Chicago’s mayor Richard Daley. Since he took office in 1989, he turned a dying industrial city into the premier destination in the Midwest. Sure, he runs the city like he’s a king. But he does it well. He, unlike a lot of mayors, knows what’s best for his [...]

Virtual insanity is what we’re living in

I think it’s time the government just told us that in order to get on a plane, we need to go through security naked. I think it’s the logical next step.
Come fall at some American airports – specifically O’Hare in Chicago, passengers will have to go through a machine that puts them through a virtual [...]

Ends v. means.

I’m a big fan of protestors of the Iraq war. I think the war is immoral. I think we were led into the war by lies. I think we need to leave Iraq as soon as possible. And I think we, as American citizens, have the duty to do whatever we can to make that [...]

New cops on the block

Chicago police superintendent Jody Weis is my new hero — at least for the moment.
Weis took over less than two months ago. He inherited a department with a lot of problems. He replaced Philip Cline, who was disappointing as a commander. And now, Weis has taken a very risky and bold step to clean house [...]

QC nightlife

I love taking walks at 4 a.m. Seeing the world when most people are sleeping is a lot of fun. There’s also something vaguely dangerous about it, which might be why I really love it so much. I love seeing who is out and about at that time and being among them.
But since I’ve been [...]