Author: Living Legends

The Cubs are finally home. After spending the past week in Phoenix and West Sacramento, Calif., following their first two regular-season games in Tokyo against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cubs open their Wrigley Field slate Friday versus the San Diego Padres. The White Sox hit the road for the first time this season with series against the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians. Every Thursday during the regular season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead — for the Cubs and White Sox. Want more? Sign up for our Cubs Insider and White…

I dropped off my son at lacrosse practice Monday night, drove home to start dinner, threw some clothes in the dryer, unloaded the dishwasher, re-loaded the dishwasher, and turned on the Chicago Bulls to see them losing spectacularly in Oklahoma City. Sen. Cory Booker was just getting going on the floor of the U.S. Senate. I got up Tuesday morning, and he was still going. I went for a run, went to work, went to a board meeting, went to the store. And he was still going. I finished my workday and folded some laundry and paid some first-of-the-month bills…

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is a national progressive icon, moving voters to “feel the Bern” in two presidential campaigns. The self-proclaimed democratic socialist senator from Vermont has built a formidable movement on the left, and all eyes have looked to him to champion their causes. Sanders never reached the White House, but his movement has shifted the Democratic Party away from its centrist ways. He has helped elect his acolytes to Congress, city halls and state legislatures across the nation. Now he is teaming up with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, the New Yorker who came to…

Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on April 3, according to the Tribune’s archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 81 degrees (1956) Low temperature: 17 degrees (1987) Precipitation: 0.93 inches (1974) Snowfall: 2.7 inches (1984) 1923: Wiliam “Decent” Dever — a “wet” Democrat — was elected mayor on the reform ticket, in an attempt to clean up the rampant vice in Chicago.   Source

Two days before Tuesday’s local elections, the Illinois Republican Party sent out an email to supporters declaring it to be “a do or die moment for us.” The email was just another in a series of fundraising solicitations. But it may have more accurately captured the importance of the election, which featured wide-ranging Democratic victories in the suburbs critical for rebuilding a state GOP already on the verge of irrelevance in Illinois politics and reflected voter angst over the early tumultuous months of Republican President Donald Trump’s second presidency. “There was a broad rejection of what Donald Trump and the…

Indiana legislators are seemingly preparing to review the Indiana-Illinois border without its neighboring state. Indiana House Bill 1008, which is aimed at redrawing the Indiana-Illinois border, was amended in the Senate Public Policy Committee Wednesday to allow one more Indiana representative to the commission and, with that, give the commission a quorum to meet. House Bill 1008, authored by Speaker Todd Huston, would establish an Indiana-Illinois boundary adjustment commission to research the possibility of adjusting the boundaries between the two states. Under the amended bill, Indiana would have six commissioners and Illinois would have five commissioners. The amended bill also…

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Chicago Cubs finally found the superstar hitter the lineup has needed in Kyle Tucker, and the acquisition is already paying off beyond the lefty slugger’s production. Over the last seven weeks, Seiya Suzuki has taken a vested interest in watching Tucker hit knowing how much can be gleaned from watching a talented hitter work. Suzuki has specifically absorbed being more aggressive and applied that approach to help him break out of his brief early-season funk. Suzuki and the Cubs feasted on A’s pitchers during their three-game sweep, culminating with Wednesday’s 10-2 victory at Sutter Health…

FRANKFURT, Germany — Sweeping new tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump provoked dismay, threats of countermeasures and urgent calls for talks to find ways to rescind the stiff new import taxes imposed on goods from countries around the globe. But responses Thursday were measured, highlighting a lack of appetite for an outright trade war with the world’s biggest economy. Trump said Wednesday the import taxes, ranging from 10% to 49%, would do to U.S. trading partners what they have long done to the U.S. He maintains they will draw factories and jobs back to the United States. “Taxpayers have…

Despite voters dumping a few high-profile suburban mayors, most incumbents claimed victory Tuesday in a flurry of races that were hotly contested but generally saw low voter turnout. While mayors in Aurora, Orland Park and Waukegan lost in unofficial vote counts, incumbents in Evanston, Elmhurst, Oak Park, Park Ridge, North Chicago and Tinley Park appeared to have held onto their seats. Just 17% of registered voters went to the polls in Cook County, a slight uptick from local elections in recent years, but well below the participation rate for presidential and statewide elections. In Arlington Heights, where Mayor Tom Hayes…

I applaud the Tribune’s editorials on literacy. Success in school, employment and life is utterly dependent on the ability to read and write. Ensuring that our state’s children are literate has a profound impact on Illinois’ future workforce, economy and safety. At Friends of the Children-Chicago, we work with children in communities impacted by poverty and gun violence. We’ve seen how literacy opens a child’s world and buffers the impact of trauma. When a child is literate, school is a welcoming place where they can learn and flourish. When a child struggles to read, school becomes alienating. There is an…