From our October 2004 issue: Native Chicagoan Michelle Obama married a skinny kid with a funny name. She’s keeping it real. Read more
The modest, low-slung Sun-Times Building, unloved by legions, is on death row—doomed, if all goes as planned, to be replaced by a Trump tower of affluence. But at least one person likes it just where it is. Read more
When Chicago was a rowdy city of speakeasies and brothels, gangsters and con men, Alice Clement—police star 3428—ruled as the first female detective. But then, oddly, most traces of her disappeared, until even the police department had all but forgotten. Read more
Things could not be better for Rod Blagojevich. He loves politics, and he has won every election he has entered (with help from his father-in-law, a clout-heavy alderman). The govenorship is his focus now, he insists, but this look at his personal history suggests he hopes for much, much more. Read more
When a woman from his past resurfaced, the columnist's 33-year career crashed; then a family tragedy hit home. Read more
Yes, he is popular and has done lots of good for the city. But Mayor Daley has plenty of shortcomings, too. If we were running for mayor, here is how we would challenge him. Read more
He has fought the Mob and helped impeach a President. But now Chicago attorney David Schippers is battling to prove a connection between Oklahoma City and the September 11th attacks. Is he the latest dupe in a grand, improbable conspiracy—or could he be on to something? Read more
For years, a rough-hewn man named Curt Thompson threatened and intimidated his neighbors in the small farming community of Toulon, Illinois. Read more
In Ayers's new memoir, Fugitive Days, he reconciles his militant past with his present identity: father of three, esteemed professor at UIC—and unabashed patron of the great bourgeois coffee chain, Starbucks Read more