In 1963, a Black politician named Ben Lewis was shot to death in Chicago. Clues suggest the murder was a professional hit. Decades later, it remains no accident authorities never solved the crime.
Author Archives: Mick Dumke
Posted inNews & Politics
Chicago’s election signals break from the past — in wards and at City Hall
Change is in the air like never before.
Posted inBlogs
Rauner and Pritzker tout government transparency while blocking access to records
Will Illinois’s candidates for governor ever practice what they preach?
Posted inBlogs
Pro tip for mayoral hopefuls: Don’t govern by press release, do sweat the small stuff
Many Chicagoans never felt that Rahm Emanuel was their mayor.
Posted inNews & Politics
Protests and blaming the media—sound familiar? That was during the ’68 Democratic National Convention
Archived letters to former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley bring up familiar concerns about unrest, policing, political divisions, and “propaganda.”
Posted inNews & Politics
The trials of Anita Alvarez
Can Cook County’s state’s attorney convince voters she’s more than a lock-’em-up prosecutor from a bygone era?
Posted inBlogs
Like Governor Rauner, Speaker Madigan says he has the right to do public business in secret
Mike Madigan says the Freedom of Information Act doesn’t apply to him.
Posted inNews & Politics
The one-man battle to find out where Ventra came from
After suing the CTA, Jason Prechtel got the inside scoop on how Chicago ended up with Ventra.
Posted inBlogs
Governor Rauner reiterates that he plans to keep his meeting schedule private
The governor responds to the Reader‘s story about his fight to conceal his schedules from the public.
Posted inBlogs
Governor Rauner says he can hold as many secret meetings on public time as he wants
The governor’s office fights to keep his calendars and meeting schedules from the public.
Posted inBlogs
State budget showdown puts criminal justice reforms on hold
Bills to decriminalize pot and shrink the prison population are in purgatory while the governor and Democrats feud.
Posted inNews & Politics
Accused terrorists from Chicago were lured by extremists—and the U.S. government
Local terrorism cases—from a fake bomb outside Wrigley Field to a car bomb outside a downtown bar—reveal authorities using tactics bordering on entrapment.
Posted inNews & Politics
While ISIS recruits, our government watches
Is there an alternative to locking up a Chicago-area teenager who wanted to live under the Islamic State?
Posted inNews & Politics
Mohammed Hamzah Khan ISIS Islamic State terrorism
Is there an alternative to locking up a Chicago-area teenager who wanted to live under the Islamic State?
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best evidence Anita Alvarez might have a sense of humor
Making something like a pot joke on 4/20 Three years ago Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez described marijuana as a dangerous “gateway drug” while prosecuting thousands of cases involving the possession of dime bags. But as calls for reform grow louder—and she prepares for a potentially difficult reelection campaign next year—Alvarez has changed her […]