Many have asked whether the campaign finance bill now sitting on Gov. Quinn's desk constitutes meaningful reform.

The unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent last week, the highest since 1983. Back then, the economy quickly recovered over the next year, with 8 percent growth. And by 1984, the economy was roaring.

Seven messages and counting on my voice mail from different San Francisco area reporters, all wanting to know the Muslim community's reaction to the heinous killings by Nidal Malik Hasan. All wanted to know what had driven a 39-year-old Muslim to go on a killing rampage, murdering 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, step on up and see the wonders of a magic elixir that will ease those aching bones and warm the aging heart.

Last week's news stories gave Chicago taxpayers a fright. In the middle of an economic downturn and a drop in housing prices, four out of five homeowners would see higher property taxes in their new bills. The highest increases, in West Garfield Park, would average more than 45 percent. Older residents might not be able to pay their tax bills.

The most idiotic thing being said about America's involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm's way.

The administration's biggest economic mistake so far was to badly underestimate last January how bad the employment situation would become by fall. As a result, it low-balled the stimulus -- settling for a plan that, while avoiding even worse job losses, didn't go nearly far enough.

It has come to this: Desperate bankers are appearing in churches to make the claim that Jesus would have had no problem with million-dollar bonuses and subprime mortgage-backed securities.

It is heartening that we finally have a president who honors those killed in the two wars that our last president lied us into.

Wow, Don Terry's column touched me and made me angry. Even with a recorded video, the police still found a way to ruin the life of an innocent teen, Eugene Bailey, and there is no telling how long this will affect him and his family. There are many times when I wonder if the police department has ever heard of the words "common sense"?

Sometimes a case is so open-and-shut that you don’t know if it should be open or closed.

This week, the first round of tour dates for Lilith Fair 2010 -- a revival of the late '90s women's music festival -- was announced, prompting those of us who were the target demo the first time to go, "Aw, cool." And then, "Wait, but is it?"

The first time I read the Onion report, "Obama's Declaration Of Swine Flu Emergency Prompts Pro-Swine-Flu Republican Response," I laughed (because it's darn funny), but then I cried -- because it's just not too far from the truth. Whatever Obama does, is, by GOP definition, bad. Which means satire like the Onion's cuts too close to the bone:

A new study, according to the New York Times, concludes that Hispanic "children fall behind their peers in mental development by the time they reach grade school, and the gap tends to widen as they get older. . . . The drop-off in the cognitive scores of Hispanic toddlers, especially those from Mexican backgrounds, was steeper than for other [low-income] groups and could not be explained by economic status alone. ... From 24 to 36 months, the Hispanic children fell about six months behind their white peers on measures like word comprehension, more complex speech and working with their mothers on simple tasks."

Sometimes a case is so open-and-shut that you don't know if it should be open or closed.

Thank you for the story about Kipling Elementary, a low- income Chicago public school that outranked many higher-income suburban schools, apparently by providing a well-rounded, challenging curriculum.

Is "bud" the new "boy"? As a black man -- even in a "post-racial America," where a black man now occupies the White House -- I still wonder.

The recently revived idea of creating a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers may reinforce the impression that President Obama and his allies in Congress are standing tall against those corporate fat cats who delight in denying lifesaving care to children and old ladies. But Obama and the insurers still see eye to eye on a central element of his health-care agenda: the requirement that every American obtain medical coverage.

It takes a leap of faith to build a skyscraper -- faith that the future will be brighter and that our economy will deliver the jobs to fill all those floors. That's why the 1920s skyscraper boom in Chicago ended with the "Black Tuesday" crash on Wall Street 80 years ago this week. We're not building many skyscrapers these days either.

You've seen those commercials in which an airline pilot, or surgeon or nuclear engineer is giving expert advice only to acknowledge eventually to this nonplussed listeners that while he is not actually a fill-in-the-blank, he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Do you ever get the feeling that we are getting Holiday Inn Express government?

Let's talk. Let's really talk about this problem of youth violence that is tearing us -- not just certain families and classrooms, but all of us -- apart.

I never thought I would agree with Dick Cheney, but President Obama is "dithering" about revving up the boots on the ground in Afghanistan. I must admit I voted for Obama because I believed that a fundamental change in our Middle East policy was imperative. I am disenchanted with him for "dithering" instead of acting swiftly and decisively to bring about an end to our presence in Afghanistan.

Parents just don't understand. Like, say you're a once-promising young actress whose career is stalled and whose high-profile relationship recently ended. And then suddenly you have to consider obtaining a restraining order against your dad after he mouths off about wanting to take you "to an undisclosed location" to get you straight.

When President Obama told Congress that health-care reform reflects the character of the United States, he was exactly right.

With Rod Blagojevich gone, but not forgotten, Illinois legislators voted recently to give citizens a tool to remove future scandal-scarred governors -- the recall. Earlier this month, the Illinois Senate voted to put on the ballot in November 2010 a constitutional amendment allowing for recall. If it passes, Illinois will adopt a mechanism for recalling governors seen as corrupt or incompetent.

Maria Shriver's new report, "A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," has received a full-dress media rollout. We are invited to examine the changes in women's lives over the past several decades and to deplore, as usual, the obstacles to full equality that women supposedly face. "A Woman's Nation," published in cooperation with the Center for American Progress, claims to be reckoning with the new era but argu- ably fails to grapple with the most profound challenges to women (and children and men).

A contradiction must be faced by those of us who don't especially like the propaganda name "neoconservative" but who wish that there was a useful term for someone who favors a robust American attitude toward totalitarian and aggressive states. This contradiction often takes the form of wanting to emphasize a threat without overstating it.

Six years ago, when I asked an epidemiologist about a report that a smoking ban in Helena, Mont., had cut heart attacks by 40 percent within six months, he thought the idea was so ridiculous that no one would take it seriously. He was wrong.

I read your editorial regarding early prisoner release. I think you have lost your collective editorial minds.

Over the past several months, Americans have taken part in an expansive debate over health insurance reform. And while we've heard views from across the political gamut, the undeniable fact remains that our health-care system is in the midst of a serious crisis. Millions of people are left uninsured, and many who are covered are forced to pay skyrocketing premiums for substandard care.

When an Illinois company recently won a five-year court battle — clearing its name after unfounded accusations about its business practices — the favorable ruling was the only positive part of the story.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Obama plans to sign soon, is named for two men who were murdered in 1998. Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten to death in Wyoming. Byrd, a black hitchhiker, was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Texas. Bigotry seemed to play a role in both crimes.

SYDNEY -- This wondrous city awoke last month to find that it was experiencing any metaphor you like, from "darkness at dawn" to "red dawn." A gigantic cloud of dust had blown in from the country's interior, shrouding the capital of New South Wales in a sinister mist of particles. A completely sane friend of mine said that he thought for a few moments that the North Koreans had finally succumbed to a death wish and decided to obliterate Down Under as a dress rehearsal. But the wind brought it, and the wind bore it away -- dumping some dust as far away as New Zealand -- and the experience would have been fairly easily forgotten if not for the nagging fact that no climatologist had come anywhere close to predicting what, in retrospect, had evidently been brewing for some time.

Bob Dove worked in the U.S. Senate for 35 years, has both a Ph.D. and a law degree, and now lectures on the world's greatest deliberative body both at George Washington University and on the occasional cruise ship.

The health insurance industry has finally revealed itself for what it is.

Of all the twists and turns the convergence of traditional, Internet and social media has taken, the latest stands a good chance of elevating the trifecta of journalism, marketing and blogging.

President Obama's selection for the Nobel Peace Prize caught many by surprise, but can he live up to it?

Jerks. You know who you are. But why do there seem to be more of them around this year? Or did we always have the Joe Wilsons and Alan Graysons and John Ensigns and Kanye Wests, and just not notice them as much?

Dead children have been walking the streets of Chicago for decades and hardly anyone has cared.

President Obama said Friday he would accept the Nobel Peace Prize "as an affirmation of American leadership" after receiving the award just nine months into his term. Here is a selection of comments about the Nobel committee's decision: