Editorial: A better gaming bill
Illinois is closing in on a bill to expand casino gambling in a well-regulated way that could generate millions of dollars for cash-starved governments. For Chicago, which finally would get a casino of its own, that’s welcome news. On Wednesday, the state Senate passed a …
Editorial: Uneasy but necessary mix: girls and the Pill
No decision that features the words birth control, young girls and pregnancy is ever an easy one. But the Food and Drug Administration this week came pretty close to getting it right with new rules for the sale of the morning-after pill. The emergency contraception …
Editorial: Madigan’s bill is best plan for fixing pensions
Eight weeks ago, under the headline “Make it happen, Mike,” we urged House Speaker Michael Madigan to lead the state toward passage, finally, of a comprehensive pension cost-cutting bill. On Tuesday, Madigan delivered. He took ownership of the most important issue confronting this state. Madigan …
Editorial: Justice catches up with Crestwood water scheme
No one would expect their town to pump poisoned water into their homes just to save a few nickels. But that’s what happened in southwest suburban Crestwood for more than 20 years. Finally, justice is catching up. On Monday, a federal jury convicted the former …
Editorial: Meter savings welcome
By their nature, mayors like to cut ribbons on shiny new projects and keep their distance from inherited civic headaches. So give Rahm Emanuel credit for wrestling with the city’s disastrous parking meter mess, even though the improvements his legal team has extracted can’t fully …
Editorial: Mississippi River problems felt here
Chicago is used to thinking of itself as a city on a lake. But it’s also a city on the edge of the vast Mississippi River watershed, and it has a large stake in how well that watershed is managed. The recent flooding along the …
Editorial: Top school a potential closure casualty
In theory, Chopin Elementary, a sturdy red-brick school in Humboldt Park, can easily absorb just about every kid from Lafayette Elementary, another under-enrolled school a few blocks away. But at what price? Too hefty of one, in our view. Chopin may be yet another casualty …
Editorial: Make videotaping the law for interrogations
The Illinois Senate advanced the cause of justice Thursday by unanimously approving a bill that would allow videotaped police interrogations in all felony cases to be used in court. The bill doesn’t go far enough — video recording of interrogations in all serious crimes should …
Editorial: UNO can blame UNO
Juan Rangel, chief executive officer of the state’s largest charter school operator, is absolutely correct when he points out that hundreds of children will be affected if his latest charter school doesn’t open as scheduled in September because of funding violations. But Rangel’s outfit, the …
Editorial: Why we don’t give up on gun law fixes
A lawsuit filed this week on behalf of a slain Chicago Police officer cuts to the heart of the gun reforms most needed in America: universal background checks and a crackdown on “straw purchasers,” or people with clean records who buy firearms for people who …
Editorial: In Syria, U.S. must wait
An essential piece of the Syrian chemical weapons puzzle fell into place Thursday. The White House for the first time said the Syrian government has likely used chemical weapons against rebel forces, joining Israel, France and Great Britain in asserting evidence of the use of …
Editorial: Level sales tax playing field
Online retailing has made a mess of sales taxes in America. States get short-changed on revenue that is legally due, and brick-and-mortar stores suffer when they have to collect taxes on goods their online competitors are peddling tax-free. Capping a two-year effort by Sen. Dick …
Editorial: Why close my school?
The 9-year-old in the dashing red tie and navy suit could barely see over the podium at the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, but no one missed his message about his beloved school, which is on the chopping block: “Why are you closing Garvey …
Editorial: Kids, don’t take part in CPS boycott
If you are a junior in the Chicago Public Schools, you know where you belong on Wednesday: At school, taking a state-mandated test called the PSAE. Love standardized testing or hate it, love Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s school policies or hate them, all juniors belong in …
Editorial: Don’t let bombings slow immigration reform
One brother was 16 years old and the other just 8 when they came to America with their parents. Yet Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) thinks there must be some way our nation could have pegged Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as future terrorists, slammed shut the …
