Before and After and a Disaster Course Online

by admin | Aug 7, 2018 | Business, Disaster, Government, Natural Hazards, Public safety, Resilience, Urban Planning

In two weeks, I will deliver my first online course with the Sustainable City Network (SCN), an organization I’ve become familiar with in recent years. Last October, I blogged about a keynote presentation by Kristin Baja at their annual conference in Dubuque....

We Must Be Gandalf

by admin | Jul 18, 2018 | Activism, Books, Crime, Government, History, Journalism, National security, Politics

It is a dramatic and evocative scene. In The Two Towers, the second novel of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Grima Wormtongue, a spy at the service of the evil wizard Saruman, has gained control of the mind of Théoden, the king of Rohan, which is on the...

Paris Minus U.S., One Year Later

by admin | Jun 3, 2018 | Activism, Business, Climate, Economics, Environment, Government, Politics, Renewable Energy

Last Friday, June 1, marked one full year since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from participation in the Paris climate accords that President Barack Obama had signed just two years ago. As too often is the case in this administration, one wonders...

Power, Perception, and Pilate

by admin | May 29, 2018 | Books, Christianity, Civil rights, Government, History, Racism, Religion

On May 10, my wife and I attended a matinee performance of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. Coming a month after the Easter evening (April 1) NBC broadcast of this ground-breaking rock opera by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, it allowed some...

Frog-Marching Illinois into the Dark Past

by admin | May 16, 2018 | Chicago, Crime, Government, Public policy, Public safety

  Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, elected in 2014 and up for re-election this year as the Republican nominee, has made manipulative politics the centerpiece of his first term, at the expense of passing a budget through a Democrat-dominated legislature. Illinois has...

FEMA Needs to Think about This One

by admin | May 7, 2018 | Disaster, Disaster policy, Floodplain management, Government, Natural Hazards, Parks, Public policy, Public safety

There is that old saying that, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. To that, one might add that, if you’re thinking about fixing it anyway, you may want to clarify exactly how you wish to improve things and why you think the improvement will be better. In a February 27...