Topic: Al Capone

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9 best books featuring notorious figures

Thomas Craughwell lists these books as the best myth-busting histories centered on notorious figures.

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Backchannels US in Afghanistan: Why throw more good money after bad?

That two more US troops were killed by an Afghan soldier today is a reminder that the Afghanistan 'surge,' which ended last year, accomplished few of its objectives.
Decoder Wire Geraldo Rivera Senate run more likely due to Lautenberg retirement?

Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey announced he will not run for reelection in 2014. Geraldo Rivera had already been making noises about challenging him.
Who is 'El Chapo' Guzman, Public Enemy Number One?

Chicago has resurrected its "Public Enemy No. 1" designation, not used since it was created for Al Capone, to label Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Luera.
Chapter & Verse 'Mafia Summit' explores a historic – and disastrous – meeting between Mob leaders

Federal law enforcement arrested dozens during a meeting between Mafia leaders near the New York-Pennsylvania border, as explored by writer Gil Reavill in his book 'Mafia Summit.'
Pirate attacks off Somalia plummet thanks to navies, armed guards

The pirate attacks are down 65 percent to their lowest level since 2009.
Culture Cafe 'Boardwalk Empire' season 3 premiere explores old and new character motivations

'Boardwalk Empire' returns for season 3 and moves beyond being only a impressively costumed drama.
Patrick Fitzgerald, nemesis of Rod Blagojevich, steps down

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald on Thursday ruled out two options for his next career move, saying he’s not wired to run for office and quipping, 'Can you see me as a defense attorney?'
Chapter & Verse 12 days of disaster that changed Chicago forever

Author Gary Krist looks back at 1919 and the blimp crash, murder, and race riot that made the Chicago the metropolis we know today.
Editor's Blog The tax man taketh -- and sometimes giveth

From outside, the workings of a big bureaucracy like the IRS seem mysterious and arbitrary. From the inside, it all makes perfect sense. Actually, you could say that about most workplaces.
Latin America Monitor The pope in Cuba: a reporter's notebook

Beyond the frustrations of reporting in Havana lies the real story: Cuba, for all its romance and beauty, remains an authoritarian state, writes Girish Gupta.
9 best books featuring notorious figures

Thomas Craughwell lists these books as the best myth-busting histories centered on notorious figures.
HBO makes great TV from books

How do you compress a complicated novel into a two-hour, cinema-friendly format? The answer, most often, is: you can't. A better solution for many authors is to have their books turned into HBO series. The end result is often an in-depth adaptation – with story and characters intact – that would have been impossible get at the multiplex. Here are some of the best-known books that have been turned into successful HBO series – with many more to come.
12/19/2011 03:53 pm
Gift ideas for everyone: 'Harry Potter,' Adele, 'Law & Order,' and 'Super Mario 3D'

Your gift list can get long with nieces and nephews, grandparents and friends all needing a present this holiday season. Try a few of these items that are sure to please like 'Winnie the Pooh,' 'Ken Burns: Prohibition,' and the video game 'Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.'
12/06/2011 11:11 am
Culture Cafe 'Prohibition' – so much more than gangsters and flappers

This Sunday (8 to 10 p.m. EDT) Ken Burns turns his prodigious research efforts and illuminating camerawork loose on America's failed attempt to sober up.
09/28/2011 04:32 pm
The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll, by Preston Lauterbach.

A groundbreaking history of the black juke joints that birthed rock 'n' roll.
08/02/2011 06:02 pm
'Dramatic change' to marijuana laws? What bill before Congress would do.

A new bipartisan bill would remove marijuana from the company of heroin and cocaine in federal regulations, leaving it to the states to legalize pot – or not. Inter-state trafficking would remain a federal crime.
06/24/2011 09:49 pm
How Rahm Emanuel might reinvent Chicago politics

He takes over a city that will test his legendary toughness and may become a laboratory for addressing the problems that plague urban areas in hard times.
05/16/2011 12:31 pm
City of big shoulders: Mayors past

A look back at some of the men and one woman who have led Chicago from the mayor's office.
05/16/2011 12:27 pm
4 great summer books for middle-grade readers

Once school is out, will your young reader be likely to pick up a book? The answer is yes – if the right title is at hand. Here are four strong summer reading choices for kids from ages 9 up.
05/13/2011 09:10 am
Mafia arrests: Four of the most famous mob busts in history

The FBI announced the biggest anti-Mafia operation in its history Thursday. In all, 127 people allegedly linked to the mob were arrested. Here are the stories of four of the biggest mobsters ever arrested.
01/20/2011 05:31 pm
Donald Marron The economics of Al-Qaeda in Iraq

Where does the money trail lead, for Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)?
12/29/2010 05:00 pm
Ideas for a better world in 2011

In many ways, 2010 is a year you may want to relegate to the filing cabinet quickly. It began with a massive earthquake in Haiti and wound down with North Korea once again being an enfant terrible – bizarrely trying to conduct diplomacy through brinkmanship. In between came Toyota recalls and egg scares, pat downs at airports and unyielding unemployment numbers, too little money in the Irish treasury and too many bedbugs in American sheets. Oil gushed from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico for three months, mocking the best intentions of man and technology to stop it, while ash from a volcano in Iceland darkened Europe temporarily as much as its balance sheets. Yet not all was gloomy. The winter Olympics in Canada and the World Cup in South Africa dazzled with their displays of athletic prowess and national pride, becoming hearths around which the world gathered. In Switzerland, the world's largest atom smasher hurled two protons into each other at unfathomable speeds. Then came the year's most poignant moment – the heroic and improbable rescue of 33 miners from the clutches of the Chilean earth. There were many transitions, too – the return of the Republicans in Washington and the Tories in Britain, the scaling back of one war (Iraq) and the escalation of another (Afghanistan), the fall of some powers (Greece) and rise of others (China, Germany, Lady Gaga). To get the new year off to the right start, we decided to ask various thinkers for one idea each to make the world a better place in 2011. We plumbed poets and political figures, physicists and financiers, theologians and novelists. Some of the ideas are provocative, others quixotic. Some you will agree with, others you won't. But in the modest quest to stir a discussion – from academic salons to living rooms to government corridors – we offer these 25 ideas.
12/26/2010 12:56 pm
Spain's 'Operation Greyhound' nabs one of the country's most decorated athletes

Marta Domínguez, world champion in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, was one of 14 athletes, coaches, doctors, and others arrested in Spain's latest anti-doping investigation.
12/10/2010 01:45 pm
Get Capone

Journalist Jonathan Eig presents a compelling portrait of America’s all-time favorite crime boss.
04/30/2010 10:46 am
The rocky shores of Alcatraz bloom once again

Alcatraz is a forbidding landscape, but its rocky gardens – once tended by prisoners and families of the guards – are being restored, and bloom once again.
04/26/2010 05:23 pm