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Laura S. Washington biography
Laura S. Washington, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times , brings more than two decades of experience as a non-profit professional and multi-media journalist who …
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Romney shows he’s out of touch
If this were a Karaoke contest, it would already be over. In the latest twist to the wildly improbable 2012 presidential campaign, the front-runners were stumping to the sound of music. At a fund-raiser at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre, President Barack Obama, channeling his inner Al …Read More
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Demonizing foes won’t help Newt
In Newt Gingrich’s alternative universe of “radical socialism,” Bernardine Dohrn reigns atop a pedestal on Mt. Olympus. For weeks, the Republican presidential candidate has been stumping to “take back America.” He denounces President Barack Obama as a food stamp-loving socialist-commie-leftie-Saul Alinsky-acolyte. On the night of …Read More
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Still not ready to talk about race
So much conversation, but are we really talking? I mulled that question after I saw “Race,” a new production at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. It’s the latest play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet. After successful runs in New York and San Francisco, the Chicago …Read More
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First lady right to call it what it is
The angry black woman is fighting back. Last week, first lady Michelle Obama responded to a prevailing stereotype of the African-American woman as a militant creature who doesn’t know how good she has it and doesn’t deserve it anyway. It dates back to the shackles …
Council Wars may be back
The Chicago City Council has a new jobs program. That’s the plain and simple purpose of the scandalous and shameful shenanigans in Chicago’s ward remap fight. Every decade, the Council must draw new electoral and political districts based on new Census figures. The map must …
Romney can lose Iowa and still win
The run-up to Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses has been like trading baseball cards. In recent months, Republican presidential primary voters have swapped a Michele Bachmann for a Herman Cain for a Newt Gingrich for a Ron Paul for a Mitt Romney. In the end, will the …
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords resigning from Congress this week
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona says on her Facebook page that she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago.
Some toasts and takedowns of 2011
This year is going out with a bang. So why are we whimpering? The economy is peeking around the corner, yet our “representatives” in Washington are elevating inanity and infighting to new heights. America has become just one big reality show. A look back at …
Hillary as VP is best response to Gingrich nomination
How about a Clinton/Gingrich rematch? No one is better at getting Newt Gingrich’s nose out of joint than Hillary Clinton. If the former U.S. House Speaker continues his presidential surge, look for Secretary of State Clinton to sign on as Barack Obama’s new running mate. …
Jackson race is revving up
No need for caffeine in her pomegranate tea. Debbie Halvorson was already plenty pumped over her bid to knock off U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in the March 20 Democratic primary. We met recently at a downtown tea parlor as Halvorson laid out her strategy …
Here’s hoping Newt’s finally right
David Axelrod and Co. are playing the oblique angles. A crack billiards player knows how to take a shot at one target and make multiple scores. That’s the latest play in President Barack Obama’s re-election 2012 campaign. The Democratic National Committee is running ads aimed …
Drop retrial for Englewood Four
It’s time to give it up. Two weeks ago, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Paul Biebel Jr. threw out the convictions of the Englewood Four, teenagers who were convicted in 1994 of a heinous crime. In November 1994, the body of Nina Glover, 30, beaten …
Occupy: Ditch tents, get savvy
Michael Bloomberg has handed the Occupy movement a golden opportunity. Last Tuesday, New York City’s mayor issued a top-secret order in the wee hours. The NYPD was dispatched, swiftly and silently, to disassemble the dangerous disarray that had become Occupy New York’s headquarters in Zuccotti …
Innocent — or murderers?
‘What the hell is going on in Chicago?” queried an outraged Peter J. Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project. He called from New York, incredulous that Cook County prosecutors are fighting him on a 1994 murder case that convicted five teenagers for the vicious murder …
Obama’s nod puts Jackson Jr. ahead
Triple J is emerging from under a political boulder. He’s shovel-ready. Fox News Chicago reported last week that President Barack Obama has told U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. he will “absolutely” support him for re-election. That tidbit might be just enough to save Jackson’s gnarly …
Herman Cain really isn’t able
Is the Herminator here to stay? Or is Herman Cain just a flash in the pizza pan? In just a few weeks, Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, has vaulted to the top of the Republican lineup for the 2012 presidential campaign. He has …
County prez backs diverse judge slate
She ordered a bowl of vanilla ice cream swimming in chocolate sauce. But she has put the county on a serious diet. Since taking charge last December, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has slashed budgets, reduced taxes and swept out the corrupt dead weight. …
Bill Ayers rooting for the protesters
It a perilous time for the powerful. America’s own Arab Spring is pummeling the establishment. The Wall Street Occupiers and 99 Percenters are stepping and sleeping on urban streets to protest perceived corporate greed, corruption and arrogance. The protests, launched in downtown Manhattan by gaggles …
The allure of an Obama-Hillary ticket
Hillary to the rescue? That rumor-theory-speculation-spin-Hail Mary pass has been circulating around the political hustings for the last year. The Washington mouths are blabbering that Vice President Joe Biden will take a political bullet for his president and step off the 2012 presidential ticket. Hillary …
Teaching old values in this new age
He dragged a bunch of skeptically kvetching journalists kicking and screaming into the digital age. If that’s the summation of John Lavine’s Northwestern University deanship, it’s a marvelous legacy. Lavine recently announced he is stepping down after nearly seven years as dean at Medill. “It …
