Cristina Pacione-Zayas –

Homes are flooded on Salinas Beach after Hurricane Fiona hits Salinas, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 19, 2022.

Omar Aquino and Cristina Pacione-Zayas: Hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico needs help to achieve self-determination

September 21, 2022 at 11:19 a.m.

Tuesday marked a full five years after Hurricane Maria literally uprooted Puerto Rico. For the first time, all eyes were on the island — and the images were haunting. The...

A person walks past a bullet hole in a parking garage window at the scene of a shooting near the 800 block of North Sedgwick Avenue on May 19, 2022, in Chicago.

State senators: This holiday, there’s no panacea for Chicago’s gun violence. Let’s find real solutions.

May 25, 2022 at 5:34 p.m.

On a warm Saturday night in mid-May, Chicago lost another young person to gun violence. Seandell Holliday, a 16-year-old, was fatally shot in Millennium Park. His tragic death has reignited...

The Puerto Rican flag flies in front of Puerto Rico's Capitol in San Juan in 2015.

Omar Aquino and Cristina H. Pacione-Zayas: Puerto Rico is a federal territory that deserves federal aid

April 26, 2022 at 6:07 p.m.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court decisively rejected the principle of equality under the law when it comes to Puerto Rico. While seemingly limited in scope, we must not minimize the...

A class of second grade dual-language students reads at Socorro Sandoval Elementary School in Chicago on in 2019.

Op-ed: New Illinois teaching standards will help more students succeed — especially bilingual learners

February 12, 2021 at 5:36 p.m.

Until my recent appointment to the Illinois Senate, I was the secretary of the Illinois State Board of Education. That means I was a member of the board at the...

Jonathon James carries his 8-year-old son Jahan James on his shoulders during a rally against the Chicago Police Department's presence in Chicago Public Schools along South State Street on June 4, 2020, in Chicago.

Commentary: Let the kids guide us through this reckoning on race and violence

July 13, 2020 at 4:51 p.m.

Almost exactly one year ago, the baiduhai shared Erikson Institute's data analysis plotting murders from 2016-2018 on a heat map by community area. This data was overlaid with census...

Joaquin Phoenix plays the title role in "Joker," about a mentally ill, middle-aged man.

Commentary: ‘Joker’ movie shows audiences the painful truth about the impact of childhood trauma

October 29, 2019 at 5:19 p.m.

What does the DC Comics feature film "Joker" have to do with early childhood mental health? In a word: everything. "Joker," the highest-grossing R-rated film in history, masterfully chronicles the...

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