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Chicago Tribune Opinion

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Good morning, Chicago. The last time I drove on DuSable Lake Shore Drive a few weeks ago, I’d say a few of my fellow motorists were within 5 mph of the speed limit. But the majority were treating the drive like the Autobahn.

Considering how dangerous driver behavior there has become, the Tribune Editorial Board endorses looking at ways to make DuSable Lake Shore Drive safer, such as a state-authorized university study of using artificial intelligence-enabled cameras. In the meantime, the board suggests going with a tried-and-true strategy of improving compliance with the speed limit: police patrols and radar guns.

In its other piece, the board takes issue with a state law that expands mental health screenings for public school students, finding the details scant as to how the screenings and opt-outs will work and whether good intentions will lead to a lot of false positives.

In Commentary, a Chicago Public Schools parent details the transportation crisis that has parents and kids scrambling, and a university professor notes that censorship of history, whether it’s conservatives or liberals doing it, is something we must work hard to prevent. And foreign affairs columnist Daniel DePetris examines what President Donald Trump’s reversal on a ceasefire deal, following his summit with Vladimir Putin, means for Ukrainians and Europeans.

Also, be sure to check out our letters to the editor. (If you want to submit one to us, please click on the link below.)

Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.

— Colleen Kujawa, opinion editor

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Editorial: DuSable Lake Shore Drive has become unsafe. Let’s do something about it.

Chicago’s iconic highway along Lake Michigan has become a drag strip. We have an old-fashioned idea for changing that.

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Editorial: A state law giving school kids mental health screenings leaves the sensitive details to bureaucrats

State lawmakers, in their haste to pass well-intentioned legislation, sure did leave a heck of a lot of details to unelected bureaucrats.

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Paul Wargaski: My son still doesn’t have a way to get to school in Chicago

Chicago must stop treating school transportation like an afterthought and start treating it like the educational lifeline that it is.

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Jonathan Zimmerman: Liberals have also censored history

When racist memorials are pulled down, they should be placed somewhere else. Otherwise, we won’t learn the awful history they embody.

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Daniel DePetris: Donald Trump reverses course on a ceasefire in Ukraine. What can Europe expect now?

President Donald Trump also changed his mind about whether to gift Ukraine security guarantees from the U.S.

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Letters: Op-ed about Boundary Waters misleads readers about mining in northeast Minnesota

Mining in Minnesota is done in an environmentally sound way; it also benefits Minnesotans across the state through education funding and tax revenue.

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