A cool idea to aid fight for clean air
Global warming is happening, and more nations are facing up to their obligation to take on the problem. Canada, Japan, and the entire European Union have ratified the Kyoto climate treaty, and the EU is launching an emissions trading market -- modeled on the successful U.S. acid rain program -- to implement the accord. Most recently, Russia's President Vladimir Putin announced he would accelerate his nation's ratification of the Kyoto pact. That leaves the United States lagging behind, and other nations leading the way toward solving the problems of greenhouse gas pollution.
Out of Africa, a plea for world's help
The worst humanitarian crisis in the world is taking place in Sudan. It is man made. It is horrific. And it must end.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
No turning Sharon around on Gaza pullout
Israel's attorney general last week announced that he won't prosecute Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on bribery charges stemming from a real estate development project a party crony had tried to launch in Greece a few years back.
Let's hope Daley is serious this time about reform
In response to the latest contracting scandal, Mayor Daley has declared that ''[n]o one is going to cheat the city, and no one is going to steal from the city,'' and vowed to investigate ''any bit of corruption.'' Although this newfound focus on combatting corruption is welcome, you have to wonder why it took the mayor so long to realize that there are serious problems with Chicago's public contracting system.
Sun-Times will weather the circulation storm
My beloved Sun-Times has taken some body blows recently. The news that our former top bosses were apparently pirates came as a shock; knowing that the paper was solidly profitable, I assumed they were merely skinflints. Former publisher David Radler shut down the building's escalators to save money on electricity and maintenance. Who would have thought such a penny-pincher might possibly be pinching millions for his own pockets?
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Casino gambling surrounded by myths
Mayor Daley proposes adding a spanking new facility to the downtown area that could potentially provide an unprecedented spark to Chicago's tourism industry. This new toy could add an estimated $250 million annually to the city's coffers.
Gambling disproportionately exploits poor
Why would Mayor Daley want to corrupt this beautiful city with a casino -- an institution with admittedly measurable benefits (an estimated $250 million in city tax revenue annually) but also incalculable costs?
State budget requires compromise -- not criticism
When I took the oath of office for Senate president of the 93rd General Assembly, I chose a quote from the late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan, ''What the people want is very simple. They want an America as good as its promise.''
Thursday, June 17, 2004
High court deals supreme blow to noncustodial fathers
In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in the Dred Scott decision that Scott had no standing to bring the case, and that ''a black man has no rights a white man need respect.'' On Monday, in deciding Elk Grove Unified School Dist. vs. Newdow, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that noncustodial parent Michael Newdow has no standing, and that a noncustodial parent has no rights a court need respect. Since most of America's 14 million noncustodial parents are fathers, the court's decision represents an exceptionally bitter Father's Day gift.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Every child needs a safe place to go when classes end
Each day, when the final school bell rings, more than 14 million American children have nowhere to go. Startlingly, 42,000 of those children looking after themselves are kindergartners, and 4 million are in grades six to eight, according to Afterschool Alliance figures. The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice report that the gap between these children's school schedules and their parents' work schedules can amount to children going without adult supervision for an astounding 20 to 25 hours a week.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
The 'Great Communicator' was the FDR of the 1980s
The atmosphere was cheerful, almost festive, among those arriving early for Ronald Reagan's memorial service at the National Cathedral, just as it was on the lines of those waiting to view his flag-draped casket at the Reagan Library and the Capitol. Then, 40 minutes before the ceremony, when the achingly beautiful music began, people sat quietly and somberly, some with tears in their eyes. With his interment on the opposite coast, on a gentle hill overlooking the Pacific, the question now is: How will history judge his stewardship?
Monday, June 14, 2004
Budget must restrain spending, borrowing
While Illinois faces a deficit of $1.8 billion, Gov. Blagojevich has attempted to persuade the General Assembly to pass a budget that includes $750 million in new spending for health care, education and public safety without offering a realistic plan to pay for it. To browbeat lawmakers into signing off on his spendthrift proposal, the governor has cast those who believe state government must live within its means as enemies of children and the sick.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Assisting immigrants strengthens us all
The United States is experiencing the greatest influx of immigrants in its history. Yet despite the hundreds of pages of laws and policies governing which immigrants can come in and how, our country lacks coherent national policies for integrating them effectively into society. By leaving immigrants without direction, we are putting the security and domestic harmony of our nation at risk.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Entrepreneurship is key to prosperity in global economy
Albert Einstein once said that nothing happens until something moves. Today there is plenty happening in our global economy, and as young professionals the question remains: Are we amid the movement?
Friday, June 11, 2004
Sneaking politics into the pew? Phew!
Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, or so said that incredible hunk, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
War crimes must be met with swift and decisive justice
War has become too familiar. In recent years there have been armed conflicts in Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Liberia, the Central African Republic, East Timor and Iraq, to name just a few. Sometimes the fighting has been over border disputes. Often the wars are internal struggles with irregular forces and guerrilla tactics. The human horrors have been devastating. For example, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, about 3 million people have died in the last five years because of warfare and its consequences. And the danger of failed states becoming breeding grounds for terrorists is real and threatening.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Free trade makes U.S. a jobs magnet
Last Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 248,000 jobs in May, doubling the expectations of Wall Street. Manufacturing employment rose by 32,000, the sector's fourth straight monthly increase and the strongest gain in six years. Last month's impressive numbers follow employment gains of 346,000 in April and 353,000 in March, bringing net job growth since August to more than 1.4 million jobs. The much-hyped ''jobless recovery,'' it can now be said, is conclusively over.
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Knowing a Quranic verse could be a life-saver
After an Islamist rampage in the Saudi town of Khobar on May 29-30 that ended in the deaths of 22 people, survivors of that atrocity have recounted how the terrorists went to great lengths to ensure that they would kill only non-Muslims. Their actions raise a delicate but urgent issue: How might non-Muslims best protect themselves if caught in such a situation?
U.S. finds new ways to deprive Padilla of his rights
The Supreme Court is about to rule on whether former Chicagoan gang thug Jose Padilla, in military custody for the last two years as an ''enemy combatant,'' can continue to be held indefinitely just on the say-so of the executive branch.
Monday, June 7, 2004
Why Bush's war to remove Saddam was a 'no brainer'
As the interim Iraqi government takes office, it is worth looking back, with the help of two recently published books, at the arguments on whether the United States should have taken military action to remove Saddam Hussein.
Sunday, June 6, 2004
Chicagoans get chance to have their say on zoning map
What is it about Chicago that distinguishes it from so many other cities? I think it's our superior quality of life -- and that doesn't mean living in oversized houses, driving enormous cars and spending lots of money.
Saturday, June 5, 2004
Families need more affordable housing
More than 68 percent of Americans live in homes they own -- a record high figure. The real estate and housing industries -- including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- cite it to demonstrate their value to consumers. The past two administrations, as well as members of Congress, have pointed to the homeownership rate as evidence that the economy is recovering.
Friday, June 4, 2004
Tiananmen frames Chinese political life
Across the more than 100 acres of paved expanse, and among the heroic monuments of the Chinese revolution, myriad tourists and city residents saunter, some carrying lattes from the Starbucks a block away.
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Cleared U.S. suspect fit the terrorist profile
The U.S. government wrongly arrested Brandon Mayfield, 37, of Beaverton, Ore., on May 6. A fingerprint sent from Madrid apparently connected him to the March 11 bombings there that killed 191 people and injured 2,000. When the Spanish government two weeks later identified the fingerprint as that of an Algerian, the Justice Department requested that Mayfield be released, and he was.
Smoke-belching buses shouldn't get pass on clean air rules
I was caught in evening rush hour traffic on Lake Shore Drive. There was a Cubs night game at Wrigley, so it was a bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go nightmare. It was a beautiful, cool spring evening, so I opened the sunroof to enjoy the wonderful fresh breeze off the lake.
Monday, May 31, 2004
Limbaugh prosecutor subverts justice
It's been seven months since Florida prosecutor Barry Krischer opened his investigation into Rush Limbaugh's pain-pill addiction, and still no charges have been brought. It's not for lack of trying.
Courageous activists were products of their time
The old saw that deaths come in threes was exploded in a most unfortunate fashion with the loss in just the last week of five courageous men: four longtime Chicagoans and one whose name became inextricably linked with the city.
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Daughters need fathers who nurture and guide them
I spoke recently with a filmmaker who produced a documentary on the epidemic of father absence in America. Both he and I have spoken to many ''experts'' about this issue, but few can come close to the keen insights that he got from a very unlikely group: pimps.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Despite Bush speech, U.S. planning long stay in Iraq
In his speech at the Army War College, President Bush asserted repeatedly that Iraq would receive "full sovereignty" on June 30. But the president seems to have a peculiar definition of that concept. The United States and its coalition partners plan to give Iraqis nothing more than nominal sovereignty, and the ''handover of power'' is little more than an exercise in symbolism.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Remember, at the end of the day, it's only a movie
The upcoming release of the global warming disaster movie ''The Day After Tomorrow'' reminds me of the noted global warming alarmist Stephen Schneider. In a Discover magazine interview in 1989, he was explaining how climate scientists handle communicating with the public: ''To capture the public imagination, we have to offer up some scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements and little mention of any doubts one might have. Each of us has to decide the right balance between being effective, and being honest.''
