4.15.19 Fire devastates Notre Dame Cathedral.
4.14.19 South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg formally enters the presidential race. (Rolling Stone)
4.12.19 Illinois Democrats take a first step toward instituting a graduated state income tax, as Governor Pritzker introduces a ballot measure to end the state’s constitutional prohibition.
4.11.19 Wikileaks’ Julian Assange is arrested in London, ending 7-years’ asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy. He faces extradition to the US.
4.11.19 What are the most common surnames in the fifty states? Ancestry knows.
4.9.19 The Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen resigns under pressure, as news breaks that President Trump has also axed Tex Alles, head of the Secret Service. Senator Charles Grassley objects to the turmoil, saying that pulling the rug out from under the people at Homeland Security could prevent the prez from achieving his immigration goals.
4.5.19 Tardigrades are fascinatingly indestructible. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.
4.4.19 NATO is 70.
4.4.19 Read Michael Massing on “the hidden ability of the humanities to create an economic bounty.”
4.3.19 The Grist 50! 2019 is out.
3.28.19 Angry over Jussie Smollett’s dropped charges, Mayor Emanuel and President Trump promise action. CNN
3.27.19 “Is there no decency in this man?” Rahm Emanuel asks after Kim Foxx’s office drops all charges against Jussie Smollett.
3.20.19 New Zealand’s prime minister urges that terrorist remain nameless and be denied the publicity he expects.
3.17.19 The Chicago Tribune endorses Lori Lightfoot for mayor.
3. 16.19 The white power movement works in the dark like a moth: gunmen inspired by similar attacks against non-whites elsewhere in the world slaughter Muslims gathered for worship at two New Zealand mosques.
3.13.19 Super-rich Americans bribe college officials to get their kids into top schools.
3.13.19 The parent company of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois announces profits of $4.1 billion, up 300 percent over the previous year. (Chicago Tribune)
3.7.19 “New Type of Killer Whale Found Swimming in Southern Ocean” (NPR)
2.28.19 Did Jerry Joyce deliberately ruin it for Bill Daley? The Tribune connects Daley’s loss to long-standing animosity between the once allied Joyce and Daley families.
2.27.19 Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle are the top vote-getters in the mayoral election, making it certain that Chicago’s next mayor will be a black woman.
2.26.19 Vote for Lori Lightfoot and deal a blow to the Chicago machine.
2.21.19 Jussie Smollett ‘Took Advantage Of The Pain And Anger Of Racism,’ Chicago police chief Eddie Johnson says.
2.19.19 I confess I enjoy reading The Hightower Low-Down, which my mother-in-law sends me.
2.14.19 The name of my website changes to American Inquiry.
2.6.19 Check out “Making Sense of 2018,” an interesting slide show by Steve Gadbois
2.5.19 Get out the clapometer: It’s the State of the Union.
2.4.19 JSTOR Daily offers some choice reading for Black History Month.
2.2.19 Virginia governor Ralph Northam vows to finish term, even as top Dems demand he step down over yearbook photo.
1.31.19 A Virginia legislator triggers a national outcry by introducing a measure to legalize full-term abortions.
1.18.19 General Motor is sued over claims of racial intimidation at a Toledo auto plant.
“Respect for government, respect for the Supreme Court, respect for the president, it’s all gone. Even respect for the Federal Reserve. . . how can you run a democracy when nobody believes in the leadership of the country?” Paul Volcker.
