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...

Amazon is reportedly planning to buy the Central Steel & Wire plant, seen March 2, 2021, in the 3000 block of W. 51st St,. on Chicago's Southwest Side.

Amazon strikes $45 million deal to buy SW Side steel plant; it could become site of its biggest warehouse in Chicago

By Ryan Ori

March 3, 2021 at 1:25 p.m.

Amazon plans to buy the sprawling Central Steel & Wire plant on the city's Southwest...

Great offerings in the Tweet of the Week poll. But are they art?

By Eric Zorn

March 5, 2021 at 7:58 p.m.

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

Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne, right, greets Vernon Jordan, president of the National Urban League, and Ruth Love, Chicago's next school superintendent, at a Chicago Urban League luncheon on Feb. 6, 1981.

Column: Remembering Vernon Jordan, a different kind of civil rights leader

By Clarence Page

March 2, 2021 at 2:14 p.m.

As one who covered Vernon Jordan off and on for several decades, I remember how...

Annie Swingen, from left, her son, Ellis, 10, and her husband, Lee Swingen, fill a Love Fridge with food in Little Village on Feb. 27, 2021. Direct Effect Charities, founded by Michelle DiGiacomo, counts on volunteers to shop and fill the fridges around the city. The public is welcome to take and to contribute food.

Column: One family’s weekly trips to fill Chicago’s Love Fridges are a reminder of our capacity to care for one another

By Heidi Stevens

March 3, 2021 at 10:30 a.m.

In normal times, Michelle DiGiacomo spends a lot of the year planning around Santa. Direct...

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28, 2021, in Orlando, Florida.

Column: Cancel Culture is coming for you. What’s next, Fact-Boarding? We need congressional hearings.

By Rex W. Huppke

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

As most rational Americans know, there's no greater threat to our democracy than Cancel Culture,...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference before the opening of a mass COVID-19 vaccination site in the Queens borough of New York on Feb. 24, 2021. Cuomo is facing sexual harassment accusations from two former aides.

Column: Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment allegations got a whole lot ickier when he threw the word ‘mentor’ in the mix

By Heidi Stevens

March 1, 2021 at 4:10 p.m.

A life hack: If you're 63 and she's 25 and you're her boss, the flirtation...

Parishioners raise their hands in worship as the Rev. Michael Pfleger leads the Sunday morning service at St. Sabina Church on June 6, 2021. "It's good to be home," an emotional Pfleger said to a packed and jubilant crowd at St. Sabina Church — his first time leading a congregation in five months.

Column: Blind loyalty to the Rev. Michael Pfleger could harm the Black community

By Dahleen Glanton

March 1, 2021 at 5:00 a.m.

One of the Rev. Michael Pfleger's supporters summed up the sexual abuse allegations against the...

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx at her office after attending a virtual swearing in ceremony for her second term on Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / baiduhai)

Column: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx wisely pardons herself from parole fights

By Eric Zorn

February 27, 2021 at 9:13 a.m.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the chairman of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, Cook...

Justin Reyes administers a COVID-19 test to Maria Suarez outside Heartland Health Centers in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood on July 10, 2020.

Column: A lesson from the last ‘normal’ pre-pandemic weekend: We’re not as smart as we think we are

By Mary Schmich

February 27, 2021 at 7:01 p.m.

What was your life like at this time last year? You may not remember the...

Ald. Danny Solis 25th, left, listens as Mayor Rahm Emanuel delivers his 2015 budget address at a City Council meeting on Oct. 15, 2014.

Column: So who brought the Viagra to Ald. Viagra?

By John Kass

February 26, 2021 at 7:47 p.m.

The wide-ranging federal criminal corruption investigation rolling through Chicago and Springfield had to begin somewhere....

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