Whet Moser

Looking at ESL speakers, the far north and northwest sides of Chicago have a great deal of linguistic diversity, with Belmont Cragin having a high number of non-native speakers, and West Ridge a breadth of languages. The far south side, on the other hand, is notable for its lack of non-English speakers. Read more

This year's flu season is unusually intense, and literally off the charts—well, Google's Flu Indicator chart at least, which tracks what people are searching for and uses it to predict the severity of the flu season. Hopefully it will remain not very deadly, however. Read more

Illinois has the most restrictive pension laws in the nation, so almost anything the legislature does to try to cut benefits is almost certain to be challenged in the courts. Getting each other to agree on what's fiscally sensible and politically survivable is hard enough; agreeing on what's legally sound is no easier. Read more

The cell phone ban in Cook County courthouses, scheduled to go into effect next week, is meant to protect witnesses and others in court—but could it put victims of domestic violence at risk? Read more

Chicago's a pretty safe city to drive in, but it's got a drinking problem: a high percentage of fatal crashes involve intoxication. It's a problem in the North and the West, while far fewer fatal, intoxicated crashes occur in the South. Read more

One reason frequently given for the substantial drop in America's violent crime rate is lead abatement—a couple decades after it was removed from paint and gas, crime started downwards. But it's still out there, in houses and the soil of big cities, and the more we know about it, the lower the acceptable limits of lead get. Read more