U.S. senator Barack Obama insists he won’t seek higher office in 2008. But that has hardly squelched the buzz among Democratic faithful that he would be perfect atop the party ticket. As the race for the presidency heats up, our reporter parses the possibilities, including the one in which Obama makes history sooner than anyone—even he—expects.
How to get rich quick: First, gain part ownership of a 100-year-old trading floor. Next, offer stock to the public. Then, make sure its value goes up tenfold
When ex–Bulls star Scottie Pippen needed a new financial adviser, he turned to a smooth-talking investment guru named Bob Lunn, whose clientele included a cross section of Chicago’s elite. For a time the two made a terrific team, whether golfing, socializing, or talking almost daily about money. But then their relationship unraveled into a bitter dispute that has left Lunn bankrupt—and Pippen claiming in court he has lost millions of dollars.
Barbara Hermansen found happiness and fulfillment as a North Shore wife, mother, and lawyer—until she started taking a prescription drug for a neurological disorder. Then a trip to Las Vegas set off a crazed gambling addiction that almost brought her and her family down.
Over the past 15 years, Kenneth Griffin has quietly—even secretively—built one of the world’s largest and most successful hedge funds. Now he and his wife, owners of a $60-million Cézanne, are rising stars on the city’s culture and charity scenes.
When FBI agents showed up last spring to arrest the Chicago mob boss Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, there was a problem: he wasn’t there, and he hasn’t been seen since. But Lombardo is more than a vanishing act. He’s one of a vanishing breed—a last link to the Chicago Outfit’s blood-spattered heyday.
Native Chicagoan Michelle Obama married a skinny kid with a funny name. She’s keeping it real.
The modest, low-slung Sun-Times Building, unloved by legions, is on death row—doomed, if all goes as planned, to be replaced by a Trump tower of affluence. But at least one person likes it just where it is.
When Chicago was a rowdy city of speakeasies and brothels, gangsters and con men, Alice Clement—police star 3428—ruled as the first female detective. But then, oddly, most traces of her disappeared, until even the police department had all but forgotten.
Things could not be better for Rod Blagojevich. He loves politics, and he has won every election he has entered (with help from his father-in-law, a clout-heavy alderman). The govenorship is his focus now, he insists, but this look at his personal history suggests he hopes for much, much more.
