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Tag: Long Reads
What Makes Jim Run?
By Ben Goldberger
Jim Oberweis earned a fortune in business, but in politics he hasn't fared so well—failing in runs for governor, the Senate, and Congress while burning through $7 million of his own money and one 35-year marriage. Now he's taking his second stab at Dennis Hastert's old congressional seat—even as he risks becoming a political punch line Read more
Collision Course
By Noah Isackson
In 2005, a young woman bent on self-destruction intentionally drove her car into the back of another. She lived. Three musicians on their lunch break died. This year, as her prison sentence comes to its end, the case remains a tragedy without closure or explanation. Read more
Playing the Fields
By Jeff Ruby
In an era when live major-league baseball has retreated to pleasure palaces packed with flashing videos, blaring music, and gut-busting food courts, has the old-fashioned game lost something? Across seven ballparks in seven days, one fan goes looking for an answer Read more
Witness at Haditha
By Bryan Smith
When a deadly roadside bomb ripped through a convoy of U.S. marines in Haditha, Iraq, the violent American response left 24 Iraqi civilians dead. In his first public comments on the incident, a marine sergeant from Chicago describes the terrible things he saw—and did—that day in November 2005. His account bolsters the government's case against his squad leader and friend—that the carnage was a massacre of innocents Read more
The Naturals
By Noah Isackson, Nora O’Donnell, and Jennifer Wehunt
Don’t hate them because they’re beautiful. These 20 singles—a top table-tennis player, a nightlife impresario, and a gallery owner among them—are smart and talented, too. Read more
Many Happy Returns
By Shane Tritsch
Whether helping a wage earner plot a savvy investment strategy or a wealthy entrepreneur preserve his riches, these local financial pros earn high marks by giving smart advice and putting their clients first Read more
American Gigolo
By Richard Babcock
Fifty years ago this April, a young man from Woodstock, Illinois, named Johnny Stompanato was stabbed to death in the bedroom of his lover, the movie goddess Lana Turner. Stompanato was a minor hoodlum and notorious Lothario, and news accounts eviscerated his character in the media frenzy after his death. Now a writer, also from Woodstock, follows a fading trail to find how a small-town Midwesterner landed at the heart of one of Hollywood's most enduring scandals. Read more
Trauma Queen
By Anne Kavanagh
Trouble keeps finding Betty Loren Maltese, the imprisoned former town president of Cicero. Read more
Without a Trace
By Bryan Smith
Last Labor Day, Steve Fossett—the investment wizard turned record-setting adventurer—took off in a plane from a remote Nevada airfield. He hasn't been seen since. Read more