Choice of top cop a good one for city
When it became clear a few months back that Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis was on his way out, we offered up a wish list for Chicago’s next top cop. Zero tolerance for police brutality ranked near the top. A onetime beat cop who knew …
Editorial: Release pictures of slain bin Laden
One picture can be worth more than a thousand conspiracy theories. For that reason alone the Obama administration should release the grisly photographs of the body of Osama bin Laden, who was slain Sunday in Pakistan during a 40-minute gun battle with Navy SEALs. It …
Editorial: bin Laden’s ‘evil is off this earth’
Charles Wolf’s wife, Katherine, was a classical pianist. He fell for her and her music and for all that is beautiful in this world. But then his Katherine, just 37, was taken from him, one of almost 2,800 men, women and children killed in the …
Editorial: No automatic rate hikes for utilities
With so many personal budgets under pressure these days, most people are looking for ways to trim their bills, not increase them. We suspect, then, that the idea of utility bills automatically going up every June 1 won’t be greeted with thunderous applause. Under a …
Editorial: School board should investigate Pesek
The carnival in Cicero and Berwyn continues. Too bad no one is having fun, and kids in these communities are stuck riding the equivalent of a broken down bumper car. The Chicago Sun-Times reported last month that the president of Morton High School District 201, …
Editorial: Hat’s off to royally fine style
It wasn’t the lace-accented dress that moved us. It wasn’t the sweet second kiss. It wasn’t the engraved wedding cake. It was the hats. A parade of fanciful, fantastic and formal hats atop the heads of Britain’s royalty and guests accented and defined the wedding …
Editorial: Online sales taxes should be U.S. law
Illinois is in the position of the comic-strip landlord. While Illinois rings the front doorbell trying to collect legally due sales taxes, online businesses flee out the back door to other states. Earlier this month, Gov. Quinn signed legislation that would require big out-of-state retailers …
Editorial: Reveal names of gun owners
Everyone agrees that guns should be kept out of the hands of dangerous people. But at the same time, many people who support widespread access to guns have worked to keep secret government records on the names of gun owners and names of people who …
Editorial: Change pensions for current state workers
Illinois is dead last. Again. A new report out this week says Illinois is in last place among states when it comes to putting away enough money for benefits promised to its employees in retirement. Illinois had just 51 percent of the $126 billion it …
Editorial: Because we don’t need a Burr Oak sequel
The only good thing to come out of the ghoulish grave-selling scheme uncovered two years ago at Burr Oak Cemetery was that it exposed just how little oversight the state’s cemeteries received. In an attempt to prevent another tragedy, the General Assembly passed the Cemetery …
Editorial: Protesters should think twice
Sometimes, someone needs to “defend the indefensible.” We’re thinking, for example, of an Illinois defense lawyer whom proper citizens called names we can’t print for representing a defendant in a death penalty case — a defendant who turned out to be innocent. We were reminded …
Editorial: New captain needs Deep Tunnel vision
Just as warmer weather is bringing rowing crews and other water enthusiasts back to the Chicago River, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board is preparing to interview about a dozen applicants for the job of executive director. We hope the board members look for a …
Rewrite the rules on judge’s recusal
Good lawyers know the law. Better lawyers know the judge. Great lawyers know whose campaign contributions put the judge on the bench. That’s the heart of the problem in any state, including Illinois, where judges are elected. How do judges raise money to run for …
Editorial: Gun-rights group’s Holocaust analogy appallingly offensive
This may rack up as one of the biggest stretches in logic of all times. As well as one of the most offensive. A Downstate gun-rights group this month compared an effort to publish the names of gun owners in Illinois with the tyrannical and …
Editorial: Legalize marijuana for certain illnesses
Reasonable people see a difference between using marijuana to treat the symptoms of a serious illness and passing out joints on a playground. Yet both acts, under current law, are criminal. State lawmakers can fix that by passing a pending bill, which in previous years …