Category: News and Opinion

As history is made in Chicago’s mayoral election, newsrooms struggle for diverse leadership

On election night in late February in the East Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, about 100 supporters and family members of mayoral candidate Amara Enyia gathered on the first floor of the Blue Lacuna workspace to wait for the results. Even though Enyia was a long shot candidate in a race that ultimately produced Chicago’s first…

Death of print doesn’t have to mean death of local journalism; Reflection on donuts and sports agate after Sunday Mass

I grew up in a two-newspaper home in Belleville, Illinois, and have few fonder memories than Sunday mornings after Mass with a dozen glazed from Mallo’s Bakery and multiple pages of beautiful sports agate, jam packed with box scores and standings. Those and countless other mornings at the kitchen table with ink-stained fingers inspired what…

Khashoggi’s death: A part of Saudi’s information war in the Middle East

The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death is a part of Saudi Arabia’s information war in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia wants to cut off criticism in and outside the country by controlling media outlets and journalists. According to the Human Rights Watch, there are at least 60 people currently in jail just for expressing…