The Rundown | Chicago News

Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump won their Illinois primaries but showed possible weakness. The Democratic primary for Cook County state’s attorney remains too close to call. A citywide referendum to raise a tax on the sale of high-end properties appeared headed to defeat.

Voters in Illinois are casting ballots in today’s state primary election. The city of Chicago is suing the handgun manufacturer Glock, claiming the company is putting residents at risk by selling pistols that can easily be converted to machine guns. Grammy winner SZA, Tyler the Creator, The Killers and blink-182 will headline this summer’s Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park.

THC-infused seltzer beverages – you know, the kind that get you high – are becoming more readily available in local grocery stores and even for on-site consumption at a few Chicago breweries. But, how is this legal? And should we expect a THC beverage boom in the near future?To answer those questions, the Rundown podcast visited Hopewell Brewing in Logan Square, whose hemp-based, THC-infused beverage called Choom became available in February. We talked with Hopewell owner Samantha Lee about why they decided to offer Choom. We also ask reporter Steve Hendershot – who covered the trend for WBEZ – to give the lemon-lime seltzer a taste and to explain the legal gray area where these kinds of beverages exist.

It’s primary day today, and voters will cast ballots for president, Cook County state’s attorney and a Chicago tax referendum. A new violence reduction plan for Chicago. The Illinois State Treasurer is pushing an investment program to help nonprofits across the state.

Early voting numbers in Chicago are lagging ahead of tomorrow’s primary election. The agency that investigates police misconduct in Chicago currently has 600 open misconduct cases. The Chicago Bears have traded Quarterback Justin Fields to the Steelers in exchange for a draft pick next year.

Chicagohenge comes around twice a year: just after the spring equinox and right before the fall equinox. With the equinox just around the corner—it’s tomorrow!—this week is your first chance of the year to catch the dazzling effect in some Chicago streets. The name “Chicagohenge” is a play on Stonehenge, the ancient stone monument in England that also interacts with the sun in some amazing ways. It’s the kind of interplay between nature and infrastructure we love to geek out about on The Rundown. In this episode, host Erin Allen spaces out with Michelle Nichols, the Director of Public Observing at the Adler Planetarium. This episode originally aired on September 22, 2023.

Chicago officials evicted fewer migrants than expected from city shelters over the weekend. The payday lending industry in Illinois has been nearly wiped out due to a new law.

Migrants will start to be evicted this weekend from city run shelters in Chicago, but thousands of people will have their stays extended under new exemptions announced Friday. Gov. JB Pritzker is announcing plans to tear down and rebuild the Stateville and Logan prisons. Cook County commissioners are delaying a mandate that grants paid leave to employees at schools and parks in the suburbs.

When Chappell Roan is headlining a concert, she books local drag queens to open for her. “Drag is just inspirational throughout my whole project,” Roan said. “It would be only right to have drag open for me.”Last fall, we spoke with her and one such opener, Boyj, ahead of her Chicago shows.  “I like to think of Chicago as the headquarters of drag,” Boyj said.Now, Roan is coming back to Chicago as an opener for Olivia Rodrigo’s “GUTS” tour, so we wanted to revisit our conversation with her and Boyj.This episode originally aired on October 4, 2023.

Illinois lawmakers want to create a new state agency focused on early childhood care. They are also considering new rules to govern carbon capture and sequestration projects. New findings in the treatment of HIV in infants could improve the quality of life for children and families.

Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago said it has started reactivating its MyChart portal after a cybersecurity threat in late January prompted the hospital to shut the network down. Disability rights advocates are protesting an Illinois measure that allows patients to take medication to end their lives. Construction on the Kennedy Expressway is causing headaches for commuters; the express lanes will be closed until late fall.

March 14 is Pi Day—yes, as in 3.14. The Rundown podcast team isn’t flush with mathletes, so we’re taking the pie approach.In this episode, host Erin Allen talks about pies and pie shops with two of WBEZ’s most prolific home bakers, senior editors Katie O’Connell and Cassie Walker Burke. Here are some of their favorite Chicago pie shops:Bang Bang Pie & BiscuitsHoosier Mama Pie CompanyJustice of the PiesSpinning J

The City of Chicago will move forward with evicting migrants from city run shelters come Saturday. Mayor Brandon Johnson announced 10 areas where his administration will focus violence prevention efforts. A Cook County jury recently awarded $7 million dollars to a Chicago man who was shot by a security guard for the Chicago Housing Authority.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has made the city several offers to house migrants at properties they own for free, according to email exchanges obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, but the requests have gone unheeded by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration. Chicago health officials say nearly all migrants who needed to be inoculated against measles at the city’s shelter in the Pilsen neighborhood have been vaccinated. The lineup is out for Chicago's Pitchfork Festival.

In the late 1960s, Hazel Johnson was living in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side when her husband died of lung cancer. She also saw dozens of other people in her community suffering from respiratory issues and contracting cancer, despite having no family history of the disease.  “She was like, that's just too many people in one neighborhood,” said Hazel’s daughter, Cheryl Johnson, who would eventually take up her mother’s mantle. “And then she started making the connection that the air quality in our neighborhood, you could cut it with a knife.”So, Hazel Johnson founded an organization called People for Community Recovery, and over the next several decades she successfully lobbied local and federal governments to force industrial polluters to change their ways and clean up their messes.“She's known as the mother of environmental justice,” said Damon Williams, co-creator of a six-part podcast on Johnson called Help This Garden Grow. “And for someone who loomed so large in our city and in the country, it was clear that there was not a full telling of her story that was accessible to us in any way. And if it's not accessible to us, that means it's probably not accessible to most people who are not looking as deeply as we are.”In this episode of The Rundown, Cheryl and Damon tell the origins of Hazel Johnson’s powerful story and the work still to be done.

Thousands of people stand to lose health insurance in a few weeks as the state of Illinois continues to reign in spending. More than 200 diverse learners – students with unique physical, developmental and mental capabilities, got a chance to early vote yesterday. Nearly half of Illinois residents say their local school district is experiencing support staff shortages, according to a nonpartisan poll.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expected in Chicago in response to several measles cases at one of the city's largest migrant shelters. Nearly four out of 10 Illinois residents say they favor banning teaching critical race theory in public schools. The Equal Pay Chicago Coalition is discussing ways to close disparities in gender pay.

In 2015, a young Black man named Freddie Gray died in police custody. His death and the subsequent protests in Baltimore served as inspiration for playwright Anna Deavere Smith. She wove Gray’s story into a play called “Notes from the Field.” At its core, the play explores the school-to-prison pipeline.
 
 Smith’s one-woman plays are composed of verbatim monologues from interviews she conducted. And in TimeLine Theatre’s production of “Notes from the Field,” three Chicago actresses share the play’s 19 monologues.
 
 Director Mikael Burke said much of the process was about “what is possible if we can take a moment to just listen and then act accordingly based on what we feel.” In this episode, host Erin Allen talks about the play with Burke and one of the three actresses, Shariba Rivers.

Chicago health care advocates say the spread of serious diseases is inevitable when migrants are placed in crowded spaces with little ventilation. Convicted former Chicago Alderman Edward Burke – and his law license – are becoming an issue in a tight Supreme Court race. Eileen O’Neill Burke tells public officials at the City Club she’s running for state’s attorney because she is “not giving up on Chicago.”

The Chicago Bears say they are willing to put up $2 billion of their own money towards a new stadium in the city, but the statement from the team was light on other details. The state of Illinois is finally making available $18.5 million to assist and protect witnesses of violent crime. The conflict-ridden Illinois Supreme Court is letting convicted former Chicago Alderman Edward Burke keep his law license.

Maryam Taghavi’s exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art examines the things we cannot see and our own ability to perceive the things we can. It’s aptly titled “Nothing Is.”“When you stare at something, in a way, it stares back at you,” Taghavi said. “The lake, the water or the clouds, the sky or trees, or the street, all the texts on the street. So these things sort of speak back at you, and I'm really interested in that reciprocity that happens when you are staring at something.” In this episode of The Rundown podcast, Taghavi takes us on a tour of her exhibit at the MCA, which includes paintings, sculptures, poetry and calligraphy. We hear about her journey from Iran to Canada to the United States, and learn about her artistic influences and interests: Persian language and ancient texts, her childhood in war-torn Tehran and her immigration to Canada, and the nature of infinity.

Two confirmed cases of measles in a Pilsen migrant shelter are leading to calls for more proactive health screenings for migrants. Illinois residents have had more than $40 million dollars worth of student debt canceled under the new federal SAVE plan. This is the last week Illinois voters can request a mail ballot for next week’s March 19th primary election.

Chicago public health officials say a child has tested positive for measles at one of the largest migrant shelters in the Pilsen neighborhood. Abortion rights advocates are protesting the recent opening of an Indiana-based crisis pregnancy center in Chicago. The city of Chicago now has its first Native and Pollinator Garden Registry Advisory Board.

Al Capone. Operation Greylord. Four former Illinois governors in federal prison. We have a long history of corruption around these parts, but WBEZ government and politics reporter Dave McKinney thinks that the present day – with figures like former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan and former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke – may take the cake.“It’s a little funny to think about what’s going on now as a golden era because that was certainly a golden era too,” McKinney said, “but with Madigan, with Burke, these people were so powerful.” But shouldn’t decades of high-profile criminal trials and convictions actually act as a deterrent to public officials presented with opportunities of graft, bribery or fraud?As a part of WBEZ’s Democracy Solutions Project, McKinney has been looking into why corruption thrives in Chicago and Illinois, what reforms we have made and could make, and the financial and emotional toll corruption takes on us as citizens. In this episode of the Rundown, McKinney explains why corruption remains and what we can do about it. 

U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth brought an infertility specialist to President Biden’s address last night. A state lawmaker has ideas for a new Bears stadium near Soldier Field. Chicago has been developing twice as much away from transit stop as opposed to near them.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is standing by his call to permanently eliminate the state's 1% grocery tax. A Democrat-backed effort in Springfield would legalize psilocybin—psychedelic mushrooms. Many migrants living in Chicago are having difficulty getting a driver’s license.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Illinois has become a popular destination for people seeking abortion care. Now, lawmakers are turning their attention to in vitro fertilization, or IVF.
 
 In February, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled embryos fertilized through IVF should be considered people. The state’s governor has since signed legislation to protect IVF providers from legal liability, a move that would reopen the procedure in the state.
 
 But the back-and-forth raised concerns from Illinois legislators, who are attempting to safeguard and expand access to the procedure. 
 
 “I invite legislation to make sure that we’re codifying at every turn,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 
 
 In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to WBEZ statehouse reporter Mawa Iqbal about what she’s hearing from Illinois lawmakers and health care providers.

Chicago officials are preparing for the DNC Convention that comes to town in August. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is celebrating a decision that will put the Bring Chicago Home referendum back in the hands of voters. A new proposal for funding Illinois’ public universities could increase the number of Black and low-income students getting college degrees.

Cook County’s top prosecutor is praising the guilty verdicts against the man who killed Chicago police officer Ella French and attempted to kill her partners. A new grant program will address food insecurity across Illinois. The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events announced this year's Chicago Blues Festival lineup, including a special performance by Buddy Guy as part of his farewell tour.

Jim Bachor is known for filling Chicago potholes with old world, mosaic tile artwork. But his work doesn’t depict Roman emperors or ancient religious figures. More often it’s a pack of Marlboro cigarettes or a delicious frozen ice cream treat.“I’ve found that my goal in life is to drag the artform of the mosaic kicking and screaming into the 21st century,” Bachor said. Bachor recently opened a new gallery of his work at 1111 W. Lawrence Ave. in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, right across the street from the Aragon Ballroom. He’s offering original mosaics for sale – typically at a cost of hundreds or thousands of dollars – but also cheaper prints, T-shirts, stickers, and – soon – classes.In this episode, Rundown podcast host Erin Allen talks with Bachor about how he got started in this highly tedious artform and why he started putting his work in some of Chicago’s many, many potholes.This episode originally aired on Oct. 25, 2023.

Critics of a mayor-backed plan for a partially elected school board say grassroots candidates will have a hard time running. Proposed legislation in Springfield would ban small, single-use containers for personal care products like soap and shampoo in hotels. A former Democratic Illinois governor is teaming up with a Republican on ethics reform for politicians.

The Illinois Senate has passed a bill to create a partially elected Chicago school board. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago has access once again to patients’ electronic medical records, more than a month into a cybersecurity outage. Early voting is underway for people incarcerated at Cook County Jail.

Soup & Bread is an event at a bar in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood – The Hideout – where anyone who wanders in can get a free meal of soup and bread the first Wednesday of every month during Chicago’s chilly season.Organizer Martha Bayne said it’s not just about showing up and getting some free soup, but to invite people into a “classically third space, where people can come together outside of school or church or work and just share some quality time with each other.”“This is one of the great community events in Chicago,” one attendee told us, “like, period.”The Rundown went to check it out last month – to talk with the organizers, soup chefs and attendees – and to figure out how this event has made such a mark on its community over the last 15 years.Soup & Bread returns to The Hideout on March 6 and April 3 at 6 p.m.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says Democrats will benefit from having Donald Trump on the ballot this year. A former Illinois appellate judge has raised more than twice as much as her Democratic primary opponent in the race to replace Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. A Northwestern University alumna has created a drill to help surgeons operate on skulls.

The Supreme Court is putting an end to an Illinois challenge to knock Donald Trump off the ballot. Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin continues to push for a ceasefire in Gaza. The suburbs outpaced Chicago last year in fatal pedestrian and bicycle traffic crashes.

Many of Chicago’s new migrants came to the United States seeking refuge. But once here, they can encounter shelters with dirty living conditions and, at times, staff who make racist comments and sexually harass residents, according to over 200 grievances obtained by WBEZ.“There are still ongoing issues based on the data and my conversations with people,” said WBEZ immigration reporter Adriana Cardona-Maguigad.In this episode, Cardona-Maguigad breaks down her investigation with WBEZ All Things Considered anchor Melba Lara.This episode was produced for broadcast by Lauren Frost.

Reproductive rights advocates are working to make fertility treatment more affordable in Illinois. Expanded early voting is underway today for the March primary election. A state commission released plans for a funding formula for public universities to address years of disinvestment and volatility.

Democratic lawmakers in Illinois are bracing for impact after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered people. Starting Monday, voters in suburban Cook County will have more places to cast votes in the March 19th Illinois Primary. The CDC has new recommendations for those who test positive for COVID-19.

A few months ago, Rundown producer Justin Bull brought you the story of some of Chicago’s feral cats, the people who care for them, and why both are so present among us here in Chicago. In the time since, he heard from a few folks who say it’s not all whiskers and catnip. This month for WBEZ’s Curious City, Justin went a little deeper, talking with more feral cat advocates and detractors, as well as a documentarian who knows how contentious this issue can get.

A Cook County judge is siding with Donald Trump to put her order booting him from the Illinois ballot on hold. Oak Park’s contracts with two migrant shelter locations have ended. Seven more people say they were framed by former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara.

The six-figure state pension for the convicted aide to former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is being suspended. A federal judge is postponing the sentencing of four former ComEd lobbyists and executives who were convicted of bribery in a major corruption trial. A Chicago-area economic development organization hosted a town hall to rally support for legislation to advocate for small business owners.

This is the story of Chicago liberation activist Fred Hampton, former chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, who was just 21 years old when he was killed by Chicago police in 1969.
 
 In a special Black History Month collaboration between WBEZ’s Making and Rundown podcasts, hosts Brandon Pope and Erin Allen sit down with original members of the Black Panther Party, attorneys who fought Hampton’s post-assassination lawsuits, and family members who continue to carry on his legacy.

A Cook County judge is ordering Donald Trump off Illinois’ March primary ballot, but with a caveat. Some Indiana parents of transgender children are decrying a ruling by the federal appeals court in Chicago. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker won’t commit to state funding for sports stadiums.

The National Weather Service says it’s likely more than one tornado touched down in the Chicago area last night. The Chicago Bears and White Sox are being told to team up on a proposal for stadium funding. A new album tries to give voice to people living in Palestinian territories.

When we’re coping with multiple global crises at a time, it can feel so easy to lean into hopelessness. 
 
 All too often, hopelessness comes from what author and social psychologist Devon Price calls “systemic shame.” It’s different from the shame you might feel when you do something wrong or hurt someone you love.
 
 “Systemic shame is something that I see as a political force that involves offloading the blame for systemic problems,” Price said. “And telling the individuals most affected by it, ‘This is your fault.’”
 
 In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Price about his new book “Unlearning Shame.”

U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth is demanding a vote on her bill to federally protect access to in vitro fertilization. Court fights are putting the status of a referendum question on Chicago’s March primary ballot in question. The jury trial of the man accused of murdering Chicago police officer Ella French and wounding her partner Carlos Yanez continues today.

The Chicago Board of Elections has decided to appeal a ruling that invalidated the “Bring Chicago Home” referendum question that would ask voters if a tax on the sale of high-end properties should be increased to fund homelessness prevention. Our sports contributor Cheryl Raye-Stout says the number one question for the Chicago Bears is: what’s next for quarterback Justin Fields? And we hear from a few people in Chicago for their take on this not-so-wintry weather.

Self-taught Chicago artist Teresa Magaña channels her Mexican and Chicana roots to create stunning paintings. Her artwork takes inspiration from Chicago sign painters and the Day of the Dead, and now she says she’s “exploring more of the femme body and imagery.”And as an activist, she hopes to provide space and resources to artists in the Pilsen community and beyond through the Pilsen Arts and Community House, which she co-founded.In this episode, Magaña explains how she came to art late in life, the inspiration she takes from her cultural roots and why she decided to create an art and community center in her lifelong home of Pilsen. This episode was produced by Ari Mejia for WBEZ’s sister station Vocalo and their Chi Sounds Like series. 

Chicago’s elections board will decide whether to appeal a ruling invalidating a referendum question known as Bring Chicago Home. Governor J.B. Pritzker is “reluctant” to use taxpayer money for a new White Sox stadium. Plus, some troubling news about the monarch butterflies that migrate to Chicago each summer.

The man accused of murdering Chicago police officer Ella French goes on trial this week. A Cook County judge is lifting his freeze on Chicago Police Board activity in serious officer-discipline cases. The faculty union at University of Illinois at Chicago has taken a vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.