How can someone running for an office that deals with the arcane rules of property tax assessments raise more campaign money than two of the four Democratic candidates running for the powerful position of president of the Cook County Board? Dan Mihalopoulos, a prize-winning veteran City Hall reporter now with the Chicago News Cooperative, answers that question in the Chicago Pages of the New York Times Friday.
Joseph Berrios, a Democratic candidate for Cook County Assessor, has raised more than $3 million in campaign donations over the last decade from the same lawyers who sought tax breaks for their clients when they appeared before the Cook County Board of Review. Mr. Berrios is one of three board members who rule on appeals of assessments set by the Assessor’s Office he is seeking to win in the primary election this Tuesday. Mihalopoulos’s coverage of the politics at City Hall gets behind the scenes and allows readers to get the real story. On Friday he delivers once again with the kind of journalism Chicagoans want and deserve.
Jim Warren once ran the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau and was a managing editor for the paper before he left and started writing a column for the Chicago News Cooperative. In Friday’s paper, Warren provides aninsightful and stirring portrait of George N. Leighton, a 97-year-old Chicago lawyer who has seen it all and is still going strong. “In a world in which we conflate celebrity and achievement, and where the definition of ‘extraordinary’ can encompass quarterbacks in their 20s throwing three touchdowns, this man has led an extraordinary life,” Warren writes. Warren’s column appears twice a week in the Chicago pages of the Times and delights readers with incisive reports on Chicago and its politics.
Dan McGrath has worked all over America, at newspapers in Philadelphia, Sacramento and Chicago delivering sports coverage and commentary that makes his voice distinctive and rare. This week McGrath, the Chicago News Cooperative’s Sports columnist, returned to his roots at Leo High School on the South Side to watch the Leo Lions square off on a basketball court with its fierce rival, Brother Rice. The game was more than a celebration of hoops, though. Some 800 showed up to say thanks to Bob Foster, who had made keeping Leo High going his life’s mission. Through changing demographics and turbulent times, Foster had been the school’s football coach, principal and president for more than 40 years before he stepped down at age 69 for health reasons earlier this month. McGrath was there for the cheers, the fight songs and the game. The Lions won in overtime 76 to 72. But anyone reading this veteran pro sports columnist is a winner, too. His column is vintage McGrath.
In “Pulse,” readers of the Times Chicago pages will find that Ultimo, a boutique featuring high end women’s fashions, is closing its doors Saturday on Oak Street after 40 years. Although it would by easy to blame the poor economy, one reason might be the Obama effect. Michelle Obama is a loyal customer of the store’s closest rival, which benefited from all the attention given to Mrs. Obama’s wardrobe. Readers can also learn more about the new tiled mosaic mural at the Belmont CTA station.
Appearing every Friday and Sunday in the New York Times, the pages produced by the Chicago News Cooperative give the city a distinctive brand of journalism that readers have come to expect.