Wintertime in Chicago can be brutal but we make the most of it. There are many indoor / outdoor events to cure cabin fever and one of them was held this past weekend in Grant Park. “Snow Days” featured a snow sculpture contest that attracted talent from all over the nation and the world. I first heard about the event in the men’s room at Shenanigans (that’s a story in itself for another time) and decided to check it out. Here are a few shots of the very impressive entries for you to enjoy. [More]

I just read a disturbing article that says Chicago Police officials are considering dropping the entrance exam in order to boost the number of minority officers in the city. Local ministers have been calling for Chicago Police Chief Jody Wiess to hire more African-American officers because although Blacks make up 36.5% of the population, 1 in 4 patrol officers are black but only 1 in 12 Lieutenants are African-American.

I’ll pause for you to think about this for a moment…

While enjoying a wonderful Saturday afternoon at Navy Pier’s Winterfest I failed a child.

Like dozens of other people standing in line to return skates I witnessed a woman striking a young girl who looked to be four years old repeatedly in the forehead with a tube of lock De-Icer. In a stabbing motion she hit the child repeatedly saying she would #@%% her up if she went in her purse again. She looked up to see my shocked face and said “What? What if she went in my purse and lost $400?”

In the wake of an attempted Christmas Day terror attack on a Detroit bound airplane I have to wonder if we are taking the right approach to the terrorist threat. Our responsibility as the world’s superpower is to set an example of level justice while protecting our citizens. This puts us at a grave disadvantage when dealing with the shadowy networks of blood thirsty killers waiting in our very midst to kill and kill again. Gitmo is closing, profiling is out, torture should is beneath us and getting to the root of the antagonists in the Middle East has proven difficult.