Randy Blaser

Column: The shooting death of a 14-year-old was a tragedy. What does it say about us as a society?

August 23, 2019 at 3:37 p.m.

Just a few short miles from my idyllic suburban home, a 75-year-old man stepped out of his house Aug. 13 to confront a group of teenagers near his car. He...

Marijuana plants grow in planters at Revolution cannabis cultivation center on May 30, 2019, in Delavan, Ill.

Column: Recreational marijuana is coming, and suburban leaders have some decisions to make

August 16, 2019 at 7:21 p.m.

From welcoming casinos to legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, Illinois leaders have indicated they will do almost anything to generate new tax revenue. While our governor and state legislators...

An extension of Route 53 in Lake County was essentially killed last month.

Column: Plans for a Route 53 extension in Lake County are dead. Good.

August 1, 2019 at 5:08 p.m.

Every weekend of every summer in the early 1970s we would load up the family car and head to our favorite spot on Pistakee Lake on the Chain o' Lakes....

A commercial strip along Green Bay Road in Kenilworth is pictured on June 13, 2019.

Column: Blighted Kenilworth has created a TIF district. What does that solve?

July 25, 2019 at 5:00 p.m.

The Trump economic revival hitting the rest of the country has apparently missed Kenilworth. Why else would officials in what is consistently ranked as one of the wealthiest towns in...

Column: We landed on the moon not because we needed to, but because we could

July 19, 2019 at 7:58 p.m.

On a bright, sunny afternoon in Chicago on July 20, 1969, I was spending the day the way I always did in the summer — playing pickup baseball at Schwinn...

Columnist Randy Blaser has some ideas for volunteer "Alligator Bob," shown here paddling on the Humboldt Park lagoon in Chicago on July 12. For the past several days, a search has been underway for a small alligator that has been seen swimming in the water.

Column: To catch a gator, ‘Swamp People’ style

July 12, 2019 at 7:02 p.m.

Growing up on the Near West Side, I often heard tales of a nearby land of wonder just a few miles west of our three-flat. Humboldt Park was a land...

Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker (middle) talks about the Casino Bill and added revenue, on Monday, July 1, 2019, at Waukegan City Hall. (Mark Kodiak Ukena/Lake County News-Sun)

Column: Illinois is getting more casinos, but the deck is still stacked against us

July 5, 2019 at 9:10 p.m.

While politicians gleefully celebrated a new state law that will bring a casino to Waukegan, one noted the legislation will end the busloads of gamblers heading from Illinois to Milwaukee....

In this July 4, 2018, photo fireworks explode over Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol during the Fourth of July celebration.

Column: This Fourth of July, take a moment to reflect on our nation’s founding

June 28, 2019 at 4:50 p.m.

As we prepare to celebrate the 243rd anniversary of the founding of this great nation, many of our founders and their motivations are being called into question. There seems to...

There's something magical about a glass full of ice on a hot summer day.

Column: The simple joy of a perfect ice cube in the summer

June 21, 2019 at 4:58 p.m.

Is there anything more precious, more wonderful, more exotic and more satisfying than ice in summer? I'm not talking about the weather horror that was visited upon us just a...

Union troops charge during a mock battle at Civil War Days in the Lakewood Forest Preserve on July 11, 2015.

Column: Instead of ending Civil War Days in Lake County, use it to tell the whole story

June 13, 2019 at 8:02 p.m.

There are two ways of dealing with the aspects of our common American history that are unpleasant to face. One way is to acknowledge the facts with honesty, understand them...

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