Chicago Sun-Times columnists

A road, flanked by leafy trees, leads to the Illinois Capitol and its picturesque columns and dome.

Chicago Teachers Union tries to bulldoze through Springfield on selective schools bill — and loses

Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose popularity has plummeted with his Statehouse influence, ought to take this as a warning not to follow the CTU’s example.

By Rich Miller

Middle age grey-haired man suffering for back injury sitting on bed at bedroom

Columnists

Old age isn't fun

Columnist Gene Lyons was out for a few weeks after he was diagnosed with several illnesses. Now that he’s back in the saddle, he writes about aging and what felt like a near-death experience.

By Gene Lyons

Wanda Jemison, who has worked at Conn-Selmer for 18 years, soders a complete Vincent Bach trumpet by hand at the factory in Elkhart, Indiana Wednesday, March 27, 2024. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Look inside the Indiana company trying to re-create the world's best trumpets

By Neil Steinberg

Chicago’s Next Voices

From Archer Heights to downtown Chicago, Chicago's Next Voices columnist climbed that steep ladder

Southwest Side native Valery Pineda writes of how she never thought the doors of the downtown skyscrapers would be open to her — and how she got there and found her career.

By Valery Pineda

White Sox

Tim Anderson on his rise and fall with the White Sox and trying to 'get back to the player I used to be'

Anderson talked smack, flipped bats and became the coolest thing about a Sox team seemingly headed for great things. Then it all went “poof.” In town with the Marlins, he discussed it on Thursday.

By Steve Greenberg

The little girl (Alisha Weir) abducted by kidnappers turns out to have an ancient vampire trapped inside her in "Abigail."

Columnists

'Abigail': When the victims aren't exploding, the vampire story is meandering

Toothy young hostage fights back in tedious gore-fest.

By Richard Roeper

Columnists

'Shame of Chicago, Shame of the Nation' looks back at city's racist housing history

Too often, we think segregation is self-selection. Instead, it’s the end result of a host of 20th-century laws, policies, ideas and practices that deliberately shaped our region, a new WTTW documentary makes clear.

By Natalie Y. Moore

Chicago’s Next Voices

What's your Chicago story? We want to hear it.

We want to hear from diverse voices from across the city to be part of our Chicago’s Next Voices and tell stories of their personal experiences.

By Mary Mitchell

Columnists

Chicago was once the heart of country music

The WLS National Barn Dance, which predated the Opry by two years, was first broadcast 100 years ago Friday, on April 19, 1924.

By Neil Steinberg

Henry Cavill plays a British officer who assembles an off-the-books naval attack squad in "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare."

Movies and TV

'Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare' credits real WWII rule-breakers with some unreal adventures

Good-looking rogues take on the Nazis in Guy Ritchie’s madcap attack mission

By Richard Roeper

Columnists

$2 million federal grant to address damage to the West Side by the Eisenhower Expressway

The apartment where Lynn Sweet’s father once lived was demolished to make way for the expressway. President Joe Biden has launched a new program to reconnect communities split by expressways such as the Eisenhower.

By Lynn Sweet

Columnists

Supreme Court passes on a chance to protect peaceful protesters

The court rejected an appeal by a Black Lives Matter organizer who is being sued for an injury to a police officer committed by another demonstrator during a protest.

By Jacob Sullum

Blake Cameron James (left) and Gian Knight Ramirez play the boys looking out at the skyline from their Cabrini-Green homes in "We Grown Now."

Movies and TV

'We Grown Now' a lovely but haunting Chicago snapshot of two boys' lives

Lyrical film juxtaposes the innocence of 10-year-old best friends in Cabrini-Green with the real-life murder of young Dantrell Davis.

By Richard Roeper

Construction workers apply a grey marble cladding to the Obama Presidential Center in Hyde Park on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Unlike the renderings that showed white or cream color, a grey marble is being installed.

Columnists

Obama Center gets skin in the game with fancy new granite cladding on its tower

The swirl-patterned granite panels will contribute much to the visual identity — while perhaps adding color and life to a structure that appeared cold and mausoleum-like in renderings.

By Lee Bey

Leroy Bowman holds one of the more than 1,000 comforters he pieced and sewed for the Mennonite Central Committee.

Outdoors

Picking at memories of a long life: Leroy Bowman, who has died at age 95, did it all

My dad, Leroy Bowman, whom I credit with much of my love of the outdoors, led a full life filled with anomalies: deer hunting, ordained Mennonite deacon, quarryman, trout fishing, raising six kids. He died at 95 over the solar-eclipse weekend and the memories bubble up.

By Dale Bowman

Jesse Eisenberg never says a word while playing one of the hairy beasts in "Sasquatch Sunset."

Movies and TV

'Sasquatch Sunset' a surreal showcase for bigfoot bodily functions

In fur and makeup, Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough spend most of the movie scratching, sneezing and worse.

By Richard Roeper

Bulls

One question about the Bulls and Hawks meeting in a play-in game: Do they have to?

The very concept that a Bulls team frozen in borderline irrelevance, let alone a Hawks squad that’s even worse, could eventually give the top-seeded Celtics any sort of difficulty in a best-of-seven series is farcical.

By Steve Greenberg

An outcast teen (Vritika Gupta) goes missing in "Under the Bridge."

Movies and TV

'Under the Bridge': Heartbreaking Hulu series shows how bullies took the life of an unhappy teen

Streaming drama illustrates the victim’s anguish but also tries to explain the origins of her attackers’ violent ways.

By Richard Roeper

Columnists

Joffrey production of "Midsummer Night's Dream" includes humble dried plant in a starring role

The play uses “hay” — actually raffia, derived from palm leaves — to cover the stage for each performance.

By Neil Steinberg

Columnists

Making a strong commitment to clean energy is good for American business and the environment

On Earth Day 2024, companies have a chance to show genuine support for the transition to an economy based on green energy. Federal tax credits and other incentives for manufacturing are helping to fuel the transition — and create thousands of new jobs.

By Ben Jealous

Rendering of a proposed new White Sox ballpark at The 78.

Sports

Chicago stadiums, arenas and real estate make for a playground for the wealthy

We all love sports teams, but regular people don’t own the buildings or the land they frolic upon. We just pay homage to the teams — and to the power-laden who own them.

By Rick Telander

Columnists

Democratic Party leaders meet in Chicago this week for pre-convention talks

In Chicago, the Democratic National Committee leaders will pick the members of the party’s platform, rules and credentials committees at the last party meeting before the August convention to renominate President Joe Biden.

By Lynn Sweet