When Jane Byrne was elected mayor
Paralyzing blizzards set up Mayor Michael Bilandic for defeat, but it was bright sunshine on Feb. 27 that did him in. The fair weather on the day of the mayoral...
All Stories
Making of a mayor, Chicago-style
Eugene Sawyer, former mayor of Chicago, died late Saturday. The election of Sawyer in a 29-19 vote of the City Council on Dec. 2, 1987, capped one of the wildest...
World War I Begins
A month after a Serbian nationalist murdered Archduke Francis Ferdinand, son and heir of the Austrian emperor, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on this date against Serbia. That led Austria's...
HOW’S THE GOVERNMENT DOING?
There are few things government does that automatically, reflexively, touch a nerve. One of them is when government is called on to be a parent. Fifteen years ago when I...
CANVASSING THE STATE
Is the death penalty dead? No, not by a long shot. The terrific reporting on flaws in the capital punishment system has drained away some of the public's approval of...
HANGIN’ OUT AT THE DROP OFF/PICK UP PARKING LOT
Last weekend they had a concert at the Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, music capital of the world. It was called the B96 Summer Bash, B-Bash for those in the...
GOVERNING WITHOUT 2002 IN MIND
There's nothing worse than the politicians who are in it for the money. Unless it's the politicians who say they're in it for the morality. Some of them have been...
WHEN INSTINCT COUNTS MORE THAN INTELLIGENCE
I wrote up this story a few years ago, but what the heck. Al Gore might be president soon, so it's worth telling again. It's a true story. Gore tells...
A SILENCE WE SHOULDN’T IGNORE
He was a kid at Notre Dame in 1943, when there weren't many kids at Notre Dame. All the kids had gone to war. He hadn't been drafted. He could...
CAREER MOVES COULD CAUSE TROUBLES OF A SUPREME ORDER
Back when City Hall was consumed in a race war and then-Ald. Eddie Vrdolyak's calling in life was to make Harold Washington miserable, Vrdolyak had a quick explanation for it...