obama chicago tribune

Summaries to spell out health insurance coverage, copays

Don’t have the slightest clue what your health insurance covers?

The Obama administration says that’s going to change, starting this year. Officials announced Thursday that private health plans will have to provide consumers with a user-friendly summary…

Indiana among states getting waivers from No Child Left Behind

President Barack Obama on Thursday will free Indiana and nine other states from the strict and sweeping requirements of the No Child Left Behind education law in exchange for promises to improve the way schools teach and evaluate students.

The move is a…

10 states get education waivers

President Barack Obama on Thursday will free 10 states from the strict and sweeping requirements of the No Child Left Behind education law in exchange for promises to improve the way schools teach and evaluate students.

The move is a tacit…

URGENT ^APNewsBreak: Official: 10 states get ed waiver

The Associated Press has learned that President Barack Obama on Thursday will free 10 states from the strict requirements of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. The move gives long-sought leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and…

What others are saying

Members of the Obama administration aren’t forcing religious organizations to violate their creeds because they are secular fundamentalists who place no value on religious liberty. They are doing it because they operate in a technocracy. Technocrats are…

A United Nations — but for good guys

The governments in Russia and China very much want to uphold the principle that every now and then, the state must crush people who want freedom. That is why they worked together to veto a fairly toothless United Nations resolution condemning the regime…

Super democracy

One of the surprising things about this year’s Republican presidential race is how long it’s gone on and how competitive and unpredictable it’s been. What’s different this year?

It’s not just the candidates or the political climate. It might just have…

Not since, um, 2008 …

“I don’t stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama.”

— Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Feb. 7, 2012

This is some Republican contest for…