Lynn Sweet biography

She writes a column and, as of last February, a blog for the paper. In August, Sweet launched video reports for the Sun-Times News Group, shooting the African travels of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

She is also a columnist for The Hill, a newspaper covering Congress.

Sweet has covered politics and government from Chicago's street brawls to the White House. In Spring, 2004, Sweet was named a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government.

In 2002, as the violence between Israelis and Palestinians was deepening, she was sent to the region to cover the conflict. In 1995, Sweet broke the story on the perks the Clinton White House offered major donors. In 1990, Sweet was one of the first journalists in the U.S. to analyze political ads for accuracy.

Before moving to Washington in 1993, Sweet was the political writer for the paper.

Sweet has a master's from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley after attending the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

She was born and raised in Chicago, graduating from Von Steuben High School.

She is often a guest on national and local Chicago public affairs television and radio shows. Sweet has been a regular contributor to Canadian Broadcast Corporation programs and WTTW's "Chicago Tonight."

Sweet is a former president of the Washington Press Club Foundation and is a member of the Gridiron Club.

She teaches a course on Washington policy, process, politics and the press at Medill's Washington program.