Perspectives

Doubek: If You Knew Your Vote Didn't Count, Would You Speak Up?

Gerrymandering steals your vote and your voice. Fight for fair maps now.

How to Get to Compromise from Chaos in Police Accountability

Three proposals for community input into policing currently sit in the City Council. Finding the middle ground will be difficult but critical.

Doubek: Here Are Hundreds of Government Boards We Should Do Without In Illinois

Police and fire pension fund consolidation will create efficiencies and significantly reduce costs, improving many towns’ ability to finance the retirements promised to public safety workers.

Shaw: As Media's Presence Shrinks, Taxpayers Suffer

As print and broadcast media keep shedding staff to cut costs, public officials face less and less scrutiny, emboldening them to misbehave with impunity, laws and taxpayers be damned.

Doubek: Let's Try Opening Up Ballots and Primaries

Why should you have to tell an election judge you’re a Democrat or Republican?

Shaw: Illinois Primary Reveals Election Flaws That Need Fixin'

We’re lamenting the system’s failure to give candidates and voters the election they deserve in a healthy democracy, and promoting reforms to consider in the run-up to November.

Leven: Community Commission for Public Safety is Reform with a Capital-R

The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability has thrown another major proposal into the mix of Chicago police reform efforts. What is the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability and might it bring some stability to a volatile period for Chicago police oversight?

Doubek: Push Politicians on New Effort to End Illinois Gerrymandering

Illinois lawmakers could easily vote to give us a chance to end corrupt gerrymandering, but will they? And will we demand it?

Shaw: Time for a Watchdog at Metropolitan Water District

Is the government branch that cleans our water ready to clean up its own act?

Doubek: Bipartisan Women Work to Improve Ethics Process