By Rich Miller I interviewed Gov. JB Pritzker a few days before his Democratic Party was stunned by losses and near-losses in Virginia and New Jersey last week. Now, I am not one of those folks who automatically believe that candidates should plan for the next election based on the most recent election results. I…

By Ray Hanania When I was young, my family would gather together on Sunday nights to watch TV. One of our favorite programs was Bonanza, a series about a father and his three sons living out in a wild, wild Western frontier town near Lake Tahoe, Nev. in the late 19th century. It was a…

By Thomas Ryan The days of scrambling to secure toilet paper are over. But the pandemic is continuing to wreak havoc on supply chains. Pet food is in short supply. Restaurants are warning customers that their favorite meals may not be on the menu. Then there’s the shortage of semiconductor chips, which has raised the…

By Rich Miller The current topsy-turvy political landscape was on full display in the Illinois House and the Senate last week, as the chamber debated and passed a bill to slightly narrow the scope of the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act. A bedrock Republican Party principle over the years has been to help…

By Ray Hanania Chicago politics is a politics of race and ethnicity. It always has been. It’s one reason why in Illinois, race means more than good ideas. Every 10 years, based on a flawed U.S. Census that excludes some races while exaggerating others, states redraw congressional district boundaries. Illinois will lose one seat, reducing…

By Kristen Osenga Owners of the Apple Watch might be walking around with “stolen goods” strapped to their wrist. In a complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission this summer, medical device firm Masimo Corporation accuses Apple of stealing patented technology for measuring blood oxygen levels and incorporating that tech into the popular smartwatch.…

By Rich Miller It has been a foregone conclusion since the official U.S. Census numbers were released in August that the first state legislative redistricting plan passed back in May would be ruled unconstitutional. The inevitable happened last week when a federal court tossed out the General Assembly’s spring plan. The official population data showed…

By Quill Robinson President Joe Biden has pledged to cut America’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. He intends to meet this ambitious target through a wave of new federal spending and government programs. Yet, our best hope for reducing carbon emissions isn’t new government spending. It’s a technological sea-change–one that can only come…

By Ray Hanania Some people define those in the “political center” as hopelessly optimistic because having common sense has no meaning in today’s world. I call them Reagan Democrats, people who embrace the best of Democrats and Republicans advocating a common-sense middle ground. When you are in the middle, though, you are attacked and vilified…

By Rich Miller Catholic priest and Chicago community activist Michael Pfleger has now twice called on Gov. JB Pritzker to declare a “state of emergency” over his city’s notorious gun violence problems. The first time was this past July, when Fr. Pfleger demanded that Pritzker issue a similar emergency declaration to the one announced by…