By Jonathan Eig
THE TIPPING POINT: This season the soft-spoken Chicago native has blossomed into one of the most dazzling basketball players on the planet. Here's how he did it Read more
Tag: Long Reads
By Carol Felsenthal
FROM JUNE 2001: Donald Rumsfeld mended an old family feud to join the Bush Administration as Secretary of Defense, quickly emerging as one of the most powerful figures in Washington. Still, this smart, aggressive, hugely ambitious Chicagoan (New Trier ’50) probably never dreamed that his career would end in the same office he had occupied 25 years ago. Maybe it won’t. Read more
By Bryan Smith
NOAH’S ARC: From a shoot-from-the-lip goofball who floundered on court and aggravated his teammates to a fiery star anchoring the Bulls and drawing covetous looks from another team, Joakim Noah has accomplished one of the most dramatic turnarounds in pro sports Read more
By Bryan Smith
MIGHTY MOUTH: The defense lawyer Sam Adam Jr. doesn’t merely argue cases—he performs, typically closing with an eruption of righteous indignation, and his clients (R. Kelly, for one) often walk free. Now Adam is set to strut and fret upon the brightly lit stage of former governor Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial—and he aims to bring down the house Read more
By Bryan Smith
THE LONG FALL: Christopher Kelly operated in the top circle of the Blagojevich administration, using his tough-guy style and disdain for rules to raise piles of money for the governor. Then the feds got on Kelly’s trail. Last September, he swallowed a deadly mixture of pills and poison. “Tell them they won,” he said with his dying breath Read more
By Jonathan Eig
Fresh information implicates a suspect other than Al Capone. Read more
By Josh Schollmeyer
Bob Rohrman is one of the area’s largest car dealers in the midst of an epic downturn for the auto industry. He just sued a plastic surgeon for allegedly wooing away his third ex-wife. But, hey, for this irrepressible TV pitchman, the tank is always half full. Read more
By Bryan Smith
The Cook County State's Attorney's Office provides at least two reporters a memo containing scurrilous and unsubstantiated claims about the conduct of the Northwestern University journalism professor and his students in an earlier case. Read more
By Bryan Smith
A personal odyssey from flailing rail-clutcher to competitive champ Read more
By Richard Babcock
He spent lavishly and hung out with the city's elite, including Al Capone. His murder in a passageway under Michigan Avenue outraged the city, until the truth emerged—that he was corrupt to his core. Read more