Ronald Holt walked into the Cook County Criminal Courts Building this morning with his son still fresh on his mind.

Jury selection soon was to get underway today for the trial of a 17-year-old accused of gunning down Holt’s16-year-old son, Blair, on a CTA bus in May 2007.

Holt expected to sit through hours of jury selection; instead, he received an unexpected surprise.

I crossed an ethical line in journalism this morning.

I gave a hug to a person involved in one of my stories, and that's something we reporters are trained not to do.

We walk right up to tragedy, sometimes a dozen or more times per year, and we're supposed to greet it with a stiff upper lip.

The University of Illinois responded to Gov. Quinn's announcement of the formation of the Admissions Review Commission.

The President of U of I began the statement:

Today, Governor Pat Quinn announced the formation of an Admissions Review Commission, an independent, fact-finding group that the governor has named to investigate claims of special treatment for some applicants to the University of Illinois.

On behalf of our University community, I thank the Governor for this initiative and express our appreciation to retired federal Judge Abner Mikva, who will chair the Commission, and all those who have agreed to serve.

Read the full statement here.

For more on the investigation, follow the story on to the Breaking New Center.

I've reported on some heinous and heartless crimes over my career, but this is one of the cruelest.

Earlier this month, 15-year-old Alex Arellano's brutalized body was found in a gangway on the Southwest Side. He had been beaten, burned and shot in the head.

Summer break is about to get shorter for hundreds of Chicago Public Schools students.

The Board of Education is expected to approve a plan today expanding the number of year-round elementary schools from 65 to 132 by fall.

Students at year-round schools have the same number of school days as children at schools with traditional schedules, but instead of one long summer break, they have shorter mini breaks.

If you haven’t heard by now, some 16 Whitney Young High School students were among 27 Chicago-area teens arrested Saturday in a downstate hotel and charged with underage drinking. The teens were there for the high school basketball championship tournament, which Whitney Young captured later Saturday night. I ventured to Whitney Young on Chicago's West Side this morning to get the students take on what happened to their classmates over the weekend.

Money from the federal stimulus package will flow into school districts across America, but it could actually make school systems that are fiscally fit-- wealthier.

The New York Times has an interesting report on the complex formulas the federal government uses to divvy up funds. (Read the NYT article here)
Some formulas help districts that already spend more per student while others distribute funding based on population.

Some could end up with extra cash.
Other districts-- not enough to stop teacher layoffs and program cuts.

Will those wealthier districts give their share back?
Should they?
Is there a way to just simply ASK whether a school district needs the additional cash?

When people ask me how I ended up in journalism I proudly tell them: I didn’t choose journalism, journalism chose me. My mother hates it when I say this, but it’s the truth.

When I was in high school, I was extremely shy. Instead of eating in the cafeteria, I would eat at a single desk in the corner of my high school newspaper office. One day, the teacher in charge of the paper asked me if I wanted to help them out and possibly write a story. Well I jumped at the chance, and so began my career in journalism. Journalism helped me overcome my shyness.

This morning some 200 Simeon Career Academy students boarded buses bound for Springfield. They’re on a mighty mission -- to try and save their classmates.

So far this school year, 29 Chicago Public School students have been killed.
Many of them died from gun violence. Fourteen-year-old Gregory Robinson was one of them. A mild-mannered, nerdy freshman with good grades and a passion for basketball, he became a statistic Friday night, when someone sprayed bullets into his cousin’s car. A single gunshot to his back and his young life was over in a matter of minutes. Many students are worried that more Chicago teens will die if something isn't done to stem this senseless violence.

According to Chicago Breaking News the CPS is taking drastic measures to try to end the violence at recent high school basketball games. Three new rules have been implemented. All boys varsity games will begin at 4 P.M., the visiting team's fans will not be allowed to attend the games and in some cases, where there is a history of trouble between the schools, no fans will be allowed to attend the game.

With temperatures down to seven degrees below zero and wind chills around 30 degrees below zero almost all school districts have cancelled school for the day except for the Chicago Public Schools and a few suburban schools.
CPS schools rarely close down for any weather related incidents. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
With these sub zero temperatures it is dangerous for students to be in the cold waiting at bus stops or walking to nearby schools. However, if school is cancelled some parents have nowhere to bring their children for the day.
So are the CPS and the few suburban schools doing a responsible thing today by having school because they are helping out the parents or are they doing an irresponsible thing by not being cautious about the health of their students? What do you think? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Update: A viewer requested we post the statement from CPS concerning yesterday's cold weather.

These days, good news seems to be hard to come by. Which makes this story worth celebrating. Pershing West Elementary Magnet School principal Cheryl Watkins was one of two local educators awarded the $25,000 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award today. Watch her reaction to the news.

Chicago may soon become a new model for tolerance in high school.

Today, Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan recommended that the school board approve plans for 20 new schools, including the first high school for gay, lesbian, transgendered teens and allies.

Does it really teach tolerance? I don't think so.

What it does is send a message--a wrong message--that Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered people are different and need to be separate.

Turns out that staying in school makes a lot of sense for students and taxpayers.

A new study out of Boston's Northeastern University found taxpayers - get this - lose $221,000 over the course of a lifetime for each Illinois student who drops out of school.
All I can say is, wow! Now, that's money that could be in my savings account.

It’s a situation we see more often than we would like to in this country.
And once again, the issue of teen pregnancy is back in the national spotlight.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you must have heard the news that presumptive Vice Presidential Nominee Governor Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter –Bristol - is 5 months pregnant.

CLTV has been covering the planned boycott of the first day of classes for Chicago Public Schools throughout the day today. Below are reports from Randi Belisomo and Carlos Hernandez Gomez. Stay tuned to CLTV for continuous coverage and weigh in on the topic by leaving a comment.

Spanking, swats and licks.
A quarter of a million schoolchildren got them last year - and a new study says African American, American Indians and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment.

While a majority of states have outlawed corporal punishment, it remains widespread across the south, according to the study by the Human Rights Watch. The national P-T-A believes paddling should be banned everywhere.

And I wholeheartedly agree.

The issue of celebrating holidays came up this week during a school board meeting in Oak Lawn. The Ridgeland School District 122 is comprised of about 30 percent Muslim students. The issue brought before the school board during a Tuesday night meeting is whether or not Christian holidays, like Christmas, should still be celebrated given the rainbow of religions peppering the student body.