Pat Gauen
Illinois medicine hard to take but inevitable
In the worst of my encounters with Doc Marshall, I ran out the back door and was almost out to the big lilac bush when he knocked on the front door. That was Dr. Lloyd Marshall, who made something known as "house calls." (I will explain that term upon request to anyone born after about 1960.)
May 24, 2012 | 12:00 am
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Illinois pension amendment is less than it looks
The amendment doesn't address the $80 billion backlog the state already faces.
May 10, 2012 | 12:00 am
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Illinois school cuts would create big pressure to raise property taxes
An especially enjoyable part of visiting my best friend's family farm after a hard day in the fourth grade was the ride out on a school bus. It was a treat for this "town kid," who usually walked home in our small Indiana village.
May 03, 2012 | 12:05 am
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East St. Louis ignores national ridicule at its peril
East St. Louis is emblematic of urban problems that have resisted a half century of efforts by leaders of both parties.
Apr 26, 2012 | 12:05 am
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Strip clubs take turn on Illinois wheel of vice taxes
It seemed like a good idea to editors here back in 1986 to unleash three reporters in the tiny Metro East town of Brooklyn to profile a community whose principal business product was a graphic sexual tease, or sometimes more.
Mar 29, 2012 | 12:05 am
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Blagojevich deserved prison, but that much? Really?
I glanced up at a TV screen in the newsroom last week to see live video from helicopters tracking a black SUV. It was vaguely reminiscent of coverage of California's 1994 O.J. Simpson pursuit.
Mar 22, 2012 | 12:05 am
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Jokes about MidAmerica Airport don't mean the place is a joke
The problems with MidAmerica Airport are no laughing matter. Take it from me.
Mar 08, 2012 | 12:05 am
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East St. Louis election will focus on East St. Louis elections
The vote totals from East St. Louis were wrong, and the next morning's explanation from the East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners seemed a little improbable: the calculator broke.
Mar 01, 2012 | 12:05 am
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Budget woes end Illinois' 14-year experiment with super-max prison
I first went to prison in the early 1970s — as a reporter, not an inmate — fascinated with the chance to compare portrayals in movies to the stone-and-steel reality.
Feb 23, 2012 | 12:05 am
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Handgun proposal means Chicago mayor won't run for governor
Rahm Emanuel does not plan to run for governor of Illinois. Not in 2014. Not ever.
Feb 16, 2012 | 12:05 am
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Money cloud hangs low over governor's assessment of Illinois
Pat Quinn acknowledged economic problems in a general way on Wednesday.
Feb 02, 2012 | 12:05 am
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Need a congressman? Collinsville's in luck
Collinsville will have three congressmen, while St. Louis will have just one.
Jan 26, 2012 | 12:00 am
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Lurking ship disaster wasn't the one from the movie
A bloody finger injury and a brief loss of power were weathered with grace by the intrepid author and his stoic wife.
Jan 12, 2012 | 12:05 am
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Was Madison County judge controversy too blatant to be evil?
In the classic movie thriller "Basic Instinct," the boyfriend of actress Sharon Stone's novelist character is slain in exactly the way she previously described in a book. When accused of the killing, she argues that it wouldn't make sense to have incriminated herself by doing something so obvious.
Dec 22, 2011 | 12:00 am
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'Hauling the mail' isn't what it used to be
My, how idioms can change.
Dec 15, 2011 | 12:05 am
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Will Illinois resort to 'If you can't stop 'em, tax 'em' again?
Two ways the state could make money would cause an uproar: prostitution and legalizing marijuana.
Dec 01, 2011 | 12:05 am
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Lessons from a protest circus in the past
I groused when I heard one recent afternoon that Occupy St. Louis protesters were gathered near the Missouri end of the Martin Luther King Bridge. I wished they would just move on and occupy somebody else's route home.
Nov 24, 2011 | 12:00 am
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Looking for a guidepost at the corner of tell and don't tell
The call was not exactly a career-builder.
Nov 17, 2011 | 12:10 am
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Double jeopardy complaint shows impatience with justice
Jamie Gasper walked.
Nov 10, 2011 | 12:00 am
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A juror at last — almost
It would be easy to presume that nothing good comes in the mail with the beginning, "This court summons you …"
Oct 27, 2011 | 12:05 am
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A juror at last — almost
It would be easy to presume that nothing good comes in the mail with the beginning, "This court summons you …"
Oct 26, 2011 | 12:00 am
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Aged and upbeat make an inspiring combination
If I'm hard on Andy Rooney, it's because he has been so hard on me. He deepened my fear that getting old inevitably meant getting bitter and cranky.
Oct 13, 2011 | 12:05 am
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Costello was nimble pol with a serious PR problem
Whether Costello entertained thoughts of being senator or governor, the subject of years of speculation, is for him to know.
Oct 06, 2011 | 12:15 am
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Numbers pour in about race and cops, but what do they mean?
One reason I liked to do police ride-alongs as a reporter was to feel the visceral aspects of a job I often wrote about but otherwise knew only in the abstract.
Sep 15, 2011 | 12:25 am
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Judge's party a reminder that part of the federal government still works
I've seen plenty of people sing at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis. Until this week, I never expected to be one of them.
Sep 01, 2011 | 12:15 am
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