Chicago Tribune, March 6, 2016 — In 1904, Chicago got an early taste of how the competing interests of security and privacy would start to play out for law enforcement and the telecom industry — in an episode with echoes of today’s dispute between Apple and the FBI, over information that might be gleaned about the… Continue reading Long before iPhones, cops battled phone use in fight against gambling
Tag: chicago
If you toured Chicago in 1910, what would you do?
Classical music in Chicago
This article by Robert Loerzel originally appeared in Listen magazine’s September-October 2009 issue. When poet Carl Sandburg called Chicago “Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,” he easily could have added “Music Maker” to that list. The City of the Big Shoulders forged so many of the sounds that became popular American… Continue reading Classical music in Chicago
When another Senate seat was up for sale
The Huffington Post, February 6, 2009 — A hundred years ago, political tensions were running high in Illinois. Everyone wanted to know the answer to one suspenseful question: Who would be the new U.S. Senator from Illinois? The struggle to answer that question would stretch on for four years, as charges of bribery and corruption rocked… Continue reading When another Senate seat was up for sale
When the world watched Chicago
The Huffington Post, December 6, 2008 — As just about everyone pointed out on Tuesday night, Barack Obama’s election as president was a moment of huge historical significance for the nation. Obama’s eloquent election-night speech in Grant Park is also surely one of the great moments in Chicago history… Read my blog post at the… Continue reading When the world watched Chicago
Another banking crisis: Chicago’s Panic of 1896
The Huffington Post, November 10, 2008 — The news from Wall Street is prompting a lot of comparisons with the Great Depression, but the history books are filled with other similar financial crises. Throughout the 1800s, when the government barely regulated the financial markets at all, speculative bubbles and piles of bad loans caused several… Continue reading Another banking crisis: Chicago’s Panic of 1896