Trio of Chicagoans Make Time's 100

By Marcus Gilmer in News on May 1, 2009 7:00PM

For this year's edition of their annual 100 list, Time Magazine listed their 100 most influential people which featured a trio of Chicagoans: Michelle Obama, Oprah, and...Sheriff Tom Dart??? Yep, Cook County's sheriff who refused to enforce evictions and went after Craigslist for their sex ads has been recognized by the famed magazine, profiling him as a sheriff with "heart." [via Sun-Times]

The title sheriff does not conjure up visions of a warm, fuzzy humanitarian. The Sheriff of Nottingham made Robin Hood's life miserable just because Robin was trying to redistribute the wealth in Sherwood Forest. Sheriff Thomas (Blind Tom) O'Brien of Cook County in Illinois had perfectly good vision, except he could never see any of the illegal gambling that pervaded the county during his tenure. But the current Cook County sheriff, Thomas Dart, is giving a new image to the office.