"Magic bullet" is the wrong metaphor, on so many levels, to apply to solutions to Chicago's violence epidemic.  Each intervention -- smarter policing, neighborhood watch, providing after-school activities, stronger parenting, getting guns off the steets, reducing violent culture, and giving young people hope for their future -- takes no more than the proverbial bite out of crime.  Any successful strategy needs to be comprehensiv

As part of their Renaissance 2010 school transformation plan, the administration of the Chicago Public Schools annually announces a list of low-performing schools to be closed. What's different this year is that community groups are at the table with CPS for the first time.

In the cage match that resulted in the CTA funding deal in Springfield, one of the facts that got lost in the final reporting is that the final deal (minus the senior citizen freebie) is the same plan that state representative Julie Hamos constructed with community groups after a series of town hall meetings more than a year ago.

There is a small group of Chicagoans who are having a disproportionate effect on the primary elections. They've been on the campaign trail, they've stumped for their candidate, in some cases raised money for them, and have flipped votes no one would expect them to flip. They've already had more impact on this election than most of us who consider ourselves politically engaged.

And they're not even old enough to vote.

The news so often feels beyond our control. Issues of globalization, war, poverty, racism, and climate change all seem so impossibly big that we don't even want to pay attention anymore. We don't need another reminder of our powerlessness.

And yet there are Chicagoans every day who are making a difference on those same issues. Their stories inspire hope and prove to us that ingenuity, compassion, and action can make a difference.