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Mark Brown biography
Mark Brown is a local news columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times who writes about everything from political corruption to family life. Roger Ebert once called …Read More
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We can’t put off tougher gun laws any longer
President Barack Obama’s speechwriters nailed it Wednesday, at least for me, with two little sentences. “This is our first task as a society, keeping our children safe. This is how we’ll be judged,” the president said. That’s it. That’s the thought that has troubled me more than anything since the Newtown school massacre — and maybe you as well. What a sad, sick world we have created for our children. We have failed them in this most basic test of a civilized people: keeping them safe.
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Colorado theater to reopen — but father of one shooting victim won’t be there
The Colorado movie theater where 12 people were shot to death six months ago will reopen this week after a ceremony to pay homage — some would say lip service — to the victims and their families. Scott Larimer of Crystal Lake, whose 27-year-old son, …Read More
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Settlements in cases against cops cost taxpayers — and police themselves
By my rough calculations, the city of Chicago could have hired at least 300 more police officers this year with the $33 million it will instead pay to clean up two of the department’s biggest messes. That’s not a criticism of the Emanuel Administration’s decision …Read More
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Teen, Illinois High School Association wrestling over sporting rules
Some day IHSA is going to learn that every square peg can’t be conveniently pounded into a round hole.
Plenty of fumbles, no yards gained in Illinois’ Pension Bowl
SPRINGFIELD — Maybe it was the hangover from Notre Dame’s loss in the BCS championship game a night earlier, but football metaphors consumed the Capitol in the waning hours of the Legislature. It started with Gov. Pat Quinn —“our quarterback’’ in the words of one …
Brown: Concerns over pension bill little more than excuses for inaction
SPRINGFIELD — Now come the excuses. Even as a bipartisan group of House Democrats and Republicans moved forward Monday with a workable — if imperfect — solution to Illinois’ pension crisis, legislators were preparing their excuses why they will not vote for it. Some said …
Brown: House Speaker Mike Madigan wants a deal now, usually gets what he wants
There were no smiles on the faces of anyone emerging from Saturday’s closed-door summit of Gov. Pat Quinn and legislative leaders on how to solve the state’s pension funding woes. Quinn didn’t come out at all. That was the bad news for those hoping for …
Decade after domestic partnership registry created in Cook County, it’s time to make gay marriage legal in Illinois
It will be 10 years ago this summer that the Cook County Board voted to create a registry allowing same-sex couples to officially record their “domestic partnerships.” Everyone involved at the time was careful to say the registry should not be confused with same-sex marriage, …
Brown: Let’s agree on a law that tightly regulates who will be permitted to carry a gun.
Thomas Vanden Berk, chairman of Brady PAC-Illinois, is by his own description one of this state’s “old-time gun control folks.” He came by that status the hard way beginning when his son was killed 20 years ago in the crossfire of a gang shootout. Ever …
Why jail escapes capture our attention
There’s something about a prison escape that captures the public’s imagination, an interest that goes well beyond the simple fear of a criminal on the loose. Nobody understands this better than the folks who produce “Breakout,” a television series that re-creates real life prison escapes. When Metropolitan Correctional Center escapees Joseph Jose Banks and Michael Conley are finally caught, and experience tells the folks at “Breakout” that occasion will come relatively sooner than later, the convicted bank robbers may find themselves in a future episode.
Mark Brown: Outside judge for Vanecko case will boost confidence in outcome
The Criminal Court judges of Cook County may consider it an insult and an outrage to bring in an outside judge to hear the involuntary manslaughter case against Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, as lawyers for the nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley argued Monday. But if I were one of those judges, I’d be relieved and thankful.
Listening would help alderman’s case
Parents at a Northwest Side middle school are going into battle against an alderman over his efforts to turn the facility into a military high school. Ald. Robert Maldonado (26th) said he believes the under-enrolled Ames Middle School, 1920 N. Hamlin, would be the perfect …
Bringing lawyer to Dem slating session not a great idea for Donne Trotter
Thomas Anthony Durkin, state Sen. Donne Trotter’s criminal defense lawyer, said Wednesday he may accompany his client this weekend to the Democratic Party’s endorsement session to pick a candidate for Jesse Jackson Jr.’s seat in Congress. Durkin suggested that possibility when reporters asked how his …
Brown: Legislature should pass concealed carry law — a very restrictive one
Oh, boy. I feel safer already. Just knowing that within the next year or so there could be more people around me secretly but legally carrying guns, each of them prepared to shoot it out with the bad guys, well, it gives me a warm …
Brown: Judge in Vanecko case needs to step down
Cook County Associate Judge Arthur Hill Jr. may be the fairest, most impartial jurist ever to sit at 26th and California, but to prove it, he needs to recuse himself from the trial of Richard “R.J.” Vanecko. In a head-scratching display of judgment, Hill on …
For Sudanese teens, hoops not a priority
Word that the Illinois High School Association had ruled four boys from South Sudan ineligible to participate in athletics for tiny Mooseheart High reached all the way back to their homeland last week, prompting a worried call from the father of Mangisto Deng. Deng, a …
Mooseheart basketball decision ‘wrong-headed’
Somewhere along the way, the Illinois High School Association, the organization that oversees interscholastic athletics in this state, got lost in the weeds of its own bureaucracy. I couldn’t tell you precisely when this happened, although my impression is that it’s been that way for …
Brown: Bill Daley on ‘opportunity’ and ‘scrutiny’ that come with being a Daley
The Daleys, Chicago’s royal family of politics, gathered Tuesday to celebrate the first political ascension of their next generation. If they were made uncomfortable by the front page headlines proclaiming that another member of that generation had just been indicted for involuntary manslaughter, they weren’t …
Mark Brown: Vanecko’s indictment not enough
Mark Brown: The indictment of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew Richard J. Vanecko in the 2004 death of David Koschman strikes a historic blow on behalf of the little guys of this city and against the sense of immunity enjoyed by its political elite. But, extraordinary as it is, it’s not enough.
‘Elves’ lift needy kids’ spirits
Several weeks ago, the normally quiet library at the Chicago Sun-Times sprang to life with a small team of workers who seemed to be on some sort of special mission. Unlike the somber, suspicious news people surrounding them, they smiled. They were even observed laughing. …
