As 2010 closes out and we reflect on the coming year, we urge each of you to do your part to set a different tone for 2011.

This time of year, many Americans are taking a break from the drudgery of work, and enjoying the holidays.

At one point it was the most notorious public housing address in the nation.

There is a battle going on for the soul of this country, and it will be played out in the polling places on November 2. One side’s battle cry is “take back our country!” They say they want to return to the days when the government did not spend beyond its means and didn’t intrude in every household – which would mean the Clinton Administration.

The Republican Party has spent most of the past two years as the "Party of No," opposing nearly every policy proposed by President Obama and Democrats in Congress --a strategy that has worked politically, according to polls that say this November's election could sweep Republicans back into the majority in the House and possibly the Senate. But until last week, the Republican Party had offered no agenda of its own--so party leaders finally produced one: the lofty-sounding "Pledge to America."

It’s time to stop the nonsense.

The city has announced that one of its programs to combat youth violence this summer will be to step up enforcement of the 11 p.m. curfew for children under the age of 17 on weekends. But in certain high-crime districts, those weekend curfew violators will not go directly to jail. They will go to the park.

What happened to the Illinois capital plan? I remember reading about the 439,000 jobs it was going to create and the $31 billion it was going to invest in communities across the state.

We are at the four year crossroad, where we have an opportunity to elect a governor and a United States Senator, able to address these calamities that are upon us. There are those who want you to think that your only options are either Brady or Quinn; a Democrat or a Republican “Tweetlee Dee” or “Tweetlee Dum.”