Original News, Features & Opinion on Chicago, Illinois and America
Vino & Vintage festival at Candlewick Lake One of my favorite shows is American Pickers starring antique masters Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, but the next best thing is actually browsing through real vintage antiques and household items that are over 100 years old. So it was a lot of fun Saturday to inspect and peruse…
Kathy Griffin and the real extremism Southwest News Group June 8, 2017 By Ray Hanania I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve had it with the extremist critics of President Donald Trump. The criticism is so extreme, unfair and hypocritical I think it is damaging this nation. Trump was elected president in…
Buying a new car is so traumatic Seven years is about the most you should expect to keep a car because cars are made to fall apart to help generate more profits for the automobile industry. They don’t make them to last any more. There’s just too much money at stake for the auto industry…
Remembering at Memorial Day Memorial Day is an important time to remember the sacrifices of veterans in your family like your dad or your mom. But remembering requires a little work. Getting them to share their stories and documenting them in journals for later years is so important to do By Ray Hanania Like many people,…
Technology: Don’t get fooled by Magzter Magzter sent me a pitch that seemed great: For $49 a year, I could get access to thousands of magazines and articles and share those articles and magazines with up to four total family members. I had subscribed to several magazines from Magzter in the past but this sounded…
A mother of a Mother’s Day Published in the Des Plaines Valley News, The Southwest News Herald Newspaper, the Reporter Newspapers, the Regional Newspaper May 18, 2017 By Ray Hanania Mother’s Day: I was standing in the lobby of Buca di Beppo Sunday with my wife and son as some two dozens unhappy people waited…
Kennedy accuses Illinois Dems of blocking candidacy The race for governor seems to be focused on ousting incompetent Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner, but the real battle is between the two Democrats, Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker to win party backing for the March 20, 2018 Democratic Primary By Ray Hanania It’s a war between a…
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Why is my TV clogged with election Ads? Nauseating political commercials have already started to clog our Spring season television viewing, and it has a lot to do with the fact that the three candidates for governor in Illinois are among the richest people around. Republican Bruce Rauner, one of the most incompetent governor’s Illinois has…
Arrogance of the Orland Park Village Board The Orland Park Village Board is apparently pretending that village voters really didn’t mean to support “change” in the last election, voting to oust 24-year incumbent Dan McLaughlin and replacing him with a little known, well-intentioned challenger, Keith Pekau. The board has named Joe LaMargo, the former head…
Rauner, Pritzker & hypocrisy at the Chicago Sun-Times Most mainstream American journalists love to dish it out and criticize people, but they are thinned skinned and hate to be criticized themselves, especially when they are involved in their own conflicts-of-interest that they fail to mention in their stories. As a columnist who writes my opinions, I…
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Analysis: Why Pekau won and McLaughlin lost A poorly run re-election campaign by seven-term incumbent Mayor Dan McLaughlin combined with a hot-topic issue of salary and pension hikes, and a laser-focused issues campaign of a non-political challenger, Keith Pekau, running on the Republican Party banner did what no one thought could happen April 4 in Orland Park….
Muslims lose in backlash in Suburban Chicago elections Two Muslim candidates who had strong political backing lost their bids for election on Tuesday in Suburban Chicago contests. Dave Shalabi, who was appointed to a position on a local school board two years ago, lost his bid to remain on the influential school board. Bahira Karim fails in…
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Orland Mayoral race has state’s attention The battle between Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin and challenger Keith Pekau has the attention of the entire state apparently creating a wild election contest filled with a lot of unusual issues, supporters and claims By Ray Hanania The battle to lead Orland Park, one of the fastest growing suburbs…
Fighting oppressive taxes in Cook County SW News Group Column March 9, 2017. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle bashed former President Todd Stroger when she ran against him for proposing outrageous hikes in taxes including the sales tax. But as soon as she got to office, she raised the taxes, too. Even worse. The…
1967 was a tragic year in Illinois: Tornadoes Hit Illinois 50 Years ago, Belvidere and Oak Lawn Published in the SW Newspaper Group Feb. 9, 2017 By Ray Hanania This year is the Golden Anniversary of one of the most tragic years in the lives of many Baby Boomers who still remember that far back…
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Suburbs should not have to pay Chicago’s spending shortfalls SW Newspaper Group Feb. 23, 2017 By Ray Hanania Don’t waste your time trying to figure out how Illinois divides the property taxes it collects to support local schools and the sales and income taxes it collects to subsidize Chicago’s bailout. It’s too complicated, intentionally. The…
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Skimming through the Obits and life The obituary section of the old more informed newspaper era was an obsession with my father back in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, the newspapers are anorexic but the Obit section is still growing strong. And, I understand why my father paid attention to it so much now that I…
How do you explain a newspaper to today’s youth? Many of today’s young people don’t see the value of newspapers. They have their heads and minds buried deeply into their cell phones, not just for talking and texting but for writing, typing, viewing videos and storing thousands of digital photographs. They Snapchat, Instragram, Facebook, Twitter…
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