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David Greising

David Greising

Chicago Tribune

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David Greising: Brandon Johnson pushes back on independence in the City Council

The reorganization of the City Council that got underway in March, not long after Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for reelection in the mayoral primary,...

12.05.2023 5

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: An Illinois House speaker talking about voter trust? More of that, please.

OK, so new Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch still is in the early days of his first big turn on the public stage. He told the Economic...

10.05.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: The next big test for Speaker Welch: A fair map

The Chris Welch coming-out party had its latest event this week when the new speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives laid out his views on a...

10.05.2023 6

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Come clean, Mayor Lightfoot: Do you support an elected school board or not?

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is in a tight spot. It’s a spot she built herself, so she’s responsible for the fix she’s in. And how she gets out will...

10.05.2023 50

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Extortion: There oughta be a law! (But there’s not in Illinois.)

When the director of the Illinois Board of Elections, Steve Sandvoss, was targeted in an online extortion attempt last week, he reportedly took the...

10.05.2023 30

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Mayor Lightfoot can reverse Chicago’s poor record on fire safety

Mayor Lori Lightfoot broke ground Wednesday for the new Bronzeville Winery, a Black-owned business, that is set to open this summer. It wouldn’t...

10.05.2023 20

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Illinois is still shortchanging people with disabilities, despite consent decree

Parents of children with disabilities learn to dread the day the bus stops coming. Beginning at age 22, when people with disabilities “age out” of...

10.05.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Illinois’ legislative session of missed chances — and one bright spot

Illinois at times can seem a state that never misses a chance to miss a chance. Earlier this year, there still seemed a possible chance for meaningful...

10.05.2023 10

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: The vital nature of a well-turned column. Good for the reader, for society

I don’t know about you, but the string of farewell columns this month has exhausted me. Familiar voices are suddenly quiet, and they’ll be missed....

10.05.2023 10

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: The unjust, opaque exercise of aldermanic privilege. It needs to go.

In the last week of June, Mayor Lori Lightfoot suffered her first loss of a City Council vote. By a one-vote margin, the council rejected...

10.05.2023 6

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: A ‘paper tiger’ legislative watchdog isn’t good enough

Rarely does Chicago get cited as an example of best practices. When the chance arises, it’s best not to miss it. So here goes: The city of Chicago...

10.05.2023 30

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s inability to lead is why voters sent her looking for a new job

The final few days of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s single term as mayor have given rise to an urban parlor game in which participants guess what she will...

07.05.2023 8

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Kim Foxx and Lori Lightfoot show the reality of governing with progressive ideals in Illinois

Much has been made of a new progressive era in Illinois politics, and a series of recent public remarks by elected Chicago officials formed a triptych...

28.04.2023 6

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: Life after an iron-grip House speaker? New York found a way; Illinois can too.

For more than two decades he controlled the state legislature as speaker. He was the head of the state Democratic Party. He vied with governors and...

26.04.2023 10

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: Gov. Pritzker, don’t go soft in the fight against COVID-19

When Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, got caught sneaking customers into Ann Sather, the landmark restaurant he owns on Belmont Avenue, he called it an “error...

26.04.2023 40

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: Amazon doesn’t need a Peotone airport, despite what the politicians say

If the fat of airport construction ever really starts frying down Peotone way, we can look back on this week as one point in which the insiders really...

26.04.2023 100

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: If Gov. Pritzker wants his ‘fair tax,’ it’ll take more than an ad blast

With the news that Gov. J.B. Pritzker spent $51.5 million to back an advertising campaign for his graduated-rate tax proposal, the contest to win the...

26.04.2023 200

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: Michael Madigan is in the crosshairs, but we can’t let ComEd, ICC slip from view

In the week since U.S. Attorney John Lausch charged Commonwealth Edison with bribery, most of the attention has focused on Public Official A —...

26.04.2023 100

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: For Speaker Michael Madigan, court of public opinion wields the gavel

Public Official A has not been charged with a crime, and if that ever were to happen, he would be entitled to a presumption of innocence. He would...

26.04.2023 10

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: Impatience with Mayor Lightfoot — and from her — grows as violence rages

In the ongoing effort to get control of the city’s streets, Mayor Lori Lightfoot staged a news conference last Friday that was meant to make a...

26.04.2023 10

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: Mayor Lightfoot’s ’pandemic budget’ avoids the hard choices

Even before the pandemic hit, we knew 2021 was going to be a pick-your-poison budget for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Thanks largely but not...

26.04.2023 50

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: It’s all doom and gloom in Illinois — but we do have the power to fix some of our problems

What can go wrong will go wrong. We’ve known that forever. Nobody ever told us it would all go wrong at the same time. Floods, plague and fire are...

26.04.2023 20

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: Pritzker’s move against Madigan and for reform. More of that, please.

When Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin began forming a special investigative committee to consider a censure against Speaker Michael Madigan,...

26.04.2023 5

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: Here’s a welcome twist: Chicago City Council stands tough on lobbying rule

In that first, clean-sweep phase after she was sworn into office last year, Mayor Lori Lightfoot got a unanimous vote for the first few measures of...

26.04.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Column: The pros and cons of tying property taxes to inflation

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to hike property taxes in the city of Chicago annually, based on increases in the cost of living, is designed to avoid...

26.04.2023 5

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Lightfoot talks tough to the FOP — will it backfire?

In the passage of just a few days, Lori Lightfoot’s mayoralty transitioned from initial cool command of the new job to a kerfuffle over an unproved...

26.04.2023 90

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: Can Mayor Lightfoot’s growing team dig Chicago out of its financial mess?

Mayor Lori Lightfoot keeps edging up to Chicago’s fiscal mess, like a hiker toeing her way toward the rim of a steep canyon. And who can blame her?...

26.04.2023 20

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: Gardening tips for Mayor Lightfoot and Gov. Pritzker

As any gardener knows, the middle of July is that pivotal time when we need to pull the weeds or risk letting them strangle what’s left for the...

26.04.2023 80

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: Blagojevich may walk, but his cell could be filled by other Illinois politicians

When President Donald Trump revealed on Wednesday he may commute the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, it made a...

26.04.2023 10

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: Survey says ... Lightfoot’s budget will be loaded with tough choices

As Mayor Lori Lightfoot approaches her 100th day in office, Tuesday, she already has scored a number of historic firsts: first African American woman...

26.04.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: A congestion tax won’t solve Chicago’s budget jam

In 2007, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg first floated a serious plan to bring congestion pricing to the car-choked streets of lower Manhattan. In...

26.04.2023 10

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: The casino saga: A tale of shaky bets and ... cannibals

I’ve just pored through two dark summer dramas that should be must reads. They’re filled with tales of cannibalization, regional strife and...

26.04.2023 100

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: Chicago has spoken; Mayor Lightfoot, we’re ready to see your budget

It turns out the people of Chicago don’t have a tidy answer to solving the city’s $838 million budget gap, much less the steep incremental...

26.04.2023 20

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: The U. of I., stung by a #MeToo investigation, is now leaning on Title IX to muzzle reporters

Rachel Otwell, a reporter for NPR Illinois, does not have the celebrity of Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor of The New York Times, or Ronan Farrow of The...

26.04.2023 100

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Commentary: How much calm and focus will it take to fill Chicago’s budget gaps? Lori Lightfoot is about to find out.

By the time Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered her budget address last week, the Chicago Teachers Union was already on strike. The federal investigation...

26.04.2023 8

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

The Janus ruling doesn’t have to be a death knell for public unions

The U.S. Supreme Court, in ruling in favor of Mark Janus’ free speech rights to withhold a $45 monthly payment to the union at his Illinois...

26.04.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Could Emanuel lose his re-election bid? It depends.

It was a case of police abuse that riveted the nation. Videotaped violence, under the cloak of darkness, at the hands of uniformed cops. Cries for...

26.04.2023 3

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

The glut of lowbrow gubernatorial TV ads

The dueling tycoons are filling the summer airwaves with an onslaught of ads that are memorable for their meanness and estrangement from the truth —...

26.04.2023 3

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

When will Chicago’s violence evoke true citywide outrage?

The first freshly dead body I ever saw lay in the back of a police vehicle, an African-American teenager who had tried to shoot an off-duty cop. He...

26.04.2023 3

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Can Chicago’s mayoral candidates stomach powerful inspectors general?

Chicago politics is filled with unwritten rules befitting the city’s clout-drenched history. One such classic was once directed at a young Abner...

26.04.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Emanuel and Rauner: A squandered relationship that cost the city and the state

Rahm and Rauner. Rauner and Rahm. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner could have made beautiful music together. Instead, there has been nothing...

26.04.2023 5

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Demise of Sears stains the business image of the Chicago region

Writing about Sears Holdings Corp.’s bankruptcy is a bit like dusting off a corporate obituary that’s been in the works for years: Sears Holdings,...

26.04.2023 3

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Tale of two houses doesn’t help voters on Rauner vs. Pritzker

At the end of a bitterly fought gubernatorial campaign, it has come down to this: a tale of two houses. That’s right. The two leading candidates —...

26.04.2023 3

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Emanuel hasn’t fixed Chicago’s crime problem. Will the next mayor?

No one, other than Mayor Rahm Emanuel, will ever know exactly why he decided against seeking re-election. But there can be little doubt that the...

26.04.2023 3

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

Mayor’s race a numbers game for candidates and voters

Perhaps never before have Chicago’s mayoral race activities been as convoluted and confusing as those taking place ahead of the 2019 primary. There...

26.04.2023 5

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: What’s awry with Lightfoot and Evans’ fight over electronic monitoring? Use of distorted data.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Tim Evans, chief judge of the Cook County Circuit Court, are caught up in a dispute about the effectiveness of Evans’ bail...

19.04.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Chicago needn’t reinvent the wheel to address fire-safety issues — just pull from what other cities have done

Over a six-year period beginning in 2014, 61 people died in 42 residential fires, in Chicago buildings where the city had prior knowledge of...

19.04.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: Will the Obama Presidential Center do right by the South Side?

It’s striking that the groundbreaking for the Obama Presidential Center this week and the 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire next week are...

19.04.2023 5

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: The Chicago Park District lifeguard scandal. A slow-motion disaster.

The charges of sexual harassment of lifeguards and other aquatics employees at the Chicago Park District, and signs of serious government mishandling...

19.04.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

David Greising: While mourning the loss of muckraker Bill Recktenwald, here’s some good news for the future of newsrooms

In the heyday of undercover reporting in Chicago, Bill Recktenwald was a master of disguise. For a probe of election fraud in the late 1960s, he went...

19.04.2023 4

Chicago Tribune

David Greising

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