One city, one homicide rate
EDITORIAL: Thirty people were murdered in Chicago in November, adding to Chicago’s regrettable reputation as a violent town. So we tread lightly in pointing out that there is good news hidden in the latest Chicago homicide numbers, reflecting in part the effectiveness of aggressive police strategies, even as homicide rates remain disturbingly high in specific neighborhoods.
Long way to go after pension deal
EDITORIAL: Few legislators took pleasure in Tuesday’s difficult but crucial vote to scale back pensions for teachers, state workers, university employees and legislators. Plus, the honest ones know the work has only just begun.
Last best chance for pension bill
EDITORIAL: Over the weekend and on Monday, a handful of poorly informed sideline critics jumped up at the last minute to argue against a bill in Springfield designed to end the state’s employee pension crisis: It doesn’t save enough money; it’s a sellout to union bosses; it’s a secret tax hike. Nonsense.
KEEP E-CIGARETTES AWAY FROM TEENS
EDITORIAL: Electronic cigarettes, those hip new cigarettes that blow a thick white vapor rather than smoke, are clearly less harmful than real cigarettes. But that doesn’t mean e-cigarettes are harmless.And until we know something different, that’s how we ought to treat them.
Dear Santa, our readers have your back
EDITORIAL: Small children do not know if they are rich or poor. That comes later. All they know is that Christmas carols are pretty and Christmas trees are beautiful and if they write a letter to Santa he might bring a present. And so they write the most charming letters, quite a few of which have made their way to the Sun-Times this year because we’re working as Santa’s helpers.
Don’t let politics kill a good pension deal
EDITORIAL: On this of all days — as Hanukkah, the triumphant against-all-odds story, gets underway — our faith in miracles has been restored. Now, if only we could be sure that petty politics — gubernatorial and otherwise — won’t get in the way.
Bernardin, a snowy night and real compassion
EDITORIAL: Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, a news reporter and a story of compassion on this Thanksiving day.
School turmoil not on the menu
EDITORIAL: Here’s something Chicagoans can be thankful for this year: The Chicago Public Schools is exactly one year removed from the start of a bruising and damaging months-long process that culminated in a May vote to close an unprecedented 50 schools for low enrollment. This year, as CPS approached its Dec. 1 deadline for announcing school “actions” (a euphemism for a school closure or another radical overhaul), the news is a mere ripple in the pond.
It’s getting harder to follow the money
EDITORIAL: SuperPACs — called “dark money” groups because they do not reveal their donors — spent more than $256 million in the 2012 federal elections, according to ProPublica, the investigative journalism outfit. In Illinois, about $800,000 in dark money was spent on state legislative races in 2012, according to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
RTA right to launch Ventra audit
EDITORIAL: The Ventra race is on. On Dec. 18, the RTA is expected to complete an audit of what its chairman calls the “systemic failure” of the CTA’s new Ventra fare payment system. Which will CTA riders get first: A fully functional Ventra system (no more double charges or malfunctioning card readers, thank you very much) or the audit results? We’re putting our money on the audit.
Follow the law on boot-camp sentencing
EDITORIAL: Public support for boot camps — an excellent alternative to prisons in concept — is undermined when judges send the wrong people there. And support for tougher mandatory minimum sentences, though a bad idea, grows stronger when judges exercise their powers of discretion poorly.
JFK and the promise of America
EDITORIAL: Your average American 10-year-old may know nothing about Harry Truman or Dwight Eisenhower or the Cuban Missile Crisis, but chances are he or she has heard of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was the magic president, part real and part myth, whom parents and teachers naturally talk to children about because it’s a way of telling them about the promise of America.
One child’s death is too many
EDITORIAL: There is no acceptable number when it comes to children that die after being abused and neglected. Yet Illinois suffered 111 child abuse and neglect death cases statewide in a 12-month period ending in mid-2013 — the most in 30 years. Even worse, some of those deaths involved families that had contact with the DCFS, according to recent series by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ based on an examination of 10 years of cases.
Bounce creeps from libraries, don’t censor Internet
EDITORIAL: Public libraries are criticized for allowing adults unfettered access to the Internet because some patrons will plop down in a chair and openly surf for pornography. At the moment, it’s a big issue in Orland Park. But it’s not about creeps, it’s about government censorship
Extreme weather catastrophes likely to get worse
EDITORIAL: As global warming negotiations bogged down in Europe this week, Sunday’s Midwest tornadoes and the Philippines typhoon two weeks ago reminded us of the huge stakes at risk. The images we saw Sunday and Monday of people salvaging items from leveled homes were a testament to the power of extreme weather
