John Kass
John Kass has covered a variety of topics since arriving at the Chicago Tribune in 1983.
The son of a Greek immigrant grocer, Kass was born June 23, 1956, on Chicago’s South Side and grew up there and in Oak Lawn. He held a number of jobs — merchant marine sailor, ditch digger, waiter — before becoming a film student at Columbia College in Chicago. There, he worked at the student newspaper and caught the attention of Daryle Feldmeir, chairman of the journalism department and former editor of the Chicago Daily News.
Feldmeir and journalism professor Les Brownlee helped him obtain an internship at the Daily Calumet in 1980, where Kass worked as a reporter until he left for the Tribune.
In 2004, Kass was awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi national award for general column writing, the Scripps Howard Foundation’s National Journalism Award for commentary, the Press Club of Atlantic City’s National Headliner Award for local interest column writing on a variety of subjects, and the Chicago Headline Club’s Lisagor Award for best daily newspaper columnist.
In 1992, Kass won the Chicago Tribune’s Beck Award for writing.
Kass lives in the western suburbs with his wife and twin sons. His column appears on Page A2 of the Chicago Tribune every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Recent Work
Have you ever wondered what happens to flat-earthers? Not all spend their days eating pudding with plastic spoons and rewatching... Read More
Have you ever wondered what happens to flat-earthers? Not all spend their days eating pudding with plastic spoons and rewatching old sitcoms — or as fabulists hanging at the end of the bar, boasting of their heroic exploits until closing time. Some become president of the... Read More
Have you read, heard or seen that important news story about an Asian American federal judge — born in Taiwan... Read More
Have you read, heard or seen that important news story about an Asian American federal judge — born in Taiwan and subject to discrimination growing up — who confronted and denounced those who discriminate by race? No? With all that’s been in the news lately about... Read More
When I was a boy about 11, I committed a crime that changed my life. I stole a book. I... Read More
When I was a boy about 11, I committed a crime that changed my life. I stole a book. I was a book thief. I found it in another kid’s desk and began reading, hiding it behind some boring textbook, and couldn’t give it up. And... Read More
In the pre-COVID-19 days, there were those large, intergenerational Sunday dinners when nothing was off the table for discussion in... Read More
In the pre-COVID-19 days, there were those large, intergenerational Sunday dinners when nothing was off the table for discussion in America. Even now, if we were sitting down together, we’d talk of President Donald Trump lying to his supporters about overturning the election, before he incited... Read More
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need,” said Marcus Tullius Cicero. Old Marcus could... Read More
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need,” said Marcus Tullius Cicero. Old Marcus could have been talking about coping with these pandemic lockdowns, but he wasn’t. Happily, I have a home library, but no garden. And I can’t possibly go... Read More
My mother is 90 years old, one of the elderly isolated in nursing homes, unable to hug and kiss her... Read More
My mother is 90 years old, one of the elderly isolated in nursing homes, unable to hug and kiss her children, alone because of the pandemic. And this will be our first Christmas apart. She lived with us for 25 years. But after her stroke, she’d... Read More
Attorney General William Barr, vilified witlessly and unreasonably for years by the left — and most recently by conservatives —... Read More
Attorney General William Barr, vilified witlessly and unreasonably for years by the left — and most recently by conservatives — has just performed two critically important services to the republic: After the election, Barr refused to put his name or the Department of Justice behind any... Read More
When we were kids on the playground and there was an angry dispute, someone would always shout “majority rules.” And... Read More
When we were kids on the playground and there was an angry dispute, someone would always shout “majority rules.” And we’d vote. If the losers didn’t like the outcome, there were two options: punch the winners in the stomach or take the ball and go home.... Read More
President Donald Trump’s failure to loudly and forcefully condemn white supremacists in his debate with Joe Biden was an unmitigated... Read More
President Donald Trump’s failure to loudly and forcefully condemn white supremacists in his debate with Joe Biden was an unmitigated disaster that may have cost him a chance at reelection. What Americans witnessed in the chaotic dumpster fire of a debate was this: an angry, stubborn... Read More
In The News
Health
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More From The Well
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Judicial Conference announced a policy last week intended to limit "judge shopping" by activists trying to... Read More
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Judicial Conference announced a policy last week intended to limit "judge shopping" by activists trying to win rulings by judges likely to be biased in their favor. Allegations of judge shopping have been lodged most commonly... Read More
Many political disagreements divide neatly along party lines, but the protectionist Jones Act isn’t one of them. In Congress and... Read More
Many political disagreements divide neatly along party lines, but the protectionist Jones Act isn’t one of them. In Congress and state Capitols across America, politicians from the two major political parties can be found arguing for and against the law, which... Read More
WASHINGTON — Members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee have introduced the bipartisan Geothermal Energy Optimization Act designed to... Read More
WASHINGTON — Members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee have introduced the bipartisan Geothermal Energy Optimization Act designed to accelerate the adoption of geothermal energy nationwide. Sens. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. and Mike... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday finalized a rule to prohibit the ongoing use of chrysotile asbestos, the... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday finalized a rule to prohibit the ongoing use of chrysotile asbestos, the only known form of asbestos currently used in or imported into the United States. The ban is the first to... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order Monday aimed at advancing the study of... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order Monday aimed at advancing the study of women's health in part by strengthening data collection and providing easier and better funding opportunities for biomedical research. Women make... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a busy term that could set standards for free speech in the digital age, the Supreme... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a busy term that could set standards for free speech in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Monday is taking up a dispute between Republican-led states and the Biden administration over how far the federal... Read More