LET THEM EAT CARPACCIO: On the back of Mia Francesca, the modest Italian restaurant in Lake View, Harris has built a dining empire now on the brink of expanding to both coasts. Read more
As Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategist in 2008, David Axelrod helped craft a winning message of hope and change. Now he’s back for what he says will be his final political campaign. His game plan for 2012 could determine whether Obama gets to finish what he started—or sees it all slip away Read more
BOUND FOR GLORY: An oral history of how Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, and the rest of the 1991 NBA champs learned to play together and started the greatest pro sports dynasty the town has ever seen Read more
THE TIPPING POINT: This season the soft-spoken Chicago native has blossomed into one of the most dazzling basketball players on the planet. Here's how he did it Read more
FROM JUNE 2001: Donald Rumsfeld mended an old family feud to join the Bush Administration as Secretary of Defense, quickly emerging as one of the most powerful figures in Washington. Still, this smart, aggressive, hugely ambitious Chicagoan (New Trier ’50) probably never dreamed that his career would end in the same office he had occupied 25 years ago. Maybe it won’t. Read more
NOAH’S ARC: From a shoot-from-the-lip goofball who floundered on court and aggravated his teammates to a fiery star anchoring the Bulls and drawing covetous looks from another team, Joakim Noah has accomplished one of the most dramatic turnarounds in pro sports Read more
MIGHTY MOUTH: The defense lawyer Sam Adam Jr. doesn’t merely argue cases—he performs, typically closing with an eruption of righteous indignation, and his clients (R. Kelly, for one) often walk free. Now Adam is set to strut and fret upon the brightly lit stage of former governor Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial—and he aims to bring down the house Read more
THE LONG FALL: Christopher Kelly operated in the top circle of the Blagojevich administration, using his tough-guy style and disdain for rules to raise piles of money for the governor. Then the feds got on Kelly’s trail. Last September, he swallowed a deadly mixture of pills and poison. “Tell them they won,” he said with his dying breath Read more
Bob Rohrman is one of the area’s largest car dealers in the midst of an epic downturn for the auto industry. He just sued a plastic surgeon for allegedly wooing away his third ex-wife. But, hey, for this irrepressible TV pitchman, the tank is always half full. Read more