How Big Business Has Driven Chicago Public School Reform

By Whet Moser

For generations, Chicago's private power brokers have tried to shape the school system according to the management principles of the day, whether it's the hierarchies of 19th-century industry or the disruption of 21st-finance. Read more

Illinois Supreme Court Unsurprisingly Kills Pension Reform Law, Tells State to Pay Up

By Whet Moser

Hopes for fixing the state's massive pension shortfall—and its current budget shortfall—were unceremoniously dashed today. It's a huge setback for reformers, but not a shocking one. Read more

What a Legendary Woman's-Rights Advocate Learned from Bicycling

By Whet Moser

Frances Willard helped give women the right to vote and was the first dean of women at Northwestern. But she didn't fully discover herself until she got on a bicycle. Read more

How White Housing Riots Shaped Chicago

By Whet Moser

Over two decades, the city was wracked by violence. The policies that fed attacks, and those that resulted from it, changed the landscape of Chicago—and Baltimore. Read more

The Field Museum Campaigns to Save the (Taxidermied) Hyenas

By Whet Moser

Four striped hyena specimens, preserved by the legendary taxidermist Carl Akeley, were exiled to a bland, bleak corner of the Reptile Hall for decades. If the museum's Indiegogo campaign goes well, they'll get a new home—and a new story. Read more

A Majority of Americans Really Do Support Gay Marriage

By Whet Moser

From 2002-2012, momentum for it was steadily building—but few could have predicted what would happen afterwards. Read more

For a Moment, Evanston Got Integration Right. Then Came Lunch.

By Whet Moser

The progressive suburb faced a battle over integration in the 1960s. Mary Barr, author of ‘Friends Disappear: The Battle for Racial Equality in Evanston,’ describes what happened. Read more

Was Brandon Marshall the Best Bears Receiver Ever? Meet Harlon Hill

By Whet Moser

For three years in the 1950s, the Monsters of the Midway had the most exciting receiver in football—big, fast, acrobatic Harlon Hill, a 15th-round draft pick out of tiny Florence State Teachers College in northern Alabama. Read more

If You've Filed a FOIA in Chicago, Thank Harold Washington

By Whet Moser

The late mayor's administration opened up city information in unprecedented ways. But it wasn't just good-government practices; it was also a political wedge issue. Read more

Chicago: Highly Segregated by Any Measure

By Whet Moser

By 1940, Chicago was more racially segregated than Richmond, Virginia—the capital of the Confederacy—and any other major Southern city. Read more

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