Columns

A young woman reacts as she looks at her damaged home after Russia's night missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 14, 2026. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Elizabeth Shackelford: Trump’s abhorrent Russian diesel deal defies US laws and won’t lower gas prices

By Elizabeth Shackelford

October 16, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Donald Trump has illegally undone sanctions efforts against Russia. For all of this, Americans won’t...

Saturday Night Live Host Shane Gillis during the monologue on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (Will Heath/NBC/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: Shane Gillis ‘SNL’ opener misses the mark — and the moment

By Heidi Stevens

October 16, 2026 at 4:00 a.m.

The most disappointing thing about Shane Gillis’ shopworn, hackneyed, tone-deaf, retrograde, unfunny “Saturday Night Live”...

Former Indiana U,S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, who was co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, in his office at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington on Nov. 24, 2006. (Pete Souza/baiduhai)

John T. Shaw: We need Congress to ponder the long term with a new future-focused group

By John T. Shaw

October 14, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Half a century ago, many lawmakers viewed their responsibilities differently and created a forum to...

Column: ‘Stranger Care’ is a stunning love letter to the author’s foster daughter, and is Sally Field’s pandemic reading

By Heidi Stevens

May 14, 2021 at 3:31 p.m.

"Stranger Care" is a love letter to a baby loved and then surrendered. It's a...

RealGood Stuff CEO Jon Schiff in the River North location at 701 N. Wells St. on May 3, 2021.

RealGood Stuff plots big post-pandemic restaurant expansion in Chicago and beyond

By Ryan Ori

May 5, 2021 at 3:07 p.m.

RealGood Stuff Co. has leased space in a Fulton Market office building as the fast-casual...

Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, bumps elbows with Mayor Lori Lightfoot before they each receive their first COVID-19 vaccination doses on Jan. 25, 2021, at St. Bernard Hospital in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago.

Column: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot walks loudly but carries no stick

By John Kass

May 5, 2021 at 5:00 a.m.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is often portrayed in national media as a strong liberal Democratic...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, left, and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson at CPS headquarters on Jan. 26, 2021.

Column: ‘Dream jobs’ are a myth, and Janice Jackson’s departure from Chicago Public Schools confirms it

By Dahleen Glanton

May 5, 2021 at 10:25 a.m.

Most of us, from time to time, have thought about our dream job. How wonderful...

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the House Republican Conference chair, speaks with reporters following a GOP strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 20, 2021.

Column: Liz Cheney must stop telling the truth or Kevin McCarthy will run her out of the Trumpub-LIE-can Party

By Rex W. Huppke

May 5, 2021 at 10:07 a.m.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney has committed the worst sin imaginable in today's version of the...

Mary Schmich's laptop's in the shop, so she wrote a column by hand.

Column: My laptop’s in the shop. So I did something radical — wrote a column by hand.

By Mary Schmich

May 5, 2021 at 5:00 a.m.

We live in a world of devices designed to make life easy. The toaster. The...

FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2004 file photo stilt walkers enjoy a sunset stroll at the Burningman counter culture arts festival in the Black Rock Desert 100 miles north east of Reno, NV. Burning Man organizers are considering requiring attendees to prove they've been vaccinated for COVID-19 if they move forward with plans to hold this year's counter-culture festival in the Nevada desert. But they have backed off an earlier announcement that they'd already decided to make shots mandatory, and won't decide for sure until the end of the month whether the event that was canceled last year due to the pandemic will even take place. (Photo Scott Sady/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP)

You don’t have to look great for your age to take the Tweet of the Week poll

By Eric Zorn

May 7, 2021 at 12:19 p.m.

Instructions: Click the box next to each tweet that amuses you -- no limit to...

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the House Republican Conference chair, talks to reporters, April 20, 2021, following a GOP strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington. Donald Trump and his supporters are intensifying efforts to shame members of the party who are seen as disloyal to the former president.

Column: ‘Trump Forever’ clobbers ‘Never Trump’ in Texas, darkening the future of rebel Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger

By Eric Zorn

May 4, 2021 at 3:10 p.m.

Wood got waxed last weekend. Michael Wood — a strongly conservative Republican, small business owner,...

A memorial near where Anthony Alvarez was fatally shot during a foot pursuit by Chicago police in the Portage Park neighborhood on April 28, 2021.

Column: If Chicago is in hot pursuit of a better police chase policy, why is it moving so slowly?

By Clarence Page

May 4, 2021 at 2:06 p.m.

If Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's recent call for a new police foot-pursuit policy made you...

Roscoe Village resident Marci Sieracki pulls a lasagna out of the oven while her daughter Charlotte watches on Nov. 25, 2020. Sieracki bakes and delivers lasagna for free to health care workers and other people impacted by COVID-19 as part of a national Lasagna Love movement.

Column: This Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate all the healing and caretaking taking place during a pandemic

By Heidi Stevens

May 4, 2021 at 12:29 p.m.

This Mother's Day will be marked by who is not there. About 577,000 Americans have...

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