Chicago Sun-Times

Maybe Toni should run for mayor

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:14:48 -0500

‘Become an early adopter,” the invitation urged. The modest blue mailer was inviting supporters to the launch of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s 2014 re-election campaign. The June 11 event at the Chicago Cultural Center is sure to draw a crowd. Preckwinkle is the most popular politician in Cook County, perhaps even in Illinois. As I read the card, it occurred to me: Some of these early adopters will secretly wish that Preckwinkle would “early adopt” for a very different campaign — a bid for Chicago mayor against Rahm Emanuel. I talk to many of Preckwinkle fans, who are …

Jackson Jr.’s ailment is real

Mon, 13 May 2013 02:15:58 -0500

Is he or isn’t he? That question swirls around the ongoing tragedy of former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Nearly a year ago, Jackson vanished from the halls of Congress and the streets of Chicago’s 1st Congressional District. Slowly and painfully the news leaked. First, he was suffering from exhaustion. Then, he was in treatment. Then, a diagnosis of “bipolar disorder.” Then, his resignation from Congress. Jackson now admits to misspending $750,000 in campaign funds on appliances, furniture, celebrity paraphernalia and furs. He is expected to be sentenced in federal court July 1. The bigger tragedy: Many people, including his …

S.C. congressional race has everything

Mon, 06 May 2013 02:16:03 -0500

When a congressional race quacks like a duck, it’s going to get attention. On Tuesday, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a Democratic businesswoman and sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, stands for election against the infamous, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford in a special election for the state’s First Congressional District seat. Busch, 58, is upstaging her younger brother. The hot show here is not being produced out of a Comedy Central studio. It’s out on the Carolina campaign trail, starring an Argentinian mistress, a wronged ex-wife, disgraced politician, porn peddler and a kooky, attention-hungry website. Four short years ago, Sanford, a …

We’ll never see another Harold

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:16:08 -0500

Monday, marks the 30th anniversary of the inauguration of Mayor Harold Washington. His election as the city’s first black mayor lodged him forever in the history books. This month has seen a raft of news articles, forums and celebrations commemorating the 1983 election and elevation of Washington to the 5th floor of City Hall. With them come lingering questions that have long dominated the city’s political milieu: Will there ever be another Harold? Will there ever be another black mayor? “Never,” I answer to the first. If only the second were so easy. Three decades hence, many who helped elect …

Different takes on race in baseball

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:13:54 -0500

I get a LOT of mail. One reason: The issues we share in these pages are always complex, and 500 words don’t do them justice. Race and sports are an especially potent mix, as reflected in the robust response to my column last week, “Why are there no blacks in baseball?” I had lamented the dwindling ranks of African-American players on my beloved Chicago Cubs and on other teams around the nation. Here are some reflections from readers: Ivar Vilcins of Chicago demonstrates the treachery of the 500 words: “Why are there so few white guys playing basketball, and so …

Where are all the black players in baseball?

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:15:30 -0500

I was looking. What I saw was even more depressing than watching the World Champion San Francisco Giants come from behind to knock off my beloved Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Thursday afternoon. Where are the black folks? I was looking high and low, after reading about the first meeting of a 17-member “diversity task force” launched by Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. The group gathered in Milwaukee last week to examine the whys and wherefores behind the dwindling ranks of black baseball players around the nation. “I don’t want to miss any opportunity here,” Selig told the New York …

Gay marriage foes reek of hypocrisy

Thu, 09 May 2013 06:13:09 -0500

Hypocrisy is in full bloom this spring. Some of Chicago’s leading black clergy are pushing African-American legislators to reject the same-sex marriage bill pending in the Illinois General Assembly. The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act would provide same-sex couples the same legal rights heterosexuals enjoy in marriage. The Illinois Senate approved the measure on Valentine’s Day. The House version needs 60 votes for passage. Given the groundswell of support for same-sex marriage, it is sure to pass, if not sooner, later. Gov. Pat Quinn has vowed to sign it. Now clout-heavy black ministers are turning the screws. These influentials …

Mayor sits pretty for re-election bid

Thu, 02 May 2013 06:06:45 -0500

The bullhorns blared at Daley Plaza last week, blowing forth with a fierce critique of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It was the battle cry of 2015. Wednesday’s protest of Emanuel’s Chicago Public Schools consolidation plan is the latest play by his disloyal opposition. They are plotting the groundwork for a challenge to Emanuel in the February 2015 mayoral election. In her typically fiery fashion, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis laid out the campaign platform. She noted that most of the 54 schools on the chopping block have predominantly African-American enrollments. “Let’s not pretend that when you close schools on …

Roland Martin isn’t leaving CNN quietly

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:11:16 -0500

‘New boss wants his own peeps.” That very Roland-esque tweet announced the CNN swan song of Roland Martin, the energizer bunny of American punditry. Last week, the battery fizzled as the CNN commentator announced the cable network had declined to renew his contract. Martin’s trademark ascot is wilting, his bunny hop is listing. The announcement ended a colorfully bombastic six-year run at the network, where Martin opined on politics, policy, popular culture, religion and just about everything else. As Martin’s social media sayonara suggests, there is a new sheriff in CNN Town. Under incoming President Jeff Zucker, talking heads are …

Calling all drones, calling all drones

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:12:00 -0500

‘Drones could back up the beat cops!” My husband spouted off the other day. Are you serious? “Of course,” came the snort from deep in his stuffed chair, surrounded by stacks of newspapers piled high. “It’s easy to see that the city and the police department may be ignoring a truly significant tool in their tool box.” I hate to give the darling hubby any slack. But he’s got a point. Chicago is in desperate straits. We can’t afford to dismiss any idea that may tackle the hideous gun violence that has been devastating our neighborhoods. So how about it? …

Applause-O-Meter rings for Dawn Clark Netsch

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:14:25 -0500

When I heard that Dawn Clark Netsch died last week, the applause-o-meter was ringing in her honor in my ears. The applause-o-meter is my highly reliable test of a politician’s popularity in the trenches. Back in February of 2009, I watched as the meter wildly careened at an Equality Illinois gala. Netsch was on stage, taking her star turn in the parade of politicians, a regular feature at the LGBT rights group’s annual fund-raiser. As 1,100 dinner guests looked on, “Dawn Clark Netsch, the grand dame of progressives, floated by in a billowy green and red gown, reprising Christmas,” I …

Near Northwest Side therapist is saving one child at a time

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 06:09:50 -0500

‘Every kid can’t be saved. If you find one who can, you do everything you can.” That is Tandeleya Hill’s mission statement. Hill is a clinical therapist at the Madden Shelter on Chicago’s Near Northwest Side. Lately, a lot of people are talking about the kids we did not save. Girls like 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, and the hundreds of other young people taken by rampant gun violence. Hill’s kids face other traumas. “Most of my girls have suffered from some form of sexual or physical abuse,” she says. Drugs and alcohol have tainted their tender lives. “It is amazing that …

Senate panel endorses Jewell for Interior chief

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:20:00 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Energy Committee on Thursday endorsed President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sally Jewell to be Interior secretary, moving her nomination to the Senate floor for an expected vote next month.

‘Peace is possible,’ Obama tells Israeli students

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:22:02 -0500

JERUSALEM — Insisting that “peace is possible,” President Barack Obama on Thursday prodded Israelis and Palestinians to return to long-stalled negotiations with few, if any, pre-conditions, softening his earlier demands that Israel stop building settlements in disputed territory. On his second day in the Middle East, he shuttled between Jerusalem and Ramallah, reaching out to the public as well as political leaders. He offered no new policies or plans for reopening peace talks but urged both sides to “think anew” about the intractable conflict and break out of the “formulas and habits that have blocked progress for so long.”

Correction

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 06:28:05 -0500

In her Feb. 3 column, and then again on WTTW-Channel 11’s “Chicago Tonight” on Feb. 22, Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington incorrectly identified Debbie Halvorson as the “sole” white person among the 16 candidates then running in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional seat from Illinois. Also on the ballot is Cliff Eagleton, an educator and small businessman, who is white. Laura Washington and the Sun-Times regret the error. …

US Senate panel approves assault weapons ban

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:44:00 -0500

A U.S. Senate committee approved an assault weapons ban Thursday but the proposal is likely to fail in the full Senate. The ban also stands little chance in the Republican-controlled Senate.

US budget deficit jumps in February by $204B

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:00:00 -0500

The U.S. federal budget deficit jumped in February from January, though it is still running well below last year’s pace. Higher taxes and an improving economy are expected to hold the deficit below $1 trillion for the first time since President Barack Obama took office.

6 months post-Benghazi, Obama taps new Libya envoy

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:52:00 -0500

President Barack Obama nominated Deborah K. Jones, a career diplomat who has served in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and the now-shuttered U.S. Embassy in Syria, as the new ambassador to Libya on Wednesday, filling a post that has been vacant since Chris Stevens was killed in the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack.