Selecting Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation -- effectively giving a presidential endorsement to Warren's self-anointment as "America's Pastor" -- is a Sister Souljah moment for Barack Obama, a demonstration that he's willing to disregard the concerns of a key constituency. It's not his first, but I think it's the...

On December 5, the day Republic Windows workers occupied their factory, the Department of Labor announced 533,000 jobs lost in November, the largest loss in over 30 years.

The news on unemployment gave national resonance to the window makers' plight. It also meant that for Republic workers, "it was riskier...

President-elect Barack Obama now faces tremendous challenges, and local advocates and organizers -- many of whom have worked with Obama over the years -- offer a range of ideas on how to make the bailout work, address the foreclosure crisis, target economic stimulus to jobs and better transportation, and move...

In what may have been his last public act, Studs Terkel joined a call on Attorney General Lisa Madigan to resolve the cases of Burge torture victims who've been incarcerated for decades based on coerced confessions.

Studs was one of scores of human rights advocates who signed a new report...

Why all the gloom? asks Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune. "Aside from the transitory effects of the current turmoil," things are getting better every day!

His evidence?

"In the second quarter [of 2008], the economy grew at a brisk 3.3 percent rate." Of course, that's...