R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch
President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet today with the Joint Chiefs of Staff amid reports that he is close to a decision on new U.S. strategies in Afghanistan.
Not surprisingly for a president who has made conciliation the watchword of…
R.J. Matson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In the sub-zero cold of late November 1950, south of the Yalu River near the village of Kunu-ri in what now is North Korea, Pvt. 1st Class Charlie Rangel, though wounded by shrapnel, helped lead 40 of his fellow…
By Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith
I once held a position of public trust. I write today as a felon, having broken that trust, and I don’t want anyone to make the terrible mistakes I made.
I thought I could get away with it.…
For too many Illinois legislators, the state’s corruption crisis is not Job One. The state’s budget crisis is not Job One. Job One is making sure they hang onto their own jobs.
So they ended the regular legislative session in May by…
U.S. Sen. Roland Burris | AP photo
OK. That’s enough.
U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., is on his fourth version of the story about pay-to-play allegations surrounding now-former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
We detailed the first three versions in an editorial today. First: No…
UPDATE: 2:10 p.m. In a 2 p.m. press conference, Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich names Roland Burris to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.
Senate Democrats previously said they will not seat anyone named by the Illinois governor, who was arrested…
AP Photo by Seth Perlman, February 2003.
I MET ROD BLAGOJEVICH just once. It was March 9, 2007. Twenty-one months later, I don’t know what to think about what I saw and experienced that day.
The Democratic governor of Illinois and several senior…
On the other hand, there were financial vices. And if somebody in City Hall saw a chance to make a fast bundle or two, Daley wasn’t given to preaching. His advice amounted to: Don’t get caught.
— Mike Royko, about Chicago…
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich
Two years ago, as this page was debating the editorial endorsement for governor, and the page was leaning toward Rod Blagojevich, one writer told another writer, “You’re going to endorse someone who will be indicted before his…
Illinois voters tired of a state government that argues a lot and does little will have a chance to do something about it on Nov. 4. On the ballot will be a proposal to call a convention to reform the Illinois…
Seriously, isn’t responding to a subpoena required? First Harriet Miers and others in the Bush administration refuse to testify under subpoena from Congress, which was investigating in the firing of U.S. attorneys. Now Todd Palin, first dude of Alaska, is…
The federal bribery conviction of Antoin “Tony” Rezko on Wednesday left a single question on the minds of Illinois politicians: Who’s next?
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be climbing the investigative ladder, nailing defendants one by one, then offering lighter…
Illinois Auditor General William Holland has been poking his nose into Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s Office of Management and the Budget. What he found smells distinctly fishy.
Mr. Holland reported last week that the OMB had issued no-bid contracts, awarded contracts to…
In Chicago, federal prosecutors are prying the lid off the rotten practice of pay-to-play politics in Illinois. The stench just might change the way business is done in Springfield.
Put the emphasis on the word “might.”
A year ago the Illinois House,…
