. By Ray Hanania . Meteorology, or the science of guessing the weather on television, has been an entertaining segment since humans began watching television. Often, the weather reports were the least frightening to handle, compared to the growing domination of crime news that has filled up the expanding TV news broadcasts. There’s so much…

. By Rich Miller . Gov. JB Pritzker proposed some changes to the state’s pension system during his budget/State of the State speech last month that will likely please the New York City-based bond rating agencies by giving them something they want, as well as his fellow Democrats by freeing up some money to spend…

. By Ray Hanania . I happened to be flipping through TV stations when I caught the hosts on ABC’s Good Morning America talking about two people who got into a fight on an airplane. There have actually been a lot of stories about passengers quarreling and fighting for a lot of reasons, but one…

. By Rich Miller . Two press conferences held after Gov. JB Pritzker’s recent budget address didn’t receive much news media attention. As the saying goes, coverage follows conflict, and the two pressers were far more subtle and polite in their criticisms of the governor’s plan than those held by Republicans, so they were mostly…

. By Rich Miller . “Everybody gets pinched, but you did it right; you told ’em nothin’ and they got nothin’” Jimmy Conway told a youthful Henry Hill in the classic gangster movie Goodfellas after the mob-connected teenager was arrested for selling stolen cigarettes, clammed up to the police and was then released by a…

. By Ray Hanania . If the ugly, disrespectful politics of Orland Park has shown us anything, it is that individual selfish politics is driving America’s future. And this is going to be an ugly year for politics in America. It all comes down to who is at the top of the political heap. Right…

. By Ray Hanania . I remember my dad buying a new car in the 1960s for about $1,400. It wasn’t a Mercedes, but just a normal car with the basic bells and whistles like air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, a good radio and a great interior. Dad’s income at the time was about…

. By Rich Miller . Way back in 1990, I was making $17,000 a year working for an online Statehouse news and information company. I was too broke for a vacation, so I helped pay for a modest trip by covering a strike at the Delta Pride catfish processing company in Indianola, Miss. for a…

. By Ray Hanania . A bipartisan panel of Democrat and Republicans members of the U.S. Senate held a public hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 31, in which they accused the owners of social media platforms for not doing enough to prevent cyberbullying of children. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee found common ground to identify cyberbullying…

. By Rich Miller . Republican Dennis Reboletti is trying something different in a state legislative race: Stake out a “moderate” position on abortion in a party which completely rejects that stance and in a race against a solidly pro-choice Democrat. Reboletti, the Addison Township Supervisor, has no GOP primary opposition, so he’s essentially free…