Walter Jacobson's Perspective from WGN Plus

No talkie talkie by me this morning about Chicago or Springfield or Washington government and politics. And no crabbing by me about some elected or appointed public official who’s now misbehaving him- or herself. I’m here this morning to talk about myself being 87-years-old and concerned, carefully concerned, because in the news business we’re always […]

In my opinion, the easiest and most comfortable news to report is good news. And I’ve just come across some very good news that was in the news last week. You may have heard it. But even if you have, and for sure if you have not, I’m here this morning to report it again. […]

There are big and important stories in the news today about that endlessly awful war being waged by Russia and Ukraine. And about disease and starvation around the world. And about $10.00 for a dozen eggs here at home. But I just can’t stop thinking about spring fever and baseball. Our Chicago White Sox and […]

He is quite a character, that Elon Musk, believing it's true what the media says, that he is the richest person in the world. And now Elon Musk is behaving like he thinks he’s President of the United States. And I believe it’s fair for me to say that because I’ve been listening to Mr. […]

The news about Walgreens closing stores in Chicago is bad news, and day by day it’s getting worse. The latest being that in the next few weeks, five Walgreens in Chicago neighborhoods will be closing their doors, locking them closed, and covering up their windows, while having no plans to unlock the doors or uncover […]

If you’re not watching the Senate hearings about President Trump’s choices for his Cabinet, you’re not missing much that in my opinion is worth watching. Unless what you want to see are a few distinguished and undistinguished members of the Senate making long-winded speeches as if they’re still campaigning for or against Donald Trump moving […]

The public and often obscene arguments over President Trump’s decisions to fire FBI agents and prosecutors in the Department of Justice are being heard all around, everywhere, along with the expensive and damaging tariffs he says he’s planning against Mexico and Canada. And also his threatening speeches about our most committed allies around the world. […]

We can like or dislike our second time President Donald J. Trump. But we better, we all better, listen and pay attention to everything he says, because he’s changing the ways we are living our lives, most dramatically changing the way he’s dealing with our immigration crisis. President Trump is dispatching federal agents, mostly armed […]

I am sure that I am not the only person having had enough, enough, enough already of that Zuckerberg guy. Mark Zuckerberg, the multibillionaire who owns and operates Instagram and Facebook. In case you’ve missed it, Mark Zuckerberg is changing the way he operates Facebook. He's now permitting messages to be online before they’ve been […]

Good morning, Mr. President Biden. I’m thinking you are ruining your reputation and your legacy with all those presidential pardons and commutations you’ve recently been granting convicted criminals. Like the pardon you granted your son Hunter and more than 1000 pardons and commutations you’ve recently granted in a hurry to beat the clock that in […]

Well, finally, finally, we now have only a few days to wait for the first meeting of Chicago’s first-ever publicly elected Board of Education. Our brand new 21-member Board of Ed is about to begin its difficult process of trying to make our public schools better than they are. I’m dubious about it because the […]

Considering my very sad but nonetheless much-loved Chicago Bears, I’m wondering right now what I’ll do this coming Sunday, knowing very well what I’ll do is what I do every Sunday this time of year: Make myself a chicken salad sandwich, say a prayer to the gods of football, sit down in front of the […]

Here we go again. Or here Rahm goes again. That’s Rahm Emanuel declaring that he may run again for Mayor of Chicago. Or, if Governor Pritzker of Illinois decides not to run again, Rahm Emanuel is saying, Rahm may run for governor. At this particular time in government and politics, Rahm Emanuel is the US […]

It is hard sometimes to keep up with the ups and downs in the government and politics of Chicago’s rookie mayor Brandon Johnson who is trying very hard to quiet and remove from office Pedro Martinez, CEO of our public schools who was hired three years ago by Mayor Lightfoot and since then has been […]

My computer this morning, along with everything else I’m reading, is loaded with news about Donald Trump creating a new White House administration. What I’m not reading, because it’s not being reported anymore, is news about how the newspapers and those talking heads on television helped Donald Trump get reelected. For the end of his […]

Maybe it’s good news, that vote for President. Maybe it’s bad. Depending on whom you voted for, you’re happy or sad. But finally, at long last, we all now know who will be the next occupant of the White House. But we don’t know, and what I am worried about, is who will win the […]

I walked around my neighborhood early this morning before catching the bus that brings me here and I’m still thinking about the Halloween things I saw. Chunky things they seemed to me. Ugly, fake skeletons, coffins, and graveyards dug into charming little gardens alongside the sidewalks in front of some beautiful apartment buildings and private […]

It’s three days now into the Mike Madigan trial and the headlines are in big print on the front pages of Chicago’s biggest newspapers. In the Tribune, for instance, “The Michael Madigan Trial” alongside a big picture of Madigan, his briefcase and his lawyers leaving the courthouse, what they’re calling racketeering case underway. Competing with […]

With happy smiles, beautiful balloons, and tooting trumpets, more than 1,000 people gathered on State Street three days ago to celebrate the Columbus and Indigenous People Parade. Some of them to watch it, others to watch and join the parade. The Columbus people have been hoping, and waiting, and waiting for City Hall to return […]

It’s been 2 1/2 years since Mike Madigan was indicted by a federal grand jury on 23 counts of criminal behavior during 36 years as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. One of the most, if not the most, powerful and popular Chicago politicians ever. For 2 1/2 years, he’s been ever-so-painfully awaiting his […]

I have some bad news to report this morning. The great New York Times – The uppity, uppity New York Times – is once again beating up on Chicago in its most popular Sunday edition. This last Sunday, The New York Times delivered to the world a special section entitled The Restaurant List. Twenty pages […]

So, in Chicago, those now well-known ShotSpotters have run out of time. Their contract with the city has expired and Mayor Johnson says he will not renew it. But there’s a chance it may be back anyway because some members of the City Council are working on bringing it back. The ShotSpotter is a multi-million-dollar […]

The news about who won the presidential debate in Philadelphia last week is getting old. So, let’s start considering something new. A debate in Chicago City Hall this week. It’s getting hot. It’s about Mayor Johnson’s Director of Internal Affairs, Kennedy Bartley, an outspoken young Black woman who’s been interviewed on national television about the […]

For me, it was an OK debate. A lot of emotion and a little bit of anger. But nothing new from either one of the two. How they spoke and what they said is common this late in a campaign game. They were cautious candidates, very cautious to avoid trying a Hail Mary because if […]

The news in the news is moving so fast it’s difficult sometimes to keep up with it, and even more difficult to decide what to say about it. A good example of that is the story about a popular radio talk show in Chicago and the two on-air people who host it. The well-known hard-right […]

Now that both political conventions have come and gone, how about thinking back to those magical days of the Olympics on TV, the amazing athletes, their skills and sportsmanship and friendships in picture-perfect Paris. Just what we needed to interrupt that terrible news about war in Ukraine and Gaza. The wildfires in California. Unbearable heat […]

The night before the Democrats convened their presidential convention in Chicago, there was a civil rights Rainbow PUSH convention going on in honor of the Reverend Jesse Jackson of Chicago. An event not as spectacular as the Democrats. But for me, something extra special to think about because, in Chicago politics, Reverend Jackson and I […]

Just four days now until the Democrats begin their presidential nominating convention in Chicago. Many months after City Hall in Chicago has been agonizing over what may happen here next week, hoping it’s not what happened during the Democrat convention here in 1968, 56 years ago. Horrible things that still hurt to remember but are […]

Thanks, but no thanks, to Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and to the Olympic athletes in Paris who are causing me to watch a lot of television that is clarifying for me a trick of the television trade to make money. More and more money. We’re all watching that trick. You know, those never-ending television […]

Oh, so wild are the politics of campaigning for president. If you’ve had enough of it by now, you might turn your attention to the US Supreme Court and some good news you may be missing. The court has declared it will not rule, or even consider, a request by the national gun lobby to […]

The shock and terror of an attempted assassination of Donald Trump and another weekend of gun violence in Chicago. I’m trying to find something good to think and feel about. How about the 20th birthday of Millennium Park, also known as Millennium Campus? It’s been 20 years since it all began and has now become […]

In our windy, wonderful Chicago, the only thing more powerful than a politician is a newspaper. Specifically, the Chicago Tribune being read every day by hundreds of thousands of people. Which means that what the Tribune says matters. A lot. Three days ago, on page one of the Tribune’s opinion section, its columnist Laura Washington, […]

Summertime is trouble time and a good time to say “bravo” to a Chicago Alderman trying to prevent trouble. That’s Alderman Brian Hopkins of the 2nd Ward, which includes part of the downtown business district and West Loop, River North, and Streeterville. Hopkins has proposed an 8:00 PM curfew for children under 18 walking those […]

Finally, finally, tonight, the presidential debate live on cable TV, CNN. If you have cable and plan to watch, what are you thinking? What are you hoping to see and to hear? Like millions of people around the world, I’m hoping to see and hear if Trump and Biden are healthy and clear-headed enough to […]

The bad news about Justice Clarence Thomas of the US Supreme Court is getting worse with more revelations of Justice Thomas keeping a secret that he has received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from a billionaire political donor suspected of buying votes on issues that are, or soon may be, considered by […]

For as long as I can remember, the Sunday morning newspapers for me have been an every Sunday must, because in addition to behind-the-scenes politics, there are all kinds of news. Like last Sunday, the news about Harold Terens and Jeanne Swerlin of Florida traveling to France to get married on the 80th anniversary of […]

Heads up, everybody! Heads up! Kim Foxx, the State's Attorney of Cook County, wants us to know she is instructing prosecutors in her office not to prosecute people who are driving cars that are stopped by police for routine traffic violations, then searched for illegal guns and drugs. She says too many people are stopped […]

Like so many people, I am glued to news about Donald Trump. But right now I’m thinking about a famous political person here in Illinois who is every bit as well-known as Trump because he was for so many years our Secretary of State. Of course, I’m thinking about Jesse White, whose name and no […]

It’s not a surprise, not at all a surprise, that the Chicago Bears are wasting no time at all to cash in on Caleb Williams, the recently-drafted college superstar quarterback Caleb Williams. The Bears owners and managers in Halas Hall appear to be charging the cost of hiring Caleb Williams to Bear fans, especially season […]

There’s big news being made by the Boy Scouts of America, changing their name from Boy Scouts of America to Scouting of America, a change halting a treasured tradition of more than 100 years calling that group of elite young men the Boy Scouts of America. I never made it to the Boy Scouts, but […]

There are so many ups and downs in the news about the Chicago Bears. Good news about the Bears drafting a superstar college quarterback and a superstar college wide receiver. Very good news. But, for the Bears, there’s bad news about their plans to build a $4,700,000,000 stadium on Chicago’s beloved lakefront, a plan that’s […]

The NFL Draft being done, the football fuss is winding down, so let’s talk baseball. My thoughts are on the Cubs because I forever have been a Cubs fan. I’m a little guy, about 5'5” and 140 lbs, but a very big Cubs fan. In fact, 72 years ago, when I was 15 years old, […]