Two recent pieces cast light on our inability to deal with the overlap between immigration and criminality, an extension of our bewildering, confused approach to immigration. But there might be hope yet.
DARK VICTORY: Three years ago, Baskis, then a 22-year-old U.S. Army infantryman, was permanently blinded by a bomb while serving in Iraq. Since then, his life has been a series of challenges, many of them of his own making—including a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak.
London, ringed with fire; a Nazi terrorist in Chicago; America’s secret war in Africa; when fairyland was the most sinister place people could imagine; and two dispatches from Sigrid Schultz, the Tribune’s longtime Berlin correspondent.
When Michael Jordan was a player, he repped as hard as he could for the players union. Now he’s on the other side, and just as tough. Is he a hypocrite? Or just a rational economic actor?
The sex-abuse scandal at Penn State has underlined the university’s dependence on college football, both economically and emotionally. Should it end the football program? Seventy years ago, the University of Chicago did, and it succeeded against the presumed odds.
Speeding cameras, cell-phone tickets, decriminalization, and water fees: the latest front in the city’s scramble for revenue.
Your mother was right: don’t go play in the street. Cars aren’t that much safer, either. Clubs, offices, bars, and car washes, on the other hand, are quite safe (in terms of murders, at least).
“I’m going to kill that fucking dog.” So said President Obama’s then-Chief-of-Staff, Rahm Emanuel—according to White House insider Jonathan Alter, the former Chicagoan and Newsweek correspondent. Rahm, it seems, was not exactly besotted by Bo, the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog. I remembered the quote while reading about Emanuel’s plan…
TIF reform, speeding cameras, tax breaks, pension reform, Big Bellies, the money-purchase option, Sears, and more: it’s heavy legislative season.
No matter what happens with the Cain accusations, he’s not going to win the election: he’s doomed because of his political ideas before his private actions. It’s a much more interesting story about power than it is about politics.
