Jim Slusher

2 weeks ago | dailyherald.com | Jim Slusher

Jim Slusher I know you think you’ve seen these pictures before. But you haven’t. Not really. Yes, they bear striking similarities to each other. Hundreds of flat-topped caps in blue or red or black or crimson or green or whatever the color that defines a particular school. Huge smiles on bright young faces in groups of two and three and more. A young man or young woman speaking from behind a podium. Caps and tassels frozen against the sky like flocks of spring birds.

3 weeks ago | dailyherald.com | Jim Slusher

Jim Slusher The Daily Herald’s front page from Oct. 6, 1979. Some statisticians claim that each of us is no more than six degrees of separation from any other person on the planet. With that as a rough measure, Chicagoans were cheered to learn last week that their distance from probably the best-known religious leader in the world was at least a step or two closer than that of almost everyone else.

4 weeks ago | dailyherald.com | Jim Slusher

Jim Slusher A posting on X this week from @DuPageCountyGOP wails, in large white type over a bright-red background: “In the last 30 days, 24 Downers Grove businesses have been robbed. This should be the lead story in every suburban paper. Why isn’t it?” In one sense that is a very easy question to answer.

1 month ago | dailyherald.com | Jim Slusher

Jim Slusher It remains to be seen whether a new U.S. Justice Department policy on journalists’ privacy rights will be a simple impediment to reporting sensitive stories about the government or a chilling sign of the Trump administration’s intent to use threats and punishment to deter stories it doesn’t like. But it’s an issue worth watching.

1 month ago | dailyherald.com | Jim Slusher

Jim Slusher When there’s a sudden lull in the cocktail party conversation in the Chicago area and no particular appetite for talking politics, a handful of topics invariably can be pressed into service to revive the energy. One of the most reliable is the traffic. It’s not so much that people love to complain about how hard it is to get to concerts, plays, sports events and all the other attractions of the city and suburbs. It’s more that you sometimes just have to vent. To vent the frustration.