WBEZ News

This holiday season, the Evanston Symphony Orchestra hosted a new kind of concert. 
 
 The so-called “barrier-free” performance was designed for people with disabilities and their loved ones.
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In Chicago, where you live can dictate when you die. The biggest life expectancy gap between neighborhoods is 20 years, from West Garfield Park to the Loop.
 
 One of the solutions to closing this gap is playing out in Garfield Park.
 
 A son’s mission to turn around his mom’s health has become a community wide effort to help everyone live longer.
 
 WBEZ’s Kristen Schorsch takes us on a walk with the Peace Runners 7-7-3.
 
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Some cities are known for country music. Others for rap or rock. 
 
 But Chicago has always been an eclectic music town. 
 
 Artists here borrow from the city’s traditions of blues, jazz and soul. 
 
 This year’s best local albums also blend genres and some transcend them. 
 
 Here are some staff picks from WBEZ’s list of Best Chicago Albums of 2025.
 
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The holiday season is in full swing, which means there’s no time like the present to relax with a warm beverage and a good book. 
 
 For a few recommendations, WBEZ’s arts and culture desk asked staff for their favorite books of 20-25. 
 
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A state panel documenting alleged abuses by federal immigration agents held its first meeting yesterday (THURS).
 
 The Illinois Accountability Commission plans to interview witnesses and review bystander videos on social media.
 
 But those aren’t the only videos that exist.
 
 Last month a judge ordered the release of more than 40 hours of body camera footage the agents themselves recorded.
 
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In the U.S., Black men who start college are up against a huge deficit of resources when it comes to finishing, and getting their degree. 
 
 You can see that play out in the majority-Black Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, where just one in four who make it to campus graduate within six years.
 
 That rate is much lower than it is for white college students from across the city. 
 
 WBEZ’s Lisa Kurian Philip brings us the story of three generations of Black men with ties to Austin who have helped each other overcome this disparity. 
 
 Their shared struggles have brought them close. 
 
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It is a truth universally acknowledged… that a single fan of the novelist Jane Austen… must be in want of a way to celebrate her 250th birthday.
 
 Well, WBEZ producer Lauren Frost is one of those fans.
 
 She found events celebrating the British author all over the Chicago region this week…
 
 But perhaps the most grand was a Regency ball – complete with a string quartet, historical snacks, and dancers in gowns stitched from YouTube tutorials.
 
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If you've been shopping recently, you may have noticed signs posted at registers explaining that stores may no longer provide pennies when giving change. 
 
 That's because the U.S. Mint made its final circulating penny last month- marking the end of a 232-year production run of the coin.
 
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A southwest side high school has long had a club to support students without legal status and to raise money to help them go to college. 
 
 But this year with immigration enforcement tearing families apart, the club has changed course.
 
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The “Real Housewives” franchise has been in the ethos of pop culture for nearly two decades. 
 
 The lives of wealthy divas from Atlanta to Dubai, have been on display in this reality tv juggernaut.
 
 This winter, a Chicago theater company created its own holiday-inspired version. The Real Housewives of the North Pole.
 
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We’ll bring you the sounds from a program at Logan Correctional Center, a women's prison in Lincoln, Illinois, where incarcerated people there train service dogs that will one day assist their new owners with mobility or work in therapy settings.

Our partners at The Marshall Project discuss ways for people in prison to process grief, even in an environment that repels compassion.

We also learn about the stress of managing money inside prison, even if you’re making less than $20 a month.

We also highlight a new Chicago Sun-Times investigation showing the disturbing track record of Illinois’ new private prison health care provider.

The City of Chicago’s director of reentry answers questions from people in prison about how they can work to rebuild their lives once they’re released.

In the first hour of the show, we hear from men incarcerated at Sheridan Correctional Center about how to handle the often stressful holiday season on the inside.

We recently asked people in Illinois prisons this question:
 
 “If you could spend one afternoon on the outside with a family member or friend, where would you go and what would you do?"
 
 It’s part of Prisoncast – our statewide journalism project made with and for people incarcerated in Illinois and their loved ones. 
 
 A man named Robert Jernigan wrote us saying he’d take his mother to her church, so he could play music and sing for her.
 
 He’s been locked up for nearly forty years.
 
 And in that time he’s learned how to play piano – but he’s never been able to play for his mom.
 
 So Prisoncast producer and editor Robert Wildeboer packed up a keyboard and drove to Pinckneyville prison – in Southern Illinois. 
 
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Today is the move-out deadline for the last residents of the Chicago apartment building raided by federal immigration agents in early fall. 
 
 A judge ordered the troubled South Shore building vacated, calling it a fire trap. 
 
 She also appointed a manager to secure the property and help residents relocate. 
 
 But tenants say that “help” was merely a check and a list of phone numbers to call. 
 
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A new exhibit at the Chicago History Museum documents a long tradition of resistance in Chicago's Latino communities. 
 
 That includes not just political activism, but also the daily work of maintaining culture.
 
 The exhibit is called Aqui en Chicago. It is a result of a protest organized by local high school students six years ago.. 
 
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The State of Illinois runs an online auction year-round, giving bidders the opportunity to buy heaps of treasure from afar.
 
 People can purchase items as tiny as a set of earbuds or as big as a dump truck. 
 
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There are only seven stops on the Green Line between the Loop and West Garfield Park on Chicago’s West Side.
 
 But between these stops, how long someone is expected to live plummets by 20 years. 
 
 This is the widest death gap in Chicago — and the biggest gap across neighborhoods of any big city in America.
 
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The new company that provides health care to nearly 30-thousand people in Illinois state prisons… has a disturbing track record.
 
 Centurion Health took over health care for the Illinois Department of Corrections this summer, after a multi-year deal – with a different company – fell through. 
 
 Centurion already serves close to a dozen other state correctional systems – where it’s been accused of ignoring and misdiagnosing patients, leading to serious illness or death.
 
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The Chicago-rooted duo The Cool Kids built an impressive hip-hop career with seven albums across two decades and many collaborations. 
 
 For the first time in three years, the Cool Kids have a new album. 
 
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From the 67-foot-tall Norway spruce in Millennium Park to a dizzying number of “Christmas Carol” variations, Chicago’s most festive season has arrived. 
 
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One way the federal government provides affordable housing is by subsidizing rent in buildings owned by private developers.
 
 That’s the case at one building complex on Chicago’s South Side, where wealthy out-of-state investors — one of them quite high profile — have collected millions of dollars in rent from the government.
 
 But some tenants say conditions there have become deplorable. 
 
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It’s December, so it’s Nutcracker season. 
 
 Some local groups are presenting the classic holiday ballet with a twist. 
 
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In 1972, architect Louis Sullivan’s famed Chicago Stock Exchange Building was demolished to make room for a 44-story office tower. 
 
 The public was outraged. The move made national headlines and led to the creation of Chicago’s modern preservation movement.
 
 BUT in an ironic twist, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks is now considering landmark status for the nondescript office building that replaced Sullivan’s masterpiece - 30 North LaSalle Street.
 
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With federal immigration enforcement bearing down on Chicago, many feared student attendance would plummet, especially in schools serving mostly Latino children.
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Chicago-area protests over immigration enforcement have quieted some in recent weeks. 
 
 But many people who were caught up in them are still dealing with criminal cases.
 
 One protester was charged with assaulting Gregory Bovino.
 
 He’s a U.S. Border Patrol chief who led the Trump administration’s deportation blitz here.
 
 Prosecutors eventually dropped the charges — after a video undermined Bovino’s accusations.
 
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The daughter of Chicago’s longest-serving mayor grew up in the political spotlight.
 
 And while Nora Daley doesn’t work in City Hall, she’s active all around it. She’s a member of several prominent arts boards and the chair of the state arts council. 
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Chicago Public Schools has turned to the community to help it with the difficult task of getting children to school, when so many moms and dads feel vulnerable outside their homes. 
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Illinois Governor J-B Pritzker and his wife MK recently paid Pope Leo the 14th a visit in Rome. 
 
 They presented the Chicago-born pontiff with a few Illinois-themed gifts, including a drawing made by a woman incarcerated in a downstate prison.
 
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With the holiday season it should be a busy time for Chicago’s neighborhood shopping districts. 
 
 While there’s heavy foot traffic on Michigan Avenue and the Mag Mile – not so in the city’s predominantly Latino areas – with many would-be customers scared off by Operation Midway Blitz. 
 
 Although Immigration Customs and Enforcement has ramped down its presence in the area – it’s unclear when the crowds will come back.
 
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When a person is deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE… 
 It also impacts the family left behind.
 
 A year ago, Vanessa Lopez found out her father was being sent back to Mexico… after living most of his life in America.
 
 His forced departure left her feeling helpless… and significantly changed her relationship with her dad.
 
 Vanessa wrote about her experience for the Chicago Sun-Times. Now, she brings us this audio essay.
 
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These “are not ordinary times at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse.”
 
 That’s the conclusion of a federal judge who yesterday dismissed the last of five prosecutions tied to protests outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview.
 
 It was just one of many updates in several key cases stemming from the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign.
 
 Sun-Times federal courts reporter Jon Seidel breaks it all down.
 
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Thirty years ago, The Smashing Pumpkins released “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.”
 
 Now, frontman Billy Corgan is celebrating the double album with a symphonic version at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
 
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Chicago-area food pantries continue to experience a higher need than normal. 
 
 They’re grappling with issues like state and federal funding cuts, rising grocery prices – and the upcoming holiday season. 
 
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150 U.S. Border Patrol agents who rattled Chicago for two months have moved on to North Carolina.
 
 But the Trump administration says its deportation blitz here is continuing.
 
 And the Sun-Times reports a bigger Border Control group could be here by March.
 
 Some law enforcement experts say what they’ve seen so far — from tear gas to car chases — has been out of control.
 
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Yes, it’s the ultimate food holiday. And yes, some people don’t want to cook. 
 
 Chicago chefs this year are leaning into options for dining in or picking up to go. 
 
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In a rare move, a key city council panel REJECTED Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget proposal today (mon), far ahead of the December 31st deadline to pass a plan.
 
 Critics say that sends a clear message to the mayor to go back to the drawing board, while Johnson defiantly doubled down.
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Talk about Chicago theater, and soon the subject will turn to the director Robert Falls.
 
 Falls spent thirty-five years atop Goodman Theater and in 2015 was inducted into the National Theater Hall of Fame. 
 
 But he stepped down from the Goodman a few years ago….launched a freelance career in his 70s… and this month, pops up in an unlikely place… Steppenwolf. 
 
 WBEZ theater reporter Mike Davis sat down with Falls and talked about opening the play “Amadeus” at his former cross-town rival. 
 
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Tax credits that make Obamacare insurance more affordable are expiring in December. That prompted the fight at the center of the government shutdown.
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Perez Jr. died unexpectedly last month. On Tuesday, during a Veteran’s Day celebration in Little Village, his friends, family and elected officials gathered to celebrate his life and legacy. 
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Grocery prices are continuing to rise, SNAP benefits are in flux for many families – and the holidays are on the horizon.
 
 The Sun-Times has been tracking grocery prices for 35 different items across 4 different Chicago stores for nearly a year to evaluate cost trends. 
 
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While violent crime in Chicago has declined, there’s one category that continues to persistently rise. 
 
 That’s domestic violence. It skyrocketed during pandemic-era stay-at-home orders and continues to plague the city.
 
 Yet, as federal COVID-19 relief grants dry up, organizations that support survivors are bracing for drastic cuts to city-funded programming that they say has changed lives.
 
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The modern opera “Proving Up” was supposed to premiere in Chicago three years ago. 
 
 But it was lost to COVID-19 and the omicron surge. 
 
 Now the opera finally makes its debut—in a school production. 
 
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Alongside the Chicago Sun-Times, we’re gathering your questions about all things money and finances.
 
 Then each week, we get your questions answered by the people who know best.
 
 This week we’ve got this question from Carson in Wilmette:
 
 "Why do I pay more for less? At restaurants, they make the portions look like it's the same, but when I open it, it's less. Everything is shrinking, yet costs go up. Why?"
 
 It’s a phenomenon called “shrinkflation.” To find out more, we called up an expert.
 
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Nearly two months into President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign, social media feeds from his administration and its right-wing allies paint a grim picture of Chicago.
 
 Highly produced videos depict heroic military raids. And social media influencers help to spread the message that Chicago is a city plagued by violence, at war with the federal government.
 
 But the videos don’t always match the reality of what’s happening in communities across the Chicago area.
 
 Sun-Times reporter Nader Issa has been analyzing these videos with the help of several experts, and he joins us now to discuss his findings.
 
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President Donald Trump has been outspoken in blaming crime on ‘sanctuary’ policies in Democratic states, but the numbers don’t tell the same story. 
 
 A WBEZ and Sun-Times analysis shows many Republican-led states actually have higher violent crime rates and faster-growing undocumented immigrant populations.
 
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After police killed George Floyd in 2020, there was talk of a racial reckoning.
 
 In the theater community, that reckoning took the form of a letter titled “We See You, White American Theater.” The letter demanded that theaters stop tokenizing artists of color and start implementing company wide anti-rascist trainings.
 
 It would ultimately be signed by one-hundred-thousand artists, including many in Chicago. 
 
 Five years later, WBEZ reporter Mike Davis set out to learn what changed.
 
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