Central

Small Steps in a Food Desert

Wed, 02/08/2012
Chicago Central Food Mart, a corner store in West Humboldt Park, straddles the northern edge of an area considered one of Chicago’s “food deserts.” The store’s faded yellow awning promises “fresh fruits, meats, and vegetables.” But until recently, little fresh produce could be found among the 99-cent sodas, chips, and canned meats packed onto the...

A Small Step at DePaul

Mon, 01/09/2012
No conference has experienced more upheaval from the continuing realignment in college sports than the Big East, despite its unquestioned stature as a basketball kingpin. The iconic league that Dave Gavitt invented (and ESPN nurtured) to feed the fervor for college hoops in the populous Northeast Corridor will be unrecognizable in a year or so,...

McGrath: A Victory Restores Smiles at Notre Dame

Fri, 09/23/2011
The celebration that followed Notre Dame’s 18-point victory over Michigan State last week seemed disproportionately joyful, as if it assured the Irish of something significant just three games into their season. Then again, buzz-killing losses the previous two weeks hardly signified an ideal start to Year 2 of Brian Kelly’s campaign to restore the...

State Challenges Hospitals' Tax Break

Mon, 09/12/2011
Facing a budget deficit exceeding $11 billion, the State of Illinois in recent weeks has begun challenging the property tax exemptions of some of its best-known hospitals, saying they should pay more because they are not providing enough charity care. The Illinois Department of Revenue moved last month to strip property tax exemptions from...

McGrath: Meaningful Fall Baseball a Pipe Dream

Tue, 09/06/2011
The crisp hint of fall that is often in the air for September baseball adds an urgency to the games that is missing from the more languid pace of spring and summer. Contending teams know they have to get busy—they’re running out of time. Time ran out on the Cubs’ fruitless season months ago, of course, so the fall-like conditions at Wrigley Field...

Ricketts Dumps Hendry as Cubs' GM

Fri, 08/19/2011
A late August Cubs-Cardinals series has been an annual high point for dozens of baseball seasons on the North Side, but the Cubs’ two-year slide into National League irrelevance drained much of the juice from this weekend’s three-game set at Wrigley Field. Jim Hendry paid the price for that slide on Friday. Hendry, 56, the Cubs’ head of baseball...

Change Ahead for Once-Powerful Ward Groups

Tue, 08/02/2011
Rocked by losing the alderman’s seat in an April run-off election upset, the once-mighty 36th Ward Regular Democratic Organization soon will undergo its first leadership change in 30 years. Organization leaders have tapped Larry Andolino – a cousin of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s aviation chief – to run to succeed longtime ward boss William J.P. Banks in...

McGrath: More at Stake for Sox in City Series

Mon, 06/20/2011
Those signs of life at Wrigley Field Sunday night turned out to be a false positive. The old ballyard was full for the third straight game, an announced crowd of 41,828 for the Cubs-Yankees series finale bringing the three-game total to a Wrigley-record 126,283. And the Cubs had a shot at winning back-to-back series for the first time this...

Sometimes a Big-Time Communications Guy Will Actually Communicate

Sat, 04/09/2011
David Axelrod concedes that he has a touch of Potomac fever, a malady in which the victim struggles with the notion that there’s life beyond the nation’s capital. “It’s a narcotic,” he told a Chicago audience last week as he engagingly recounted two years as a top aide to President Obama, his desk just a few paces from the Oval Office. “It’s...