Columns

This image from CCTV video released by Saudi Arabia's Media Ministry shows passengers taking cover as flames and smoke fill part of King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during what authorities described as a strike at the airport on Oct. 10, 2026. (Saudi Media Ministry via AP)

Daniel DePetris: Resumption of war between Houthis and Saudis is bad timing for Donald Trump

By Daniel DePetris

October 12, 2026 at 1:27 p.m.

The attacks in Saudi Arabia come when Donald Trump is in a standoff over the...

Attorneys for Christa Pike hold a news conference after a judge ruled the Tennessee Department of Corrections must preserve all evidence related to the failed execution of Pike, on Oct. 7, 2026, in Nashville, Tennessee. (George Walker IV/AP)

Clarence Page: A botched execution shakes our death penalty presumptions

By Clarence Page

October 12, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

The botched execution of Christa Pike offers a gross illustration of the cruelty that capital...

Chicago school board president candidates Jessica Biggs, Hilario Dominguez and Victor Henderson participate in a forum at the Copernicus Center on Sept. 29, 2026. (Chris Sweda/baiduhai)

David Greising: The race for Chicago school board president is about ideas — and character

By David Greising

October 10, 2026 at 10:01 a.m.

It will take savvy strategic thinking, backed by the character needed for leadership, to make...

David Grusch, a former intelligence officer, is sworn in July 26, 2023, before a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Clarence Page: Can Congress pry our government’s UFO ‘X-Files’ open? The truth is still out there.

By Clarence Page

July 28, 2023 at 6:32 p.m.

At last, in the swampy heat of late-summer Washington, Congress appears to have stumbled across...

Ryan Gosling, left, as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie in the new "Barbie" movie.

Column: The beauty of ‘Barbie’ isn’t that men are subjugated. It’s that no one is.

By Heidi Stevens

June 7, 2024 at 11:50 a.m.

My son and his friends, all rising high school freshmen, were at our house Saturday...

Jason Aldean on stage during third day of CMA Fest 2023 at Nissan Stadium on June 10, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Clarence Page: Jason Aldean’s dream is my nightmare

By Clarence Page

July 25, 2023 at 6:12 p.m.

Summer is almost half over, and I'm still looking to see what the "song of...

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, left, speaks during a confirmation hearing for Air Force Gen. Charles Brown in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 11, 2023 on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Clarence Page: A ‘woke’ military? Don’t forget the messy race relations that got us here.

By Clarence Page

July 24, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.

Recent Republican moves to limit diversity training and transgender rights and other hot-button controversies stemming...

Former Northwestern football player Lloyd Yates speaks July 19, 2023, alongside other former players, from left, Warren Miles Long, Tom Carnifax and Simba Short, about the abuse and hazing they say occurred in the program.

Column: Northwestern professor speaks on her students’ quiet heroism. ‘We couldn’t clear this up if it weren’t for their courage.’

By Heidi Stevens

June 7, 2024 at 11:50 a.m.

In February 2021, Northwestern University political science professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd signed an open letter...

Mahalia Jackson, left, sings "We Shall Overcome" with civil rights leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King, third left, Jesse Jackson, second from right, and Albert Raby, right, on Aug. 4, 1966. The event happened at 844 W. 71st St. in Chicago.

Clarence Page: The Rev. Jesse Jackson is not retiring, only ‘pivoting,’ and still keeping hope alive

By Clarence Page

July 18, 2023 at 5:25 p.m.

With the news that the Rev. Jesse Jackson is retiring or, as he prefers to...

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks to reporters before the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act at the U.S. Capitol on July 14, 2023, in Washington.

Clarence Page: The defense bill is no longer a no-brainer as Speaker McCarthy gives in to far-right faction

By Clarence Page

July 17, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.

Despite the rowdy episodes of fussing, feuding and fighting that we see erupt out of...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas listens as President Donald Trump speaks before administering the constitutional oath to new Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the White House in Washington on Oct. 26, 2020.

Clarence Page: Clarence Thomas’ American Dream — with a little help from his friends

By Clarence Page

July 12, 2023 at 8:46 a.m.

If you live long enough to see your heroes deposed from their former glory by...

People work and relax on the Main Quadrangle at the University of Chicago on April 12, 2023. Under the university's widely praised commitment to academic freedom, speech is restricted only when it "constitutes a genuine threat or harassment."

Clarence Page: A college-level challenge: When free speech sounds like cyberbullying

By Clarence Page

July 9, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.

A University of Chicago student who happens to be white objected to an undergraduate anthropology...

Oliver Leopold at his high school graduation party. He graduated from Evanston Township High School a semester early to jump-start his dream of becoming a paramedic.

Column: On a tree-lined golf course, a bright red wind phone invites visitors to connect with their departed loved ones

By Heidi Stevens

June 7, 2024 at 11:50 a.m.

On hole 11 of Canal Shores Golf Course in Evanston, Illinois, nestled in a grove...

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