One of my favorite contemporary writers is this guy from Milwaukee named James Tynion IV. It’s a haughty name, except he writes horror comics. He writes other things, too, nothing that would suggest gravitas: Batman comics, Batman meets Teenage Mutan

CHICAGO -- As 40,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Chicago in less than two years, a Tribune analysis of crime data shows the impact of migrants has been mostly felt in nonviolent offenses, particularly driving-related and thefts, and few arrests fo

In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Middle East for meetings in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the West Bank. The central purpose of that trip was to hammer out a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel a

The first time I met her she was tiny and her dad was tall. I bumped into them as they were walking through Lincoln Park on their way, the father said, “to the zoo,” and the little girl smiled and said, “We go all the time.” This was almost 30 years

Recently, while cleaning out my basement, I came across a picture of myself from 1983. The photo was taken at my Reform Movement Jewish summer camp, located on several acres of bucolic rolling hills along a clear lake in southeastern Wisconsin. That

CHICAGO — Organizers of the annual Chicago Pride Parade and allied groups are calling on Mayor Brandon Johnson to rescind the city’s plan to downsize the event this June. The city last month cited “safety and logistical concerns” when it said this ye

CHICAGO — They are older women now, their faces flashing across the screen in “Copa 71,” a film that corrects a terrible wrong and celebrates these women and others when they were young athletes out to change the world. Especially potent in a time th

Over the years, we’ve all heard fellow Americans grousing about moving to Canada if an upcoming election doesn’t go their way. It’s not a bad idea, as Canada is known for friendly people and as a safe place to live and work. But leaving aside immigra

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Following the Confederacy’s 1861 attack on Fort Sumter, often viewed as the event that sparked the Civil War, then-President Abraham Lincoln had to decide how to retaliate against the Southern states. The Anaconda Plan would be th

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration will change how roughly $80 million in federal pandemic dollars get spent in the coming months to ensure the city doesn’t lose any money for not spending it by the 2026 deadline, officials said Monday.

CHICAGO — What does it mean to be one of the greatest of all time? It’s something we hear tossed around in sports discussions constantly. We each define it differently, some metrics carry more weight than others. It’s completely subjective, but we as

NEW YORK — “The Great Gatsby: A New Musical” still is what many people think of when they ponder a big Broadway night out: A familiar yet glamorous title from the Jazz Age; a star tenor like Jeremy Jordan; lush, string-heavy orchestrations; songs of

NEW YORK — Sufjan Stevens’ hipper-than-thou music defies easy categorization. It goes by chamber pop, folk pop, electronica and numerous other descriptions inadequate for its lushly orchestrated romanticism, as topped by lyrics at once esoteric and e

Decades of research show that on average, children who grow up with parents who are not married and living together have worse achievement and behavioral and well-being outcomes than children of two-parent homes. Despite this evidence, rates of nonma

In their effort to persuade politicians and the public that government support for a new domed stadium development on the city’s lakefront would be a sound investment, the Chicago Bears repeatedly tried to stress that taxpayers would not carry an ove

CHICAGO — Back in 2010, Eddie Izzard sold out the United Center in Chicago. The trailblazing British comedian told me at the time of a burning need to prove comics could fill arenas. I first wrote about Izzard in a solo show called “Dressed to Kill”

Across the country, most high school classrooms still resemble their 20th century counterparts despite massive changes in the workforce over the past 50 years. Today’s jobs require advanced skills and education or training, yet many graduates feel un

CHICAGO -- The list of rookie quarterback/wide receiver combinations that have taken the NFL by storm is pretty thin. In fact, it’s difficult to come up with many rookie pairings that have gone big in Year 1 beyond Andy Dalton and A.J. Green (Cincinn

CHICAGO — There’ll be more than one story to write about Sundance Institute x Chicago 2024, coming to town June 28-30. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and city tourism bureau Choose Chicago, Sundance Institute x Chicago

CHICAGO — In one of the most serious cases on the detention hearing call at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on a day earlier this month, a judge ordered a teen jailed pending trial after he was accused of shooting a woman in the neck during an a

CHICAGO — Northwestern University officials announced Monday that they have reached an agreement with students and faculty protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza, outlining a plan intended to allow demonstrations to continue while preventing the cha

CHICAGO — The typically busy stretch of south Western Avenue outside St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel was quiet Monday morning. Instead of tractor trailers hauling freight, the thoroughfare was lined with scores of police vehicles from cities and tow

CHICAGO — Heads down and attentively scanning the ground, a small group of schoolchildren walked through an expanse of grass dotted with yellow dandelions and toward the concrete steps leading to Lake Michigan. Andrew Scarpelli, a biologist, ambassad

CHICAGO — More than 200 police officers, relatives and members of the public stood in line Sunday outside Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn waiting for Chicago police Officer Luis Huesca’s visitation services to begin. Huesca, 30, was shot and fata

BOSTON — Chicago Cubs left-hander Jordan Wicks knows he must be smart early in the season. It doesn’t make the current situation any less frustrating for Wicks, who was put on the 15-day injured list Sunday with a left forearm strain. Wicks becomes t

Pedro Grifol had a good night of sleep Saturday, relatively speaking, after the Chicago White Sox’s walk-off win over the Tampa Bay Rays. “I love winning,” the Sox manager said Sunday morning. “I don’t sleep much anyways, but absolutely. This is what

BOSTON — Chicago Cubs third baseman Christopher Morel’s all-out effort to snag a popup down the left-field line at Fenway Park nearly ended in disaster. Morel’s pursuit of a shallow fly ball off the bat of Red Sox center fielder Jarren Duran in the b

CHICAGO — R. Kelly’s sex-crime conviction and 20-year sentence in Chicago’s federal court will stand, an appeals court ruled Friday in a blistering opinion. “For years, Robert Sylvester Kelly abused underage girls. By employing a complex scheme to ke

CHICAGO — R. Kelly’s sex-crime conviction and 20-year sentence in Chicago’s federal court will stand, an appeals court ruled Friday in a blistering opinion. “For years, Robert Sylvester Kelly abused underage girls. By employing a complex scheme to ke