We don't know. We don't know what drove suspected gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to open fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday.
Rep. Mark Kirk has long been a voice of reason in Illinois. A moderate Republican with an independent streak, Kirk isn't known for pandering.
We understand the sentiment behind Ald. Eugene Schulter's complaint that too many suburbanites are crowding into the free concerts at Millennium Park, taking seats from city dwellers.
Of all President Obama's efforts to jump-start the economy, his Cash for Clunkers program easily has been the most popular.
Imagine you are a 17-year-old girl looking to get an abortion. You've made up your mind but fear telling your parents. It could mean getting kicked out of your home, beaten up or worse.
Gov. Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes, who are squaring off in the Democratic primary race for governor, are both smart and substantive candidates.
Imagine going on the Internet one day and finding that it's taking a quite a bit longer than usual to download a clip from Jon Stewart's show.
So what if our man-eating lions were only man-snacking lions, we're still proud of them.
It's property tax bill time, and if you're like many Chicago area residents, you're looking for which politician to blame -- or perhaps throttle -- for your increase.
Don't believe anybody who says the cowardly decision to continue free bus and train rides for Chicago area senior citizens was actually about helping seniors.
The dispute over how many Cook County commissioners should be needed to override a veto by County Board President Todd Stroger is not, at its core, about Stroger or his hated sales tax increase.
All those years when our archenemy, Tribune Co., owned the Chicago Cubs, we cheered for the team all the same.
When it comes to campaign finance reform, state lawmakers have made it further down the field of play than we ever believed possible.
One of the worst-kept secrets in Illinois is out: Our state elementary school tests are way too easy.
When mob killer Nick Calabrese decided to cooperate with the FBI, federal agents considered who might want to kill him.
No one wants to kill a beautiful garden. Much less a community garden in a forlorn patch of the South Side, and much less a garden that straddles the divide between Hyde Park and its poorer neighbor, Woodlawn.
When Chicago began closing grammar schools in 2001, Chicago Public Schools officials promised a dramatically better education for those displaced kids.
There's nothing to focus the managerial mind like a deficit of $500 million or so.
Some kids get paid to get good grades. Some adults get paid to stop smoking.
Chicago has learned a couple of big lessons from its experiment in selling off major assets such as the Chicago Skyway and the parking meters.
Fringe British political leader Nick Griffin holds a variety of loathsome views.
When President Obama told Congress that health-care reform reflects the character of the United States, he was exactly right.
With Rod Blagojevich gone, but not forgotten, Illinois legislators voted recently to give citizens a tool to remove future scandal-scarred governors -- the recall. Earlier this month, the Illinois Senate voted to put on the ballot in November 2010 a constitutional amendment allowing for recall. If it passes, Illinois will adopt a mechanism for recalling governors seen as corrupt or incompetent.
Parents just don't understand. Like, say you're a once-promising young actress whose career is stalled and whose high-profile relationship recently ended. And then suddenly you have to consider obtaining a restraining order against your dad after he mouths off about wanting to take you "to an undisclosed location" to get you straight.
To those high schools kids who aren't listed 20 times for activities in the indexes of their high school yearbooks: Take heart.
The good news is that Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, is agreeing to a run-off election after massive voting fraud.
Which of these two women looks healthier to you? The picture on the left of the seemingly emaciated model Filippa Hamilton was digitally "slenderized" by Ralph Lauren, a deception Hamilton lambasted. She said it sent the wrong message to women.
When Mayor Daley says Chicago is in a real financial jam, he is not exaggerating.
When politicians inject themselves into health care, bad things can happen.
If ever there were a drug policy on which conservatives, libertarians, liberals and Cheech & Chong should be able to agree, it's the U.S. Justice Department's decision to ease up on prosecutions for the medical use of marijuana.
Springfield lawmakers' reaction to the investigative report in the Chicago Sun-Times detailing how they begged the Blagojevich administration for state jobs reminds us of a scene out of the 1942 classic movie, "Casablanca."
Another session of dreamland opened in Springfield last week.
After Rush Limbaugh got dropped last week from a group bidding for the St. Louis Rams, the conservative talk show host had a laundry list of folks to blame.
It was an idea right up Rod Blagojevich's alley when he was governor.
Democracy in Cook County got a big boost on Thursday. The state Senate joined the House in approving a bill that makes it easier to override a veto by the Cook County Board president, dropping it from an onerous four-fifths vote of the commissioners (14 of 17) to a more sensible three-fifths (11 of 17).
There are reports that the reality TV show "Jon & Kate Plus 8" could be ending soon.
If there's any lesson to be taken from our current economic crisis -- from the junk mortgages pushed onto consumers to Bernie Madoff scheming his way through billions of investors' hard-earned bucks -- it's this:
The mommy wars continue, with the latest front opening over the sticky question of whether it's OK to lie to your kids.
Voters could learn as early as today whether they'll get the reforms in state government they need, or the crumbs politicians are willing to give them.
Is a fare increase -- to a whopping $3 for an L ride -- the best the CTA can come up with?
Beginning in less than two weeks, some 1,000 convicted felons will be sprung early from Illinois prisons and returned to their old towns and neighborhoods.
Mayor Daley is right on this one. Chicago cannot -- must not -- let gang territories or neighborhood turf lines determine how it sets school boundaries.
For the most part, we like to laugh off Rush Limbaugh. Sure, he says some pretty wacky things about President Obama and his policies, and his pernicious hold on the Republican Party is sad.
Premature. There is no other way to describe a Nobel Peace Prize for President Obama.
Today, the Roman Catholic world gets a new saint. Pope Benedict XVI will canonize Father Damien of Molokai, who we'll gladly claim as an American saint, though he was from Belgium and performed his work in Hawaii well before it was a state.
House Speaker Mike Madigan, with his usual stern look, doesn't come across as a laugh-a-minute guy.
We live to fight another day. Better yet, we live to serve Chicago for many more years to come.
