A proposal to ticket individuals for possession of marijuana instead of arresting them may save time and tax dollars, but the fines imposed should be hefty enough to ensure the violation is taken more seriously than a traffic ticket. Chicago Police sergeant...

Last week, the Northern Star received a letter to the editor criticizing the newspaper staff for not covering events and for covering only negative stories that happen in the NIU community. This is a common complaint, so we thought we’d dispel rumors...

Apparently, billionaire Martha Stewart missed the point of OutKast’s hit song “Roses” - they really do smell like boo-boo. If anyone awaiting prison time would be more concerned about the smell of roses than about being convicted of a crime, it...

The scariest thing about Morgan Spurlock’s “Supersize Me” is that it isn’t fiction. It’s a documentary. Spurlock, a filmmaker who ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days, spoke at NIU Tuesday about the downside to fast food. Spurlock’s “Supersize...

Tips for restaurant service are a courtesy, not a requirement, so a customer shouldn’t be punished if the tip is not quite what the waitress was hoping for. Humberto Taveras was arrested in New York City for leaving an inadequate tip at Soprano’s...

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has another grand idea to make money for Illinois. No, it’s not another toll hike; there’s a little bit more integrity involved in this concept. Blagojevich’s administration is studying a proposal that would allow a non-alcoholic...

To be dissatisfied with both presidential candidates in the upcoming election is one thing, but to “resolve” this issue by putting your vote up for sale undermines the entire American election process. A listing on eBay recently was taken down after...

A new campaign by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to educate students about abuse is admirable, but the method devised to do so - informational posters placed in “strategic” locations on college campuses - just won’t cut it. Posters, even...

Drag the red and black clothing out of your closet, or stop by the bookstore to pick up the requisite NIU hooded sweatshirt. The first home football game of the season is Saturday, and all students - from freshmen to grad students - should come out to...

The $1 million DuSable bus turnaround that was intended to reduce traffic and allow the Huskie Buses to stay on schedule actually has done quite the opposite. In fact, the only change the turnaround has accomplished is to reroute traffic from a road -...

For many, what used to be a day to pay tribute to the American worker has become just another day ... another workday, that is. That’s not the way it should be. Since Congress officially proclaimed in 1894 that the first Monday in September be celebrated...

The university has finally shown it can make a sound financial decision with its proposal to increase qualifying faculty and staff salaries by up to 4 percent by January. While NIU faculty’s salaries are comparable to most public universities in the...