I glanced at the calendar recently, and the date stared back at me. It was my brother Danny’s birthday.

Back in January, Phil Luciano, perhaps Illinois’ best newspaper columnist, hung up his fedora at the Peoria Journal-Star and left the newspaper business.

Should the government subsidize nostalgia?

Our society has developed quite a bit of consternation over folks who kneel on football fields.

Passover, Ramadan and Lent all came to an end during the past few weeks, and I’ve found myself thinking of the oddest thing: a cow.

Illinois politicians must think we are really a dumb bunch.

Not much has been written about America’s first responders retiring in unprecedented numbers all across America.

Defending the accused shouldn’t be a mark of shame.

The problem with inflation is that there is more than enough blame to go around.

The tears still flow.

During and since my time as an active-duty officer in the United States Army, I have devoted much time and energy to protecting military service members from financial predators.

Please allow me to take part in a little creative indulgence in saying that anyone familiar with the hit TV show “Seinfeld” certainly remembers the Soup Nazi and his famous line, “No soup for you!”

Mary DeVoto, the Mother McAuley High School teacher who was recently fired for using a racist slur as part of a history lesson, should be given a second chance.

Colleges should admit the most qualified applicant.

For the first time in more than 50 years, the Rooneys do not live on 104th and Campbell.

Carjackings have become the new rage among criminals, not only in the Chicago area but all across the nation.

I called the bank last week to inquire about a check I had written.

Everything is terrible. But, there’s still hope.

In the Chicago area, business leaders see the growth of a service economy driven by an expansion of tech firms and independent practitioners looking to capitalize on the demands of a 21st-century marketplace.

Ok, I’ll admit it. I have Santa Claus issues.

As the U.S. Supreme Court ponders whether to overturn Roe vs. Wade, all eyes are on Justice Amy Coney Barrett—and her religious beliefs.

The number-one reason innocent people go to prison is because of government misconduct.

I was digging around in a barn loft a while back collecting things that had been stored away for half a century.

There is no place more miserable to be on Thanksgiving Day than in a buffet line in a Las Vegas casino.

Always assume the gun is loaded.

Small Business Saturday was founded by American Express in 2010 to help bring more customers to local shops.

I’m not sure if I really understand forgiveness, but I can acknowledge its value.

When I was a little kid, my cousin, Jay Standring, was so famous that I thought a potato chip was named after him.

Every city council or school board has issues large and small that impact the lives of the people it serves.

Rich people own professional sports teams, and for some reason, politicians just can’t resist shoveling cash their way.

I’m not sure what I expected our country to look like in 2021, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be so fractured and bogged down in hate.

So, who is “James Doe?”

Willie Moore was a Black man who endured segregation and saw the school where he taught integrated after a long fight for racial equality.

As Americans fled Kabul and desperate Afghans sought to follow, Jerry and Brett Young stood in the yard of their rural Rochester, Ill., home recently and remembered their boy who never got to see his 26th birthday.

It came out of nowhere.

On a cold December night, Cook County Sheriff’s Office police responded to a frantic 911 call from a family whose son was behaving erratically and threatening to kill himself.

Over the past few days, I have had an opportunity to chat with several fellow veterans, service members, military family members and Gold Star families.

In the maelstrom of economic chaos generated by the COVID-19 virus, small-time landlords are struggling to stay afloat.

Sometimes hearts, rather than policies, need to be changed.

Under a well-intentioned, but really dumb, bill that passed both state houses on May 31 and was sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on June 29, pet shops can sell dogs and cats only if they are obtained from a pound or rescue group.

As demonstrators in Havana, Cuba, marched through the streets earlier this month waving U.S. flags, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan sat in his Kankakee home, watched the reports on television and remembered another controversy regarding the Stars and Stripes and Cuba.

It’s finally safe for children in Illinois to sell lemonade without fear of government overreach.

Nothing is more annoying in public policy than people who complain but don’t offer solutions.

Police officers are agents of state violence.

Imagine living in a place where police can detain children and lie to them to obtain confessions for crimes they did not commit.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot landed in a maelstrom of controversy last month when she said she only would allow “journalists of color” to interview her for pieces about her first two years in office.