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Carol Marin biography

Carol Marin is the political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.

In addition to her work at the paper, she is the political editor for NBC5 …

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(Another) chance to save Cicero

Cicero’s Larry Dominick, president of the town that time forgot, isn’t talking to me. A terse reply arrived from his press spokesman, Ray Hanania, to a recent email. “Ray,” I wrote, “Am writing about the Cicero election . . . Would like to talk to …

A quiz: What really riles up readers?

A Christmas quiz. Which story this past week riled up readers more? (a) Ed “the-most-powerful-alderman-in-the world” Burke wiggling his way around current gun laws by obtaining a state license claiming to be a working “private detective” so that he can conceal and carry a gun …

Bears’ Urlacher is a spoiled brat

As a rule, I don’t write about sports. Friends and family who have watched me watch games can talk endlessly about how little I know. But Brian Urlacher has shown me that ignorance need not be an impediment to self-expression. So with apologies to great …

Alvarez’s out-of-control damage control

Anita Alvarez’s efforts at damage control keep generating more damage than control. I’m not talking about the Cook County state’s attorney’s recent appearance on “60 Minutes.” Or Alvarez’s subsequent public protest that producers selectively edited and willfully distorted her interview. That’s a matter between her …

Vanecko trial needs to be free of even the appearance of a conflict of interest on part of judge

‘What are you going to do, Carol, when it’s a ‘not guilty?’ ” asked a smiling man with unsmiling eyes. He was walking past the bullpen of reporters and cameras Monday at the criminal courts building. “What are you going to do then?” he asked …

Christmas brings little joy to those in prison

Sunday marks the fourth anniversary of FBI agents pulling then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich out of bed and arresting him. For Blagojevich, now doing 14 years in a Colorado federal prison, this will be the first of many Christmases behind bars. For George Ryan, his predecessor, it …

This judge knows about going bad

Back in the days when Judge Michael P. Toomin sat on the bench in Cook County — before he became a presiding judge working out of an administrative office — reporters noted the things that defined his courtroom. There were, behind him, the framed copies …

Marin: No Christmas lights at Koschman home anymore

Christmas “was always my holiday,” Nanci Koschman says, but not anymore, not since her son David Koschman’s death. She says Monday’s indictment of Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, carries some vindication in that someone is being held responsible. But it won’t turn the Christmas lights back on at her Mount Prospect home.

La Shawn Ford is small fry for feds

Minutes after the indictment of state Rep. La Shawn Ford was e-mailed to reporters Thursday by the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, I dialed Ford’s cellphone. And, it turns out, broke the bad news. “Can you read it to me?” he asked. I did. It’s …

Living up to a famous name

What’s in a name? Plenty, if you live in Chicago. We are a dynastic political city where fathers to sons, dads to daughters, hand off, generation by generation, not just a name. But an expectation. Mayor Richard J. Daley paved the way for Richard M. …

Tough love from tiny — but powerful — nun

Sister Therese O’Sullivan is tiny but mighty. Nuns, we know, do not have to be big to be fierce. And so, on Tuesday morning when the 4-foot-10-inch, 74-year-old sister slammed her fist down, the room went silent. “I was pounding the table,” she confessed later. …

Even 4-star generals vulnerable to email snoops

I’m “All In” with Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Like millions of viewers, I have followed his action-filled fictional career. And why not? Boss of TV’s outrageously popular “NCIS” series, Gibbs is a born leader. Ruggedly handsome, smart, and charismatic, he commands a team of good guys …

Emanuel downplays eavesdrop act

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, at a Monday news conference, didn’t like questions about whether his press office had recorded reporters’ conversations without first seeking their consent. That’s a big no-no under the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, one of the toughest two-party consent laws in the country. One …

This is how a cop coverup can work

You know the video. It went viral from Joliet to Jakarta. It was the 2007 attack by off-duty Chicago Police officer Anthony Abbate, in a drunken rage, whaling on bartender Karolina Obrycka. Now, in a civil case in federal court, the question is no longer …

Joe Walsh’s lectures on abortion not women’s cup of tea

W hy did Joe Walsh, national Tea Party superstar, lose? And Tammy Duckworth win? The question of a medically necessary abortion best explains it. In this election cycle, three men — all Tea Party candidates — made idiotic, unscientific assertions about abortion and/or rape. In …

A lot has changed in just four years

The last time we voted for president: Rod Blagojevich was governor. Today he’s in a federal prison. Rahm Emanuel was in Congress. His dream of becoming the first Jewish speaker of the House was detoured by a tour of the Obama White House as chief …

N.J. Gov. Christie isn’t complaining about ward bosses now

Somewhere in the Kelly-green fields of heaven, Richard J. Daley is chuckling. The kid from Chicago, Barack Obama, learned his lessons well. New Jersey, after all, isn’t that much different from Chicago. And hurricanes are to Jersey boardwalks what blizzards are to Chicago alleys. You …

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