Walter Jacobson

The news in the news is moving so fast it’s difficult sometimes to keep up with it, and even more difficult to decide what to say about it. A good example of that is the story about a popular…

Now that both political conventions have come and gone, how about thinking back to those magical days of the Olympics on TV, the amazing athletes, their skills and sportsmanship and friendships in …

The night before the Democrats convened their presidential convention in Chicago, there was a civil rights Rainbow PUSH convention going on in honor of the Reverend Jesse Jackson of Chicago. An eve…

Just four days now until the Democrats begin their presidential nominating convention in Chicago. Many months after City Hall in Chicago has been agonizing over what may happen here next week, hopi…

Thanks, but no thanks, to Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and to the Olympic athletes in Paris who are causing me to watch a lot of television that is clarifying for me a trick of the television tra…

Oh, so wild are the politics of campaigning for president. If you’ve had enough of it by now, you might turn your attention to the US Supreme Court and some good news you may be missing. The court has declared it will not rule, or even consider, a request by the national gun lobby to overturn a gun control law passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Pritzker. It’s a good and tough law prohibiting the manufacture, advertising, and selling or buying a military style…

The shock and terror of an attempted assassination of Donald Trump and another weekend of gun violence in Chicago. I’m trying to find something good to think and feel about. How about the 20t…

In our windy, wonderful Chicago, the only thing more powerful than a politician is a newspaper. Specifically, the Chicago Tribune being read every day by hundreds of thousands of people. Which means that what the Tribune says matters. A lot. Three days ago, on page one of the Tribune’s opinion section, its columnist Laura Washington, one of the best Chicago newspaper and television commentators, flexed her considerable muscle on the subject of Chicago’s annual Pride Parade. Time to move it, she…

Summertime is trouble time and a good time to say “bravo” to a Chicago Alderman trying to prevent trouble. That’s Alderman Brian Hopkins of the 2nd Ward, which includes part of the downtown b…

Finally, finally, tonight, the presidential debate live on cable TV, CNN. If you have cable and plan to watch, what are you thinking? What are you hoping to see and to hear? Like millions of people…

The bad news about Justice Clarence Thomas of the US Supreme Court is getting worse with more revelations of Justice Thomas keeping a secret that he has received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from a billionaire political donor suspected of buying votes on issues that are, or soon may be, considered by the Court. The latest bad news is about Justice Thomas receiving from that political donor some round-trip private jet travel between various destinations in the US and once even…

For as long as I can remember, the Sunday morning newspapers for me have been an every Sunday must, because in addition to behind-the-scenes politics, there are all kinds of news. Like last Sunday,…

Heads up, everybody! Heads up! Kim Foxx, the State’s Attorney of Cook County, wants us to know she is instructing prosecutors in her office not to prosecute people who are driving cars that are sto…

Like so many people, I am glued to news about Donald Trump. But right now I’m thinking about a famous political person here in Illinois who is every bit as well-known as Trump because he was for so many years our Secretary of State. Of course, I’m thinking about Jesse White, whose name and no doubt his picture are soon to be, if they’re not already, prominently displayed in the downtown Chicago high rise that’s just been named by the General Assembly of Illinois, the Jesse White State of Illinoi…

It’s not a surprise, not at all a surprise, that the Chicago Bears are wasting no time at all to cash in on Caleb Williams, the recently-drafted college superstar quarterback Caleb Williams. The Bears owners and managers in Halas Hall appear to be charging the cost of hiring Caleb Williams to Bear fans, especially season ticket holders. Depending on seat locations at Soldier Field, the Bears are now pricing some tickets as much as 40% more than what they cost last season, without Caleb Williams.…

There’s big news being made by the Boy Scouts of America, changing their name from Boy Scouts of America to Scouting of America, a change halting a treasured tradition of more than 100 years calling that group of elite young men the Boy Scouts of America. I never made it to the Boy Scouts, but I was a Cub Scout and am now so interested in the name change I’ve Googled Boy Scouts of America and found many now-famous Americans who, when young men, did make it. Famous in sports like Michael Jordan a…

There are so many ups and downs in the news about the Chicago Bears. Good news about the Bears drafting a superstar college quarterback and a superstar college wide receiver. Very good news. But, f…

The NFL Draft being done, the football fuss is winding down, so let’s talk baseball. My thoughts are on the Cubs because I forever have been a Cubs fan. I’m a little guy, about 5’5” and…

In the wild world of professional sports, for many months now in Chicago, thousands, possibly millions, of eyes and ears have been waiting to know what will happen in the National Football League, …

I don’t know very much about the songs of Taylor Swift. But I’m learning a lot about her skill at making herself world-famous. My latest lesson is right now, right here in Chicago, a sh…