Progress Illinois

On the night Barack Obama won election to the White House, I reminisced about selling him coming into the Hyde Park bookstore where I worked during high school.  Several days later, I learned that the fine bookseller in question -- 57th Street Books -- had become part of an ...

When Fred Pennix (right) was hired 15 years ago as a state child welfare investigator in
Chicago's Englewood neighborhood -- arguably one of the nation's most devastated communities
-- he thought the job would be tough. Turns out, he was
right.

Poverty there runs deep ...

Back in August, we wrote about the problems on Amtrak's Lincoln Corridor line, as highlighted by an excellent Wall Street Journal report on the precarious situation of rail transit nationwide. After years of Republican funding cuts, the Southern Illinois line -- which ...

It was only a matter of time before all the chatter about who plans to run for Rahm Emanuel's 5th Congressional District seat transitioned out of the backrooms and into the public sphere.  Today, Cook County Commissioner Forest Claypool, who was a potential top contender, ...