Column

With classes ranging from theatre production and all sorts of fitness opportunities to casting a new interest in fishing or aiming to explore archery, there’s never time to be bored at the St. Charles Park Districts teen center.

No legislation spontaneously lands on the governor’s desk, which makes paying attention to even efforts doomed to initial failure an important part of understanding the governmental process and the political priorities of those we send to Springfield.

Marc Silverman: With the combine days away and free agency less than three weeks from commencing, here’s how I would map out my perfect offseason for the Bears in order of importance

Toby Moore writes about how some in the medical field over the centuries were at first ridiculed for their innovations but were proven right years later.

I try to stay away from predictions, especially in the political sphere, an expected outcome from a couple of decades of guessing wrong more than right. So I’m not saying Pritzker will consider my next idea … but maybe he should.

Any candidate who can run even a modest turnout operation ought to succeed, especially in races where voters can make multiple choices.

Mike Madigan knew for a very long time that the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI badly wanted to put his head on a spike.

Charlie Ellerbrock’s stories were “hang it on the refrigerator” material for scores of readers over the decades. He featured the accomplishments of athletes, teams, students, artists and entrepreneurs, among other community members.

Abraham Lincoln was a man of many achievements. He’s also the only president to hold a patent.

The party in power has to make these changes. Republicans can’t do it alone, nor does their public relations campaign have influence unless and until it crosses over into motivating Democratic voters to either pressure incumbents or withhold electoral support.

Well, if you’ve been reading this column for the many decades it’s been in print, you probably know that the Holinger family had a spring tradition started by my mother.

Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, filed House Bill 2396 four years ago today. Known as the “Full-Day Kindergarten” law, the bill passed the House 87-23 and the Senate 52-1.

If you're Ryan Poles, do you call Cleveland and offer the 10th overall pick and a second rounder next year for Myles Garrett? Marc Silverman explores the Bears offseason

'If the problems are fish in a barrel, the complaint contains an entire school of tuna.'

The latest report from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget projected Illinois is facing a $3.2 billion deficit in fiscal 2026.

'Any legislative attempt to regulate homeschooling will be met with swift and certain opposition'

Wise: A constituent recently asked me what local authorities are doing about the immigration issue our nation is dealing with. My reply was, “What are we to do?” I added that, in my opinion, this issue is best left to the state and federal authorities.

She was called “Brave Bessie” or “Queen Bess.” Decades after her death, aviators still remembered her name.

Columnist pays tribute to local musician who had Top 40 hit.

Taylor Leddin's column

St. Charles Park District's Sportsplex’s new Row Zone features eight rowing machines to get your cardio in, off a treadmill.

A look at headlines from Februaries passed.

When does the looking backward overpower the looking forward? Does it happen when some childhood prank is seared into memory and festers year after year?

I’m officially atoning for repeated criticism about the General Assembly being slow to take advantage of the May 2018 U.S. Supreme Court opinion removing the barrier to legalized sports betting nationwide.

Lawmakers heard the concerns and put the $50 million in the fiscal 2025 budget. Crisis averted, right?

Marc Silverman writes: I don’t believe there was a single Chicago Bears player who maximized his potential in 2024

Neville further said "consistency between the two laws is essential" for both marijuana users and police, thereby giving lawmakers a path and the motivation to follow.

Your mindset isn’t about what happens to you. It’s what you feed it.

To many Statehouse types, some of last week’s news out of Washington, D.C., felt eerily familiar.

High blood pressure places extra strain on your heart muscle and your arteries, drives cholesterol into your artery walls, and can disrupt the plaques that form on your artery wall, leading to a heart attack. 

'It’s not punishment for the individual who committed the crime. It’s to protect all of our kids and to ensure that the people who committed the crimes get the help that they need.'

It was televised by two networks and was not even close to a sellout, despite ticket prices as low as $6. It was thrown together in 26 days. And it had an unwieldy name. 

This past week was a reminder of those times and that awful place

St. Charles Park District's Norris Recreation Center offers something for everyone.

It can be difficult to stay positive

There is nothing like making a good decision and being reminded how good it was

More than two decades ago, a popular show called “The Bachelor” debuted on television.

Congressional Republicans have resisted federal legislation to outlaw partisan political maps. Illinois Democrats create deeply red districts and dilute the voting power of their own constituents.

Our loved ones, however, find our flaws frustrating, especially when we arrive late, forget to pick up the one thing they ask us to buy (tobacco sauce) or request five minutes on a tech problem that takes three hours.

Opinion|Vaughn: Kicking off 2025, Kishwaukee United Way teamed up with DeKalb High School for an electrifying gym rally designed to motivate students and staff to finish the academic school year on a high note.

A brutal cold snap with several inches of snow hit Springfield as we were finishing the work of the previous Legislature and starting the new one this month

Law firms certainly don’t go broke doing this business. Property tax lawyers go to the mat for private clients against Chicago City Hall and taxing bodies across the state.

Ben Johnson won the press conference but now he must win the draft room by demanding Ryan Poles fixes these issues on the Chicago Bears, Marc Silverman writes

In politics, desert has become a useful noun, while adjectives help tell the story.

Titled “2024 Illinois’ National Rankings,” the 70-page document compares our state to the rest of the country in 23 categories covering tax rates and revenues, government spending and employment trends.

The Illinois legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability recently released an eye-popping actuarial analysis of a union-backed pension reform plan.

It was supposed to be a fun-filled weekend in Chicago for deserving students from the Illinois School for the Deaf in Jacksonville. The whirlwind schedule included a visit to a museum, a basketball game, and a stay in a luxury hotel. Then it went horribly wrong. 

Sitting in a lake house made up of glass windows surrounded by tall, bare trees and flurries of snow, I felt like I was inside a snow globe

Where did January go? Here we are, the last weekend of the month. So much has happened already. With another week to go, it is scary to think what else could happen. And what else we could needlessly worry about

When the Manteno fire whistle sounded in the late afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 30, 1951, volunteer firefighter Paul Maisonneuve was donating a pint of blood at the Red Cross blood bank