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...

John Holden takes a photo of the bell tower of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Chicago on April 2, 2021.

Column: To mark the Lenten season, a Chicago man makes a ‘pilgrimage of doomed churches’

By Mary Schmich

April 2, 2021 at 8:16 p.m.

In February, to mark the Catholic season of Lent, John Holden embarked on what he...

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry at his bookstore in Archer City, Texas, in 2014.

Column: Larry McMurtry and Beverly Cleary, two friends gone on the same day

By John Kass

April 2, 2021 at 5:27 p.m.

I've just lost two friends. They may have been friends of yours as well. I...

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger speaks with the media before attending a gun violence hearing in 2019 at Kennedy-King College in Chicago.

Column: GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger is at war with Trumpism, but GOP ‘tribes’ are heavily against him

By Eric Zorn

April 5, 2021 at 3:16 p.m.

The good news for Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger is that fundraising for the political...

Employees assemble surgical masks in the production area at DemeTech, which also makes N95 masks, in Doral, Fla., Feb. 5, 2021.

Column: How COVID can change your personality

By The New York Times

April 2, 2021 at 3:52 p.m.

I don't know about you, but I've found the latest stage of the pandemic hard...

New York City police Officer Joann Derkacz keeps her eye on pedestrians walking along a busy shopping area March 30, 2021, in Flushing, New York. Police have stepped up patrols in the largely Asian American neighborhood amid a rash of anti-Asian attacks across the United States.

Column: Old tropes of Black-Asian conflict rear up after NY assault

By Clarence Page

April 5, 2021 at 3:17 p.m.

When the network TV news anchor warned that the next news report contained images that...

Signs are seen in a tree at a protest against masks, vaccines and vaccine passports March 31, 2021, outside the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Column: Conservatives’ rejection of vaccine passports defies conservatism

By Steve Chapman

April 2, 2021 at 1:49 p.m.

If there is any fundamental belief that has always united conservatives, it's the central importance...

Englewood resident Fannie Peeples gets a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine from Friend Health nurse Syreetta Stinson at the Peace House of I Grow Chicago, March 26, 2021. I Grow Chicago teamed with Friend Health to provide 150 vaccines, coffee and doughnuts at the event.

Column: What to do when your friends or family resist a COVID vaccine? Persist. Gently.

By Mary Schmich

April 2, 2021 at 5:00 a.m.

Mary Murtaugh is a recently retired nurse who says she has never been shy about...

President Joe Biden delivers a speech on infrastructure spending at Carpenters Pittsburgh Training Center on March 31, 2021, in Pittsburgh.

Column: Biden tackles infrastructure while Republicans put performative outrage over ideas

By Rex W. Huppke

April 2, 2021 at 3:31 p.m.

As President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping, $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, Republican lawmakers detailed their...

Alex Infante prepares the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in the vaccine pharmacy center that will be given to patients at Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago on Feb. 8, 2021.

Column: After that second dose of coronavirus vaccine, what comes next?

By John Kass

April 2, 2021 at 5:00 a.m.

After receiving my second coronavirus vaccine shot on Thursday, I thought I could feel the...

People in support of transgender rights rally outside the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Ala., on March 30, 2021.

Column: Trans bans in sports pose a harder question than most advocates are willing to admit

By Eric Zorn

April 1, 2021 at 5:39 p.m.

When it comes to youth sports, how should we define "girl"? I posed this question...

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