Roland Burris: No Regrets on Accepting Senate Seat from Blagojevich

After a nightmarish two years in Washington, former U.S. Senator Roland Burris is settling back into life in Illinois, trying to rebuild his reputation and retire an $800,000 debt from a legal battle to keep his Senate seat. Still, he told me he does not regret accepting the position from former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose retrial on corruption charges…

A Terrorist's Tale

FROM FEBRUARY 2002: Sixty years ago this June, a German submarine dropped four Nazi agents on a darkened Florida beach.Among them was 22-year-old Herbert Haupt, the son of a German American family living on Chicago’s North Side. Haupt was part of a terrorist team a band of saboteurs with plans to blow up American bridges and factories. When apprehended, Haupt claimed he was just a homesick young man caught up in the maelstrom of war. But a secret military tribunal convicted Haupt and sent him to the electric chair. This startling story from Chicago’s past offers an eerie foreshadowing of today’s issues.

Playing For Keeps

Five days a week, a group of widowers and retirees gather around three worn pool tables in a South Shore rec room to shoot some stick and razz one another. The men are old; their bodies are breaking down—but to Baby Ray and the rest, the place is one big, slow gulp from the fountain of youth.