It’s like déjà vu all over again: City Hall insiders asking politicians to leap before they look.

This time it’s proposals backed by the YIMBY (“yes in my back yard”) movement to lift height limits and eliminate parking requirements in order to promote even more high-density residential development, beyond what the law already allows.

I'm quite sure there are few things in this world Chicago Police superintendent Eddie Johnson has not seen, which makes his news conference this week on the Jussie Smollett case all the more remarkable.

In a time when over-the-top, inaccurate reports in the news and entertainment media are commonplace, Johnson's pointed comments on the latest manufactured hate hoax not only stood out, they will stand the test of time.

The Democratic National Committee has released its preliminary rules for the first two presidential primary debates to be held in June and July. The party has announced some format details, as well as polling and fundraising thresholds candidates need to meet to qualify for the debate stage.

Looking at a field that could expand beyond 20 candidates, the party wants to avoid repeating the same mistakes the Republican Party made in the 2016 primary. However, party officials at least want it to appear like they are learning from their own mistakes as well.

When President Donald Trump declared a national state of emergency to advance construction of a wall on the United States’ southern border, debate sparked over whether such use of broad executive power would come back to bite the Republican Party should a Democratic president do the same.  

And perhaps that president should: with a myriad of legitimate crises facing our nation and our world, perhaps we should be embracing innovative ideas to address them.

Bernie Sanders has officially announced his intentions to run in 2020 for the presidential nomination.

There is only one thing that can counter-balance the nefarious forces and entrenched special interests that have compromised our democracy and now threaten the very institutions that have defined our country for almost two and a half centuries. That one thing is the collective voice of We the People.

But where and when can that collective voice be heard?

As another government shutdown loomed over the border wall, many people wondered if the newfound calls for unity in President Trump's State of the Union message had the potential for any bipartisan cooperation. Though Congress managed to pass a bill to avoid the shutdown, short-term results look distinctly unsatisfying.

As another government shutdown loomed over the border wall, many people wondered if the newfound calls for unity in President Trump's State of the Union message had the potential for any bipartisan cooperation. Though Congress managed to pass a bill to avoid the shutdown, short-term results look distinctly unsatisfying.

America's two major political parties may dominate nearly every elected office in the country, but they remain eager to further restrict any competition in several states.

What's taking place in Arkansas right now is a prime example. State Senator Trent Garner has introduced a bill to give his state what would arguably be the toughest ballot access laws in the country. In the last two cycles only the Libertarian Party has managed the current petitioning requirements for statewide ballot access: 10,000 signatures in 90 days.

In what’s quickly becoming a crowded field for president in 2020, the partisan media has already begun to dismiss all but a few presidential hopefuls both explicitly and implicitly.