Home visiting helps at-risk mothers be better parents. But the program itself was put at risk by the budget impasse, and remains in jeopardy despite the stopgap deal.
Author Archives: Steve Bogira
A primer on the shiny new Illinois budget
“Does this mean Rauner and Madigan are now friends?” and other key questions answered.
New Joe Maddon strategy comes out of left field
The Cubs’ manager orchestrates an extra-inning victory just as the not-time-to-panic stage was looming.
Fifty years after Dr. King’s march in Marquette Park, racial integration remains elusive in Chicago
The park no longer is a symbol of bigotry, but it isn’t a success story either.
IPRA’s new video archive does little to cut through the fog of Chicago police shootings
The surplus of footage made available by IPRA reveals more about the limitations of video than it does about the nature of police shootings.
The trials after exoneration
In Exoneree Diaries, journalist Alison Flowers documents the struggles of four murder convicts who were absolved and freed.
Rahm Emanuel’s plan for a healthy, segregated Chicago
A report by the mayor’s public health department offers 200 “actionable strategies” to diminish health inequities. Reducing segregation isn’t one of them.
Striving for a peaceful summer in a very violent year
With youth sports leagues and summer jobs programs, Englewood community groups will try to keep kids occupied and out of harm’s way.
State OKs money for colleges but not yet for programs that help young children
Home visiting programs send nurses and social workers to coach mothers in nurturing their newborns. They also save the state money down the line.
Here’s what’s missing from the Police Accountability Task Force report
Poverty and segregation underlie many of our policing problems, but don’t expect a task force to address them.
Two panels on Chicago police misconduct found the same problems 43 years apart
The findings of the Police Accountability Task Force are depressingly familiar.
Hopped up on fictions about crack, Clinton defends his 1994 crime bill
The former president relies on a super-predator stereotype of his own to justify his bill’s harsh sentences.
White Sox and Cubs are both 2-0 for first time since 1951
Martin Kennelly was mayor the last time both clubs won their first pair in the same season, 65 years ago.
Torture Commission can only help victims whose torture stemmed from Burge
Other convicts who may have been tortured into confessing are out of luck, an appellate panel rules.
Here’s the video that led IPRA to call for the firing of police officer Francisco Perez
A police board hearing begins Tuesday for the officer accused of shooting 16 times at the wrong car.