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May, 2013
Michael Tidmore and I recently met front of Daniel S. Wentworth Elementary School, a hulking brick building that sits on a residential block in Englewood. He wondered what’s going to happen to school buildings like this when they’re closed next year under Chicago Public Schools’ plan to shutter 61 facilities while consolidating students and staff.
Tidmore is a 50-year-old youth outreach worker...
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April, 2013
No other school district in the country has attempted to do what Chicago Public Schools is planning to do this fall: close more than one in 10 school buildings, the vast majority of them in African-American communities. "With CPS losing enrollment, officials insist that the closings are needed to 'right-size' the district, to save money and to provide more resources in schools that will stay...
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March, 2013
The debate over how to stop the bloodshed in Chicago headed south last week as Illinois lawmakers took up a bill that would put more people with guns behind bars--for longer. There is a logic behind HB 2265, which was introduced by state Rep. Michael Zalewski, a Democrat from west suburban Riverside. The argument: that felons, gang members and just about anyone convicted of carrying a loaded gun...
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March, 2013
About this time last year, Mick Dumke, a senior writer at the Chicago Reader, decided that he wasn’t going to bite his tongue any more. Dumke and I had privately been going back and forth about how to pry court records from the office of Dorothy Brown, the clerk of Cook County’s massive court system. We both wanted to probe what was happening within our local criminal justice system where, ...
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February, 2013
It’s been 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that anyone facing criminal charges has a right to an attorney even if they can’t afford one. The decision came out of a case called Gideon vs. Wainwright and was settled in 1963. During that era, the criminal courts looked a lot different than they do today. Courtrooms are flooded with drug, theft and gun cases. And that’s put enormous...
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December, 2012
Can you believe that 2012 is already coming to an end? Chuck Sudo, from Chicagoist, and I were recently guests on WCIU’s 26 N Halsted show, which is hosted by George Blaise, to reflect on the top stories of the year.
My top picks were: the Reporter investigation that found more kids have been killed in Chicago than in any other major American city, the
killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and...
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November, 2012
Are 17-year-olds adults, or not? The answer is murky in Illinois.
If they’re the victim of a crime, 17-year-olds are considered kids. The same goes if they break curfew, are charged with a misdemeanor, like marijuana possession, or try to buy cigarettes or vote. But when it comes t |
