Local Couple Profiled in Tribune's 'Love Notes' Column

The Chicago Tribune picked up the story of Paul and Mickey Franson—a local couple with a special connection to Gordon Park in La Grange—this weekend.

The love story of Paul and Mickey Franson made news again this weekend. This time, the couple shared their story in the Chicago Tribune's Sunday column, Love Notes. The couple have a special connection to Gordon Park in La Grange, as first reported by La Grange Patch in an article by Laurie Whitman titled, Love at the Chimney: High School Reunion Reignites Old Romance.  Paul and Mickey were high school sweethearts back in the 70s at Lyons Township High School, but after high school, their lives led them down different paths. The two were reunited at a their high school reunion 35 years later and the romance was rekindled. La Grange Patch first learned about the story in the most unlikely of places: the La Grange Police blotter. The call to…

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Jeff Ward

Jeff Ward: Trust Me! There is Such a Thing as Too Much Self-Esteem!

Though he's better than John Kass (but who isn't?), Tribune columnist John Keilman got it all wrong when he said the self-esteem glut is more imagined than real.

So I stared in stunned silence as I read page two of the June 26 Chicago Tribune. As if John Kass and his coma-inducing compositions weren’t bad enough, now they’re rotating other columnists though that space on his off days. Of course, my first thought was, how the heck can you tell he’s taking a day off? Just run an empty space and people will think they read his column anyway. So I was grateful for the respite until I read that hard-hitting page 2 piece on one reporter’s obsession with her front lawn. And Robert McCormick and Mike Royko are spinning in their graves as we speak. But the column that really frosted my cookies was the aforementioned piece by John Keilman, who ignored his New Age-inspired higher self when he waded in on the …

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Jeff Ward

3:44 pm on Sunday, July 8, 2012

Kent, Even I have to admit that many of the things you said about Mr. Kass are true. It's just that I like to have some fun with folks who take themselves far too seriously. Actually, he gets into trouble when he tries to be Mike Royko. He just can't do it and it send the entire column spinning into a death spiral. Even though I agree with his general point, the whole "hopium" thing just isn't …   more ›

Tribune Rethinks TribLocal

Chicago-based Journatic will take over production of TribLocal.

Jeff Ward: Notes on West Suburban Civilization

Jeff Ward: The Internet, Sales Tax and an Off-the-Mark Tribune Editorial

Am I the only one with a keen perception of the obvious?

I’ve gotta stop reading that Chicago Tribune op-ed page because it’s making me crazy. There was a time when, of the five newspapers arriving daily on my driveway, the Trib would be the first freed from its overstretched plastic prison. Now the Sun-Times is No. 1. And here’s one of the reasons for that top-five shift. In a Nov. 18 editorial, the Tribune tackled the touchy topic of Internet sales tax by coming out in support of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s “Marketplace Fairness Act,” which mandates attaching sales tax to every Internet purchase. Considering individual states’ prior boondoggle-ish attempts to collect that tariff, the editorial did manage to get one thing right. Durbin’s streamlined bill is head and shoulders above anything …

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John Kass on Distinguishing News From Opinion: Don't Watch TV

Kass joined other journalists discussing the impact of the media on public opinion at a League of Women Voters of the La Grange Area event Nov. 16 at LTHS.

Longtime journalist Charles Madigan said news readers need to learn to filter opinion from straight news if they want to gain a clearer understanding of political issues. "Noise is noise and you need to know the difference," Madigan told a group of nearly 200 people at a League of Women Voters of the La Grange Area event Tuesday night at Lyons Township High School, 100 S. Brainard Ave. Madigan, presidential writer in residence at Roosevelt University, along with Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, and nationally syndicated family and culture columnist Besty Hart, took part in a panel discussion called "Public Debate in the Age of Anger," which addressed the degree in which public agendas are informed by the media. In an age when the …

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Bob Bajek

11:28 am on Friday, November 19, 2010

I met John Kass at the Chicago Tribune twice this summer and he was really funny but intellectual at the same time.   more ›