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Tag: Politics & City Life
Head of the Class
By Monica Ginsburg
Chicago’s eight “selective enrollment” public high schools are fielding some of the city’s top graduates, giving parents an attractive alternative to fleeing for the suburbs. But are these elite institutions draining the brains out of the neighborhoods? Read more
Somebody Give This Guy a Genius Grant
By David Zivan
Ken Dunn embodies an American ideal of intelligence, an extraordinary melding of farmer and philosopher. He just might be the smartest man in the city. And he grows magnificent tomatoes. Read more
The Dry Season
By Steve Rhodes
In recent years, Chicago has become a tough town in which to get a liquor license. Credit Mayor Daley's strict policies on booze—and enforcement by a stern and obscure bureaucrat. Read more
Heartbreak Hotel
By Charles Lane
Only a few years after J. W. Stevens opened his grand Michigan Avenue hotel, the Depression devastated his family, inducing a series of calamities that included suicide, bankruptcy, and criminal charges. But from the debacle of the Stevens Hotel (now Chicago Hilton and Towers) emerged a young man who today, at 86, sits on the U.S. Supreme Court Read more
Game Boy
By David Murray
Tom Chambers is a young graduate of Harvard who recently scrapped his job as an actuary to make a living playing online poker. But a new law threatens his livelihood. Can he and others like him hold—or must they fold? Read more
Breakthrough Medicine
By Dennis Rodkin
24 techniques and treatments that are reshaping the war on disease—and the doctors and scientists spearheading those innovations Read more
Lessons from Dad
By David Bernstein
The son of a prominent First Amendment scholar is now fighting his own press-rights battle against the City of Chicago Read more
The Shootout
By James L. Meriner
A former U. of C. colleague has sued Steven D. Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics, for defamation in a case growing out of research on gun-control laws Read more
Rod v. Judy: The Staff Smackdown
By Jeff Fleischer
The Illinois governor’s race is moving into full swing. Here’s a look at the people who are advising, organizing, and speaking for the candidates. Read more