David Greising – Page 18

Then-Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck laughs with officers at the Whilshire station in Los Angeles in 2010.

Commentary: CPD’s Charlie Beck may be ‘interim’ top cop, but his impact will be lasting

February 6, 2020 at 2:59 p.m.

Charlie Beck has told anyone who will listen that he or she shouldn't expect him to be a caretaker police chief. Beck is in charge of the Chicago Police Department...

Gov. J.B. Pritzker talks with members of the media inside the Illinois Capitol on Jan. 15 in Springfield.

Commentary: Pritzker must step into leading role in reforming Illinois government. The moment demands it.

January 23, 2020 at 8:14 p.m.

If 2019 was Act I of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's new life as an elected official, then 2020 lays before him as an Act II, in which the protagonist politician must...

Cresco Labs employee Nicholas Stankus counts out cash received for a medical cannabis sale on Dec. 30, 2019.

Commentary: Illinois scores early with legal weed but must learn from other states

January 9, 2020 at 5:20 p.m.

Those lines around the block for recreational pot, that eye-popping $10.8 million in sales over the first five days, the talk of supply shortages and an oversupply of license applicants:...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot at City Hall on Oct. 15, 2019.

Commentary: Mayor Lightfoot’s call for ComEd hearings sounds good, but …

December 12, 2019 at 2:48 p.m.

The run-up to a new city franchise agreement with Commonwealth Edison was an obscure but important negotiation, and then along came Mayor Lori Lighfoot. With just a few words about...

It will take years to rid Chicago, Illinois and the statehouse of corruption.

Commentary: Look away. Let everybody get rich, and you can too. The culture of corruption in Illinois won’t end easily.

November 14, 2019 at 4:14 p.m.

The wide-ranging and still-expanding public corruption investigations unfolding before our eyes have even the most jaded observers of Illinois government rubbing their eyes. Subpoenas, searches and speculation have touched the...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, left, at City Hall with Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson talk about the Chicago Teachers Union strike, on Oct. 29, 2019.

Commentary: How much calm and focus will it take to fill Chicago’s budget gaps? Lori Lightfoot is about to find out.

October 31, 2019 at 4:57 p.m.

By the time Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered her budget address last week, the Chicago Teachers Union was already on strike. The federal investigation into Illinois corruption had paid a visit...

Students on Wright Street in Urbana with the University of Illinois library in the background in August 2015.

Commentary: The U. of I., stung by a #MeToo investigation, is now leaning on Title IX to muzzle reporters

October 17, 2019 at 6:16 p.m.

Rachel Otwell, a reporter for NPR Illinois, does not have the celebrity of Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor of The New York Times, or Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker,...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot listens to attendees during a budget town hall meeting at the South Shore Cultural Center on Oct. 2, 2019, in Chicago.

Commentary: Chicago has spoken; Mayor Lightfoot, we’re ready to see your budget

October 3, 2019 at 2:24 p.m.

It turns out the people of Chicago don't have a tidy answer to solving the city's $838 million budget gap, much less the steep incremental increase in additional pension payments...

Aerial view of the former Michael Reese Hospital site in Chicago in 2013. The site is among those proposed for a Chicago casino.

Commentary: The casino saga: A tale of shaky bets and … cannibals

September 19, 2019 at 4:44 p.m.

I've just pored through two dark summer dramas that should be must reads. They're filled with tales of cannibalization, regional strife and conflict, horses, riverboats — and despair about the...

Traffic in downtown Chicago in 2017. Mayor Lori Lightfoot mentioned congestion pricing in her first State of the City address.

Commentary: A congestion tax won’t solve Chicago’s budget jam

September 5, 2019 at 4:00 p.m.

In 2007, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg first floated a serious plan to bring congestion pricing to the car-choked streets of lower Manhattan. In 2019 — amid a subway crisis...

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