The Rundown | Chicago News

The longest serving alderman in Chicago history gets sentenced to federal prison. Millions of federal dollars will be going toward new storm water projects across Cook County. Walmart donates a training facility on the South Side to the Chicago Urban League.

A federal judge has sentenced former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke to two years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $2 million fine. Illinois' state climatologist says soil conservation work is our best weapon to reduce the risk of dust storms. Sky rookie Angel Reese had a career-high 25-point game yesterday as Chicago beat the Indiana Fever 88 to 87.

Colombia’s influx of Venezuelan migrants has led to accusations the migrants are fueling crime and drawing resources needed by low-income Colombians. This resembles some responses to Venezuelan arrivals in Chicago.WBEZ’s Chip Mitchell spent two weeks in Colombia – a country that’s received a much larger influx of Venezuelan migrants than Chicago – to discover how the conditions compare, how Venezuelan migrants in both countries are experiencing xenophobia and what lessons the city of Chicago can learn.This episode is a part of the Democracy Solutions Project, a partnership among WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times and the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government.

Ex-Chicago Alderman Ed Burke faces 10 years in prison for corruption. His sentencing hearing begins today. In the South Shore neighborhood evictions are high – and residents want protections against displacement. Abortion funds that help patients pay for procedures and travel are losing money across the country, including in Chicago.

Chicagoans and their pets have limited exercise options amid this week’s heat wave. A National Weather Service meteorologist says this spring was unusually stormy in central Illinois. Hundreds of cycling enthusiasts are in Chicago this weekend for an international convention named after a local sports legend.

When Yoly Rojas came back single from a stint on Netflix’s “The Ultimatum: Queer Love,” she wanted to meet some new queer people her age. She and friend Keli Knight looked around and realized they didn’t have a space to meet other LGBTQ+ people over 30. So they made one. Rojas and Knight’s Lovers and Friends party, which has a focus on the BIPOC lesbian community, has amassed a large following in its first year on the scene—so much so that they’ve already started branching out into other cities.“You would think those parameters are so niche,” said Nudia Hernandez from our sister station Vocalo. “How many people could show up? A lot, apparently.”In this episode, Hernandez talks to Rojas and Knight about creating the queer spaces they want to inhabit.

The state of Illinois could soon erase $1 billion worth of medical debt for thousands of families. Cook County is trying to figure out what to do with hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic-relief money from Washington. Many queer teens across the U.S. are unhappy about the sex ed they receive in school, a new study finds.

Some top Illinois officials are celebrating President Joe Biden’s new executive actions to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. Christopher Columbus Elementary School in Ukrainian Village will soon be Ruth Bader Ginsberg Elementary School. Northwest Indiana is under an air quality alert until midnight.

On Chicago’s West Side, crews used the Juneteenth holiday to help seniors whose basements flooded last July. Many homeowners still need help to remove mold. Nine community organizations based in Cook County are receiving grant money to help the populations they serve manage diabetes and prediabetes. A new art project places the portraits of noteworthy Chicagoans on bus shelters across the city.

The Illinois Department of Public Health is urging caution as confirmed cases of COVID-19 are rising in emergency rooms. Unions representing journalists at WBEZ and the Sun-Times are calling for the ouster of the Chicago Public Media CEO. A Planned Parenthood clinic in Peoria is up and running after it was fire-bombed over a year ago.

Chicago is getting a new task force to study reparations for Black residents. The watchdog for Chicago City Hall is calling out Mayor Brandon Johnson for failing to act on a campaign promise to rid cops who joined two extremist groups. Illinois lawmakers approved a measure aimed at expanding access to fentanyl testing strips.

The Chicago area is under an air quality alert. Today is the first day for candidates to file petitions to run for Chicago’s first elected school board. Three famed Wrigleyville Rooftops could face the wrecking ball.

Yman Huang Vien is a former refugee who emigrated to Chicago with her family over 40 years ago, moved to Uptown and quickly co-founded the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, in order to serve low-income, immigrant and refugee communities across Chicago.Today, she’s one of six community members whose portrait and profile you might run into in a Chicago bus shelter for a project called “Unsung Heroes of Uptown: Art of People ON the Streets IN the Streets.”In today’s episode, The Rundown podcast host Erin Allen talks to Huang Vien about her journey to Chicago, as well as the creator of the project, Hana Bleue Chaussette, about why she’s putting profiles of community leaders in bus shelters. Editor's note: A previous version of this episode incorrectly identified the number of portraits on display and the country of origin of the company JCDecaux.

Four neighborhoods in Chicago are developing ways to reduce gun violence through partnerships with public and private groups. Governor J.B. Pritzker touts $41 billion in spending on infrastructure. A hard foul at the Chicago Sky-Indiana Fever game drew some controversy.

Multiple CTA workers allege they received chemical burns while washing train cars with harsh cleaning materials they weren’t properly trained to use. The Chicago Police Department still does not ban officers from joining specific extremist groups despite promises of reform. High humidity and heat are in the forecast for early next week.

Every Friday from here we’ll be checking in with Nudia Hernandez of WBEZ’s sister station Vocalo, who’s gonna bring us a conversation with an artist or musician doing big things in Chicago.Today, we hear from Erin Kilmurray, creator of “The Function,” an immersive dance production that’s wrapping up its multi-week run in Garfield Park tonight.Plus, we hear from Nudia herself, how she followed her high school dreams to get into the music and radio scene, and an embarrassing admission about her first concert.

Abortion rights leaders in Illinois are celebrating a recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. The Chicago Teachers Union and school district officials will participate in a public bargaining session this evening. The Illinois state treasurer helps a Lake County veteran get a half million dollar payout from an old life insurance policy.

Governor J.B. Pritzker reacts to the Supreme Court ruling tossing out a challenge to the accessibility of abortion pills. The Illinois Department of Public Health is launching a new data collection process to better track syphilis cases. The Chicago Bears wrapped up their annual organized team activities and are looking ahead to training camp and the preseason.

Pranita Nayar wanted to give young South Asians in Chicago a platform to express themselves and their culture through art and music. So, in 2014, she created Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, and five years later, the organization kicked off the first Mandala Makers Festival, a celebration of that art and culture happening in June at locations across Chicago.Nayar, a decorated Indian classical dancer, and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Chethan Anant sat down with The Rundown podcast host Erin Allen to talk about some of the upcoming events, including the unveiling of a Devon Community Mural on June 16 and a finale concert featuring violinist Ambi Subramaniam and the Mandala Music Circle in downtown Chicago on June 27. Nayar and Anant also  explain how their respective work is so intertwined and how the festival helps bring the South Asian community in Chicago closer together. 

The Chicago Park District did not vote on whether to approve another year of Riot Fest in Douglass Park after festival organizers moved locations. Senator Tammy Duckworth tries to force Republicans to take an election year vote on IVF treatments. A proposal to fine and suspend lobbyist donations to a mayor’s campaign was blocked from a final vote.

Four wrongfully convicted men will be paid a $50 million dollar settlement by the city. A neighborhood group in McKinley Park on Chicago’s south side is unveiling a plan to create a three-mile bike path along the South Branch of the Chicago River. Riot Fest is forcing the Chicago Red Stars out of their home stadium.

Painter Damiane Nickles loves playing with texture and color in his work. He sees his Trinidadian heritage in the vibrant colors he uses. Nickles grew up in New York, but he said he found his artistic home in Chicago. “There’s something here where people just magnetize to one another,” Nickles said. “That has really stuck with me.” In this episode, Nickles talks about inspiration, texture and finding community.This episode was produced by Ari Mejia for WBEZ’s sister station Vocalo and their Chi Sounds Like series.

A federal judge in Chicago is hearing arguments today on whether to expand a consent decree overseeing the police department to include traffic stops. The Chicago City Council is expected to consider a $50 million dollar settlement for four wrongly convicted men. Bally’s casino meets with future vendors for its upcoming permanent Chicago site.

The Illinois Department of Human Services and the Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago are working to expand access to gender-affirming care. Thousands of Amazon delivery drivers filed legal claims against the company. The late Chicago journalist Mike Royko is the subject of a new exhibition at the Newberry Library.

Before Bridgerton’s string quartet renditions of pop songs, D-Composed was performing chamber music Beyoncé covers in Chicago. D-Composed events aren’t stuffy affairs. The Black chamber music collective rarely charges for tickets, and they want audience members to “come as you are.” 
 
 That goes for the ensemble’s musicians, too. 
 
 “When I'm with the other members of D-Composed, I feel completely myself,” said cellist and founding member Tahirah Whittington. “There are no guards. There are no hindrances to who I am.”
 
 In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Whittington and D-Composed artistic and executive director Kori Coleman about chamber music, Black composers, and what it means to bring your full self to rehearsal.

Federal prosecutors say former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke should serve 10 years in prison for illegally strong-arming developers. A new poll finds 61 percent of American adults are projected to develop cardiovascular disease by 20-50. We’ll tell you how the American Heart Association plans to combat that trend. Former President Barack Obama visited Chicago’s South Side yesterday to mark a major milestone in the construction of his namesake center.

A school district in the north suburbs is expected to vote on closing Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Students, a bilingual school in Skokie. The Democratic National Convention is driving up hotel prices in Chicago. The National Weather Service warns swimming today is high-risk, with waves up to seven feet.

Constitutional law scholar Wilfred Codrington III talks with Rundown podcast host Erin Allen about slavery’s influence on the creation of the electoral college – America’s state-elector-based system for electing presidents – and how that system affects democracy today.This conversation is a part of the Democracy Solutions Project, a partnership among WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times and the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government. 

Another federal investigation in Chicago - this time, authorities are looking into a massive breach of private patient data at Cook County’s hospital system. New data shows there are now 1,000 fewer performing arts jobs in Illinois' than before the pandemic. The first-ever Chicago Public Library block party took place in downtown Chicago this weekend.

The city’s annual point-in-time count in January showed more than 18,800 people were unhoused—a threefold increase from last year. The Saint Adalbert Church in Pilsen is a step closer to being a historical landmark. Calumet Fisheries is reopening.

Pastry chef Anna Posey will find out June 10 if she’ll win the 2024 James Beard Award for “Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.” Among the five nominees in her category, she’s the only one in the Midwest.“I mean it’s scary to be truthful. You’re so grateful but you also feel kind of like, ‘Are you sure?’” Posey said. “It’s humbling. You still feel like that cook who doesn’t know anything who’s walking into their internship.”Ahead of the awards, Rundown podcast host Erin Allen visited Elske – the West Loop restaurant Anna co-owns with her husband David Posey – to taste a couple desserts and learn who Anna is, how she found success in a difficult industry and why she’s no longer trying to please everyone. 

Several groups want to demonstrate near the United Center when the Democratic National Convention comes to Chicago in August. The city wants them much further away. The Chicago Board of Ethics is one step closer to being able to enforce an executive order barring lobbyist contributions to the mayor. The new Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services addresses challenges after stepping into the role just six months ago.

A Chicago alderperson wants to impose an 8 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied teenagers downtown. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling says officers working during the Democratic National Convention in August will have their badge numbers uncovered and body cameras on. A new exhibition highlighting queer history and banned books opens tomorrow in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.

All too often, the most vulnerable populations fall through the cracks in our social safety nets: people dealing with addiction, homelessness and severe psychosis. Zak Mucha, the president of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, says this happens when the people serving those populations don’t understand what they need.
 
 “‘Are they like me or not?’ That's how a lot of these decisions are made,” he said. Mucha spent the early years of his social work career working on the ground on Chicago’s North Side to provide clients with direct services.
 
 Now, he has documented those experiences in his book “Swimming to the Horizon: Crack, Psychosis, and Street-Corner Social Work.”
 
 In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Mucha about his book and what he learned from his years working in community mental health services.

Immigration advocates in Illinois say President Biden’s new executive order restricting asylum claims violates asylum law. Illinois’ Maternal Health Task Force reflects on four years of work trying to reduce health inequities in Illinois. Some workers at the Shedd Aquarium are claiming management is pushing back on efforts to unionize.

Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker is signing a new $53.1 billion state budget that he says is balanced. Foxtrot says it is coming back to Chicago. Parents from two world language magnet schools in Chicago are fighting against proposed budget cuts they say will devastate their programs.

The winter of our discontent is finally over, my friends. It is, officially, street festival season in Chicago. Why does this time of year hit so hard? Because there are so many street festivals – in so many Chicago neighborhoods – and they’ve all got their own distinct feel and focus.“Well, food,” said Chicago-based writer Lauren Viera, “and also music is a big reason I go to fests.”Viera pored over the massive schedule of festivals and came on the Rundown podcast to talk through the ones she’s most excited about, including Andersonville Midsommarfest (June 7-9), Flavors of Albany Park (June 26), the Pilsen Tacos & Tamales Festival (July 19-21) and the Chinatown Summer Fair (July 27-28). 

The head of the U.S. Secret Service is in Chicago this week to tour the venues that will play host to the Democratic National Convention in August. A new study finds evidence of racial bias in Chicago traffic stops. The City of Chicago is giving out $600,000 dollars to nonprofits serving youth this summer.

Chicago police officials say they’re ready for the Democratic National Convention in August, despite a recent report suggesting otherwise. The lead organizer of a proposed birth center on Chicago’s South Side is asking state regulators for permission to open. A new study finds Black drivers are more likely to be pulled over by police regardless of where they drive in Chicago.

Little Richard, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Chicago’s own Reverend James Cleveland are a few of the musicians being celebrated this Pride Month at an event called at “Shout OUT: A Tribute to Gays in Gospel Music!” “This show is an opportunity to let people know about the totality of their work,” said singer and event creator Lucy Smith, who will perform along with the Lucy Smith Quintet. “I think where they were in their comfortability infused and informed their music.”Chicago journalist and media personality Cheryl Corley is the event’s narrator, sharing stories and context about these musicians' lives.  In today’s episode, The Rundown podcast host Erin Allen talks with Smith and Corley about a few of the queer people in gospel music, how those artists navigated being both queer and Black in the 20th century and the importance of sharing their stories.“Shout OUT: A Tribute to Gays in Gospel Music!” is Sunday, June 9th at 3 p.m. at the Beverly Arts Center.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey discussed the upcoming vote on the Right to Contraception Act that will be voted on in the U.S. Senate later this week. An Illinois Congressman is pushing for sanctions against Chinese companies allegedly exporting fentanyl to the U.S. Scientists at Washington University are hoping to come up with a plastic alternative.

Illinois lawmakers want to tweak the name for illegal gun possession in criminal cases. Lawmakers are also signing off on a push by Governor J.B. Pritzker’s administration to fund coverage of costly, injectable weight-loss drugs for state workers. Chicago has $206 million dollars in federal COVID money to earmark for community initiatives before the end of the year.

When LaVonte Stewart, Sr., was a kid in South Shore in the 1980s, he had a real sense of community. He described it as “the ‘Wakanda’ of all Black people’s imaginations, where your neighbors knew you.”He said he doesn’t see enough opportunity for young kids on the South Side today. Through his nonprofit Lost Boyz, he wants to provide young people with a sense of community through participation in team sports.In this episode, Stewart talks about finding his way in adulthood and the healing power of sports.This episode was produced by Ari Mejia for WBEZ’s sister station Vocalo and their Chi Sounds Like series.  

A popular state tax credit claimed by more than 11 million Illinoisans is poised to get more generous. Illinois lawmakers passed a bill to regulate carbon capture and storage in Illinois. Community activists hosted a festival of peace meant to uplift gun violence victims and survivor families.

The University of Chicago is withholding the degrees of four students who were scheduled to graduate Saturday. A new exhibit entitled “Georgia O’Keeffe: My New Yorks” opens this weekend at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Bears will have to wait until at least November to further press Illinois lawmakers for help on a new stadium.

When the four members of Third Coast Percussion were studying classical music at Northwestern University, they didn’t have much of a blueprint for building careers in a percussion ensemble. Twenty years later, they’re working with renowned composers and racking up Grammy nominations.
 
 “We’ve never been the stereotypical classical musicians,” said founding ensemble member Robert Dillon. And you can see it in their performances, where they blow into tubes and play flower pots.
 
 In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Dillon and David Skidmore about 20 years of Third Coast Percussion.

CTA President Dorval Carter defends himself to the Chicago city council amid persistent safety and reliability complaints. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is making good on a campaign promise to expand public mental health services. A new Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit opens this weekend at the Chicago Art Institute, highlighting some lesser-known works from the artist.

A new report from the Chicago Inspector General warns the Police Department may not be ready to handle large protests at the Democratic National Convention. Embattled CTA President Dorval Carter says he has faced racism and physical threats from the public as the Chicago city council has zeroed in on his job performance. More than a third of hospitalist staff with Ascension Illinois plan to quit the health system.

Mister Kelly’s was the hottest of spots in Chicago nightlife back in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, hosting singers like Barbra Streisand, Della Reese, Ella Fitzgerald and comedians like Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers, Lily Tomlin, and many, many more. The nightclub is the focus of an exhibit running through July 20 at a former neighbor of Mister Kelly’s, the Newberry Library.“In the ‘50s and ‘60s – and of course I'm not talking from personal experience – but the Newberry neighborhood, also known as the near north side or the Gold Coast, was considered to be the Las Vegas of the Midwest,” said Newberry librarian Alison Hinderliter, who curated the exhibit.The Rundown podcast host Erin Allen is joined by Hinderliter and David Marienthal – who produced a documentary on Mister Kelly’s and who is also the son of the nightclub’s former owner – for a conversation about the club’s star-studded history. 

Lawmakers left Springfield without passing a measure aimed at reforming the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. A report finds Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has faced a more divided City Council in his first year. Chicago police honored the families of two fallen officers during an annual recognition event yesterday.