Frustrated by what the two parties' presidential candidates have been offering on the campaign trail, a group of moderate politicians will be holding a a summit January 7 in Oklahoma to talk about building a consensus agenda.
Their ranks include U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia and former Senate colleague David Boren of Oklahoma, with special guest New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Be prepared for a Ross Perot-like move on billionaire Bloomberg's part, setting himself up as the voice of the middle, with his own money to spend to make his point with a bid for the White House.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Audobon Society is actively recruiting members beyond its middle-aged white male base.
It's nice that the 400,000 member nonprofit is finally realizing that being green should include red, brown, black and yellow.
And in a time when way too many kids sit at home playing video games, any effort to get families back outdoors and involved with nature is potentially good for Mother Nature and the publlc health.
The political challenges will be connecting the dots between urban and environmental issues.
In New York, if you don't pay your overdue book fees they can report you to a collection agency.
In Queens, the library has netted more than $11.4 million by doing so over the last decade.
More libraries should go after library scofflaws. Sure, checking out books from the library should be free, but there should be a serious penalty if you never bring them back.
If you didn't return a video to Blockbuster, they would charge you for it. So why do books get less respect?
Library resources are often scare. If a book is not on the shelf because it's somewhere in your house, that will prevent another person from using it.
The library should be for everyone. If a few scofflaws abuse it, they should have to pay.
Missing Des Plaines-area woman Anu Solanki is alive and has apparently fled the Chicago area with a man she had been in contact with for about a year. It costs more than $250,000 to search for her. After a year of agonizing over missing women like Nailah Franklin and Stacy Peterson, one would think women who choose to leave their spouses and families would consider the toll it might take on loved ones and the public.
Along with not being able to pay the mortgage, more and more Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments.
According to an Associated Press report, defaults and delinquencies are surging, with the largest increase among accounts 90 days or more past due. And when you get that far past due, interest rates can soar from that low introductory rate to loan shark like rates of 25 percent or more annual interest.
This should come as no big surprise as we are told to shop until we drop as the economy depends on us spending like there is no tomorrow instead of saving for a rainy - or snowy - day.
Two college students from Ohio told a judge they committed armed robberies so they could raise money for college tuition.
But he taught them a lesson by sentencing them to 20 years in the slammer.
The two young men, Andrew Butler and Christopher Avery, said they had to rob banks in order to pay for school. In one heist, they made off with $130,000. Butler was a student at the University of Toledo and Avery at the University of Cincinnati.
The cost of a college education is sky high, but that's no excuse for robbery. They could have taken out loans or worked to save up for school.
Now the only education they will get will be behind bars.
Here’s something to celebrate: The number of murders in Chicago is down again this year. In fact, we haven’t had numbers this low since 1966.
There were 409 homicides through November, a drop from last year’s 438. And by year’s end, overall crime is expected to drop for the 16th straight year. Every homicide is one too many, but it looks like the police are getting something right.
The state of New Jersey is testing all newborns for HIV to help stem transmission of the deadly disease. Mothers will be allowed to opt out of testing, so informed consent will remain intact. While Illinois tests all newborns and other states have testing policies, HIV rates suggest this policy should be extended nationwide. It would only help newborns get the care they may otherwise not receive and manage transmission rates — as long as mothers retain the right to say yea or nay to testing.
Gov. Blagojevich has called yet another special session to address the region's mass transit funding problems. Lawmakers should report Jan. 2, just 18 days before the CTA's latest doomsday, he said. Does anyone out there think a solution is in sight?
Taxpayers dodged a bullet Wednesday when Congress approved a plan to postpone the alternative minimum tax (ATM), which would have required the middle-class to pay thousands more in taxes. Are you as relieved as we are that President Bush has indicated he'll sign off on it?
Anyone dreaming of a white Christmas will certainly have their dreams come true if they're looking through the display windows of Macy's on State Street. Not one black person is displayed among the mannequins or dolls on State or Randolph. People of color in general are largely absent. As long as it's all fantasy, the window designer could have stretched a bit and conjured a world that includes a vast majority of the Chicago population.
William “The Fridge” Perry has been such a source of delight for Bears fans, during his playing days and after, we can only wish him the best of all things — not least the best of health. But as happy as we were to learn he's got two new front teeth — in fact, a whole mouthful of new choppers — in time for Christmas, we're going to miss that toothless smile of his.
In addition to emblemizing the Bears' great Super Bowl triumph, in which he scored that unlikely TD, Perry's unique grin became a Chicago landmark. Now that it's been renovated, will they straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa next? Attach a prosthetic arm to the Venus de Milo? Fill in the missing gaps at Stonehenge?
Better yet, will the Bears strive to sign friendly characters like him and big adieu to its gangsta and paternity suit culture?
The Nicaraguan authorities must release Eric Volz from prison.
The American citizen was sentenced to 30 years in jail for the 2006 murder of his ex-girlfriend. But at the time of the murder more than 10 witnesses saw him in Managua, located two hours from the crime scene. There also was no physical evidence linking him to the murder.
This week a Nicaraguan appeals court overturned Volz's conviction but they still haven't released him.
It's time the courts in Nicaragua let Eric go home.
Good news for Madison County, and for Illinois: for the first time in six years, the Downstate county has been dropped from the pro-business American Tort Reform Association's list of "judicial hellholes" — places its considers to be the worst legal venues for lawsuit defendants. Madison once topped the list three years running, and it was cited by President Bush as a reason for Congress to limit jury awards for medical malpractice. The court system there made several changes that helped it get delisted, including requiring mediation in medical malpractice cases, and seeking to cut "forum shopping" by giving attorneys one change of judge per class action. Whether the reputation was deserved or not, Madison is no doubt happy to shed it.
The AP over the weekend released an extensive analysis of Gov. Blagojevich's frequent use of the state airplane to fly between Chicago and Springfield. According to tax experts that the AP interviewed, many of his flights could be classified as personal trips and therefore could be a taxable fringe benefit. His tax bill could be as high as $60,000. And the state could be fined more than $40,000 for not reporting the travel.
The AP analysis of nearly 1,000 flights by the governor, his family and guests found personal travel that could be considered extra income of at least $225,000, based on the cost of hiring private planes. It found nearly 120 flights by the governor or family members that appear to have no business purpose. Another 150 flights were reimbursed but not at the IRS rate.
Maybe it's unlikely the IRS will follow up on the report. And maybe they'd buy the governor's contention that his official place of business is Chicago, even though most people might think that the state capital — it's in Springfield, governor — is the more plausible location for his HQ.
But the report sure highlights the governor's blind spot when it comes to his frequent flying. He just doesn't seem to see how his constant, expensive use of the plane, justified or not, undermines his claim to be a champion of the taxpayer.
Details of Tom Tunney's encounter with five teenagers who tried to rob him Sunday afternoon are scanty. But after the initial shock, the 44th ward alderman appears to have kept his cool in tracking them down and reporting on their whereabouts to a 911 dispatcher. After their capture, two of them were charged.
During the robbery, one of the teens flashed a weapon that "appeared to be a gun but could have been a replica," according to police. When they saw there was nothing in Tunney's wallet —prompting us to wonder what the heck kind of Chicago alderman he is — they gave it back and ran away — prompting us to wonder what the heck kind of muggers they were.
There were interesting sidelights to the story: Tunney is distantly related to the late heavyweight boxer Gene Tunney, famous for twice defeating Jack Dempsey in the 1920's. And Gene Tunney's son, John, was a California senator and representative from 1965 until 1977.
What does a beloved American legend have to do to get some rest? That's what Abe Lincoln must be thinking. No sooner does one historian, or sociologist, or psychologist, or theologist stop poking at him with a new theory about his personality or intelligence or religious belief or sexual orientation than another Lincolnian looks to cash in on the trend.
Now, in her book The Psychic Life of Abraham Lincoln, spiritualist Susan Martinez lauds the 16th president as "a pretty psychic guy." He —stop the presses — attended at least one seance called by his wife after the death of their son Willie. Whoooooooo!!
And you wonder why the man's face always looks so...drawn.
Stem cell research got a big boost recently when they were used to fix defects in women who had undergone breast cancer surgery. Stem cells have been controversial because obtaining them requires destroying human embryos. Will this change your view of the pursuit of stem cell research?
Calls for congressional probes of this issue or that issue have become far too routine, and way too political, but it's easy to support Sen. Dick Durbin's demand for a look at staffing levels and fatigue among air traffic controllers at O'Hare. A report from the Government Accountability Office earlier this month said O'Hare had the second-highest number of near collisions on its runways between 2001 and 2006. Controller fatigue is one potential reason That's just plain scary. There's enough to worry about when flying these days. We should be assured that we don't have to worry about overworked controllers guiding our planes.
In Brazil, a 15-year-old girl was placed in an all-male adult jail where she was raped and tortured for 26 days.
It is hard to believe that this could happen in this day and age.
What's worse is that those who should have protected her - the jail officials, the police, the judge and even the public defender- left her in this defenseless position.
Her jailers allegedly shaved her head to make her look more like a boy. Here's a horrible irony. The judge who sent this young woman to the male jail was a woman.
Thankfully, the girl, accused of petty theft, was released and is now in protective custody. But the judicial system is sadly broken in this South American nation and those who victimized this girl should be punished from the judge to the rapists.
This case should lead to much needed reform and greater defense of women's rights.
