Metering is ON

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Mark Brown biography

Mark Brown is a local news columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times who writes about everything from political corruption to family life. Roger Ebert once called …Read More

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A $40,000 paperweight? You might be surprised

When the clock struck 5 p.m. Monday, the attention of a highly devoted group of art collectors from around the world turned to a small shop on the second floor of South Michigan Avenue’s Fine Arts Building — or more precisely, to its website. The …

  • Mark my words: Warm winter means weather woe is coming

    We’re going to pay for this. If you’ve lived around here long enough, then you’ll know that what I’m saying is true. You’ve probably already been saying it to yourself or to your spouse or as a warning to the kiddies. There is a price …Read More

  • Longer school day, shorter tempers

    A new feature made its debut at Wednesday’s meeting of the Chicago Board of Education: a time clock. The clock, displayed on video screens, counted down from two hours in an effort to limit the public participation period that starts every board meeting. Eighty-three speakers …Read More

  • We’re used to City Council outbursts

    It struck some people as undemocratic — even downright un-American — for Chicago aldermen last week to propose prohibiting audience members from cheering or jeering during City Council meetings. I’ve got to admit my own reaction was more surprise the City Council didn’t already have …Read More

  • Classic Cinemas bans little kids from R movies, restores sanity to movie going

    A locally owned theater chain with a large suburban customer base took a small step toward restoring sanity and courtesy to the movie-going experience Friday by announcing a new policy aimed at keeping youngsters out of R-rated films. Now if somebody can just figure out …Read More

  • Speeding to Kalamazoo aboard Amtrak’s high-speed train

    When the Pioneer Zephyr — better known as the Silver Streak — made its historic run from Denver to Chicago in 1934, the diesel-powered passenger train now on display at the Museum of Science and Industry topped out at 112.5 miles per hour, which at …Read More

  • 1st black SIU grad made good in city

    Alexander Lane, the first African-American man to graduate from what would become Southern Illinois University, moved to Chicago in the early 1890s. Lane enrolled at Rush Medical College, earned his doctor’s degree in 1895 and started a practice on the South Side. Later, he was …Read More

    • Voters disappear from city rolls

    Fewer Chicagoans are registered to vote than for any election since the city started keeping records during World War II, strong evidence of a level of disinterest that I should probably take as my cue to write about something else. Then again, I never could …

  • By The Hand Club For Kids one of city’s best kept secrets

    Seventh-graders Jaylen Murphy and Jamara Johnson were my helpful tour guides recently when I visited a non-descript building hiding an oasis on the grounds of what used to be the Cabrini-Green housing development. Though the surrounding landscape was as bleak and forbidding as ever, Jaylen …Read More

  • Stick with reality, not perception

    Perception is a funny thing. My perception at this very moment is that City Clerk Susana Mendoza showed herself Wednesday to be one of the more chicken-hearted public officials I’ve seen around here in quite some time. I could be wrong, of course. Others will …Read More

  • Experts: Not enough help for those with developmental disabilities

    In the heated debate last week over whether Calumet City Police acted properly when they shot and killed an autistic teenager in his family’s basement, one of the most important aspects of the tragedy received scant attention. Why were the police called to the home …Read More

  • State’s Attorney Alvarez not up to the task of investigating Koschman case

    MARK BROWN: Just finished a second reading of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s court filing in which she explains all the reasons there’s no need for a special prosecutor to investigate the death of David Koschman. As all Sun-Times readers know, Koschman is the …Read More

  • Don Cornelius influenced this kid from a small Downstate town

    MARK BROWN: Don Cornelius was a big influence in my life, not that I’d ever thought it through exactly before Wednesday’s report that the “Soul Train” creator had killed himself.

  • Chicagoans deserves to know who paid for protesters at school hearings

    With all due respect to Sara Paretsky’s latest novel, the hottest mystery in Chicago right now is: “Who Paid for Those Rent-a-Protesters?” I hope you’ve been following this one closely, because it may be the most delicious little whodunit since the never-solved mystery of who …Read More

  • Think twice, Dems, before voting for Newt Gringich in the primary

    Northfield Township Democratic Committeeman Michael Kreloff was still one of those lakefront independent types who occasionally found a Republican candidate to his liking when he ran for 49th Ward committeeman back in 1980. His opponent was Mike Brady, a young hotshot in Mayor Jane Byrne’s …Read More

  • Illinois Democrats might be tempted to cross over in March

    As someone who normally votes for Democrats, I’ve been following the battle for the Republican presidential nomination with a mixture of detachment and indifference. I figured I didn’t have any say in the matter, so until it’s over, why worry about whether Republicans pick Romney, …Read More

  • Jury selection needs reform

    Late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Zagel put an end — for now — to the latest flap over whether a juror’s failure to disclose her criminal background had unfairly tainted a high-profile federal conviction. But Zagel’s finding that Illinois Republican powerhouse William Cellini is …Read More

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