Dusty Rhodes: Fresh Ink

Just about seven years ago, I moved here from Texas to find out whether I could still do journalism. I had worked for major mainstream newspapers in Dallas and in Anchorage (yes, Alaska), but I had been out of the business for nearly a decade, working as an investigator for a civil rights attorney, when […]

The first time Renatta Frazier heard about massive grave robbing at an Alsip cemetery, she didn’t give it a second thought. A tiny village on the southwestern tip of Chicagoland, Alsip held no special meaning. It wasn’t until a childhood friend mentioned Burr Oak Cemetery that Frazier snapped. Burr Oak is one of a dozen […]

Mark Jennings spent more than 20 years serving his country in the U.S. Army Airborne. When he retired around 2002, “Sarge,” as he was known, enjoyed gardening, cooking out and bicycling, and was known for serving coffee to anyone who wanted to stop by in the morning. Ted Forystek, who was Jennings’ neighbor in the […]

Two years ago, Todd Green was happy with his Blackberry. Or so he thought. Then he went to his son’s basketball practice, where another dad hanging out in the bleachers was showing off this new contraption called an iPhone. “He starts to show me some of the stuff on it, and I’m like — this […]

It’s been less than three months since Jonathon Monken became director of the Illinois State Police, but already he has jolted the agency. Which is sort of what troopers were hoping he would do, because dang, the place needed a good shake-up. In fact, it was the prospect of just such a joggle that persuaded […]

I now believe there will be peace in the Middle East. I also believe that the Illinois legislature will someday ratify a budget before the fiscal year ends, and Dick Cheney will appear on Meet the Press to express his admiration for Barack Obama. Heck, I even believe that my two children will stop tattling […]

From the kitchen table where he was eating supper with his family, Jeff Hart saw the clouds change direction. They rolled east, then shifted suddenly west, like they had just decided to make a U-turn. Maybe we should go down to the basement, Jeff thought. While his wife Julie helped their daughter Bella out of […]

You’ve seen these guys before. OK, maybe not this specific trifecta of testosterone, but you’ve undoubtedly seen guys just like them, clowning around on the sidelines at the football game, one eye on the game, another on the girls in the matching short skirts. They’re the kind of guys who prance along with the cheerleaders, […]

A few years ago, someone in the Chicago public school system came up with a brilliant way to help Riley Higgins, who was then about 3 years old and living in Springfield. Why would anyone in the Chicago public school system give a fig about a preschooler in Springfield? The truth is they didn’t. But […]

Ask Deidre Lockhart how tall she is, and she will tell you she’s just under 5-foot-10. You don’t even have to verbalize the follow-up question. With a tone that says “I get this all the time,” Lockhart will answer your look of disbelief: “I know — I’m not as tall as I appear,” she says. […]

Untitled Document Normally, if somebody offered to bring me a sack of trash, I’d find a polite way to say no thanks. But when Glenn Sisco called me, his trash sounded intriguing. The way he described it, he was at work and decided to step outside for a smoke break. When he went to throw […]

Ask Jonathon Monken how he got the job as director of Illinois State Police — at the tender age of 29, with no law enforcement experience — and he’ll start with a story about being introduced to now-Gov. Pat Quinn at an awards ceremony a few years ago. “The first time we met was when […]