WBEZ News

A federal judge today extended limits on the use of force by federal agents carrying out a Chicago-area deportation blitz.
 
 The decision came after the judge heard clips of sworn testimony by the U.S. Border Patrol chief in charge of that operation.
 
 He was asked about a pep talk for his agents by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
 
 Both say they’re going tough on violent mobs to protect the American people.
 
 But the judge today found their use of force in Chicago, quote, “shocks the conscience” and chills First Amendment rights.
 
 HOST: LARA

The 20-20 murder of George Floyd stirred waves of activism and protest across the country. 
 
 It also sparked a year of reflection. In Chicago, several major arts groups joined businesses big and small in showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. 
 
 Many promised in public D-E-I plans to make changes to better reflect the city they serve.
 
 Now, five years later, the Sun-Times and WBEZ have surveyed 21 arts, culture and humanities nonprofits to see what progress they made. 
 
 Sun-Times reporter Erica Thompson joins us to talk about the survey and what she learned. 
 
 HOST: LANE

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been targeting Chicago neighborhoods and the fear among residents and workers is palpable. 
 
 That’s meant delays in building repairs or missed rent payments … which some property managers say could raise the cost of rent.
 
 HOST: LANE

It’s a facility where human rights abuses have been alleged, and that has been entirely cut off from the public. 
 
 There was another form of protest yesterday (MON). 
 
 It was music. 
 HOST: MELBA

Each year, Chicago’s cultural affairs department stages a competition for local musicians. 
 
 It’s called the Chicago Made Music Showcase….Winners go on to perform at Lollapalooza and Taste of Chicago ….and they get studio recording time. 
 
 The grand prize winner also receives ten-thousand dollars. 
 
 This year’s top vote getter is the singer Mara Love. She visited the studios of WBEZ sister station Vocalo to talk with Nudia Hernandez about what’s next.
 
 HOST: LANE

We're answering YOUR questions about the National Guard and immigration agents in Chicago. Today’s Questions: "What are the qualifications for becoming an immigration agent?
 
 HOST: LANE

Not all federal immigration officers are wearing ID badges on their uniforms more than three weeks after an order from a federal judge in response to a lawsuit. 
 
 And many of the IDs they are wearing can be hard to find or read
 HOST: MELBA

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 Murray who says:
 
 Please explain supply and demand. Why is it that if a manufacturer has produced a product and has established a cost to manufacture and then sells more than anticipated, the asking/selling price increases because there is a “limited supply"? The cost to manufacture has NOT increased due to scarcity. Why the price increase? Is this the philosophy of “demand what the market will bear”?
 
 To find out, we called up an expert.
 
 HOST: LANE

After three decades of writing, Dale is calling it a career. 
 HOST: PUENTE

The dust is clearing in Springfield after state lawmakers wrapped up a busy fall veto session at around 4:30 this morning.
 
 Democrats threw a financial lifeline to the Chicago-area’s mass transit system that raised tolls and sales taxes.
 
 They pushed back against the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement actions.
 
 And they moved to allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients.
 
 Here to help us break it all down is WBEZ’s Alex Degman.
 
 HOST: LARA

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in Gary, Indiana yesterday (THURS) and made several surprising remarks.
 
 HOST: LANE

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says immigration enforcement operations in the Chicago area will continue over the Halloween weekend.
 
 Even though Governor J-B Pritzker asked her for a three day pause. 
 
 The back-and-forth came after federal agents conducted a recent raid on the Northwest side that disrupted an annual Halloween parade.
 
 The ongoing immigration actions have families wondering how to keep their kids safe for the holiday celebrations.
 
 HOST: LANE

How do you tell a really scary story? Three horror writers gathered at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School recently to discuss the ways they approach the genre.
 
 It was part of the American Writers Museum’s upcoming exhibition called American Prophets: Writers, Religion and Culture that opens next month (Nov). It explores the ways writers tap into religion and spirituality. 
 
 HOST: LANE

Grayson was charged after shooting Sonya (sahn-yuh) Massey to death in her home after she call 9-1-1 for help. HOST: MELBA

Fall is the new Christmas. At least that's what the co-owner of Perfect Pumpkins Chicago says. 
 
 Nicole Regan and her mother, Cindy Nelson, love decorating their porches with pumpkins in elaborate fall displays. 
 
 And in 20-22 they turned that into a business – offering custom-designed fall arrangements to homeowners.
 
 They’re one of several Chicago-area companies in the “pumpkin-concierge business.”
 
 HOST: LANE

Museum visitors encounter Ono’s art before they even step inside. Out front there is a giant billboard that reads Peace is Power.
 
 HOST: LANE

Homeland Security officials say the face coverings are a matter of agent safety.
 
 But some former top U-S law enforcement officials are raising red flags.
 HOST: MELBA

In recent months, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in west suburban Broadview has become a place where religious leaders say immigrants lack access to spiritual care… HOST: MELBA

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 from Mare in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood:
 
 "I have a student loan. Initially, it was with a servicer that provided good service. In 2022, I applied for public service loan forgiveness and was denied, but in the process the government moved my loan to another servicer without notifying me. This servicer is the worst - they raised my payments without notice, and whenever I have a problem, I cannot get a human on the phone. I would like to move my loans back to the first servicer, but they said I would need to do a loan consolidation first. I have no idea how to do this, or if it will cost me more money in the long run. Please help!"
 
 So to help Mare out, we called up an expert.
 
 HOST: LANE

This week's Chicago school board meeting was filled with the normal fare.
 
 But members were distracted as their phones lit up with messages about what was going on outside on the streets. 
 
 Federal immigration agents were out in force… and they were confronting protesters. Some high school students were detained. 
 
 And then, at one point, the news filtered into the board chambers. 
 
 WBEZ’s Sarah Karp tells us what happened.
 
 HOST: LARA

The 61st Chicago International Film Festival wraps up this weekend.
 
 WBEZ’s Melba Lara sat down with Vocalo contributor and film critic Reggie Ponder to hear some of his highlights from the festival and learn about where Chicago filmmakers are making their mark.
 
 HOST: LABUZ

Carp from Asia were first introduced to fish farms in the Southern United States in the 1960s to help control algae.
 
 But the carp quickly became invasive. 
 
 They overran the Illinois River decades ago - so much so that there’s more carp there today than any other place on Earth. 
 
 Illinois and federal officials have fought to keep the fish contained ever since. 
 
 They worry if the fish reach the Great Lakes it could upend the delicate ecosystem there. 
 
 Last week - Illinois may have turned a corner in the fight against this aquatic menace.
 
 HOST: LABUZ

The murder trial of a former downstate sheriff’s deputy accused of fatally shooting an unarmed, Black woman in her home is now underway.
 
 Sean Grayson’s killing of Sonya Massey last year and his ongoing trial have drawn national headlines.
 
 WBEZ’s Mawa Iqbal has been in Peoria this week, covering this trial, and is here to tell us about where things stand.
 
 HOST: LARA

Justin Perry was a writer. A rapper. A music fan who appreciated all genres. 
 
 He was a parent to a young daughter. And, his mother’s only son. 
 
 But, when he died in 2021 in a shooting just outside Chicago when he was 28 years old, Justin Perry was reduced to one paragraph in a newspaper story about local gun violence.
 
 Now, his mother, the coolly calm and confident Racquel Perry is bringing her son’s vibrancy back to life … in a song.
 
 HOST: LANE

People have a few options if they think their rights were violated or federal agents used excessive force. But the process is different than the one for local law enforcement. We're answering YOUR questions about federal immigration agents – and the National Guard – in Illinois.
 
 HOST: ARACELI GOMEZ-ALDANA

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is laser focused on passing his 16-point-6 billion dollar budget – propped up by a slew of new taxes — by the end of the year.
 
 And that’s while juggling the city’s response to the Trump Administration, including the president's threats to federal funding and militarized-style immigration enforcement in Chicago.
 
 HOST: LANE

The online platform Homeaglow (Home-a-glow) links consumers with house cleaning services in their area, touting a home cleaning for just $19 dollars. 
 
 But more than 28-hundred consumers have filed complaints about Homeaglow with the nonprofit Better Business Bureau.
 
 They say they were trapped in hard-to-cancel subscription plans that some people didn’t even realize they were signing up for.
 
 HOST: LANE

A team of reporters at Chicago Public Media has been looking into Bovino’s history with the border patrol agency, the legal issues involved and the people who have been caught in its cross-hairs. 
 HOST: MELBA

79 year old Thomas Weisflog has a unique job.
 
 It involves four keyboards, a chimney flute, and a flugelhorn.
 
 For the past 25 years he has been the organ player at University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. 
 
 HOST: LANE

Gil Kerlikowske [ker-lih-COW-skee] was Customs and Border Protection commissioner from 20-14 to ’17. 
 
 Before that, he was police chief of Seattle for eight years. That included policing hundreds of protests.
 HOST: MELBA

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 Richard.
 
 HOST: LANE

Just last week, WBEZ told you about the 22 million dollars the Chicago Housing Authority paid to three companies with close ties to a C-H-A board commissioner.
 
 Since then, we’ve learned two of those three insiders have faced accusations from the C-H-A’s inspector general.
 
 HOST: LANE

As federal immigration agents aggressively detain people all over the city, some Chicagoans are fighting back the only way they can.
 
 They’re forming neighborhood patrols and gathering outside of schools and churches.
 
 And to help sound the alarm, many of them are arming themselves with whistles. 
 
 HOST: LANE

As immigration enforcement has ramped up around the Chicago area, photojournalists have been up close – and sometimes even caught in the middle.
 
 Chicago Sun-Times photojournalist Anthony Vazquez was on the scene earlier this week when federal immigration agents tear-gassed protesters and Chicago police officers on Chicago’s far Southeast side.
 
 Vazquez joins us now to talk about what he’s been seeing on the ground – and how he does his work under difficult conditions.
 
 HOST: LARA

Mayor Brandon Johnson gave an impassioned budget address today, pitching his $16.6 billion dollar spending plan as a clapback to quote- “unprecedented” attacks on Chicago by President Donald Trump.
 
 The proposal does not rely on a property tax increase to close a massive deficit. 
 
 Instead, Johnson is pitching a corporate head tax, a social media tax, a yacht tax, and more in the proposal applauded by council progressives, but slammed by council critics.
 
 Here with us to unpack it all is City Hall reporter Mariah Woelfel. 
 
 HOST: LARA

The one-time street gang the Young Lords has inspired a new exhibit at the DePaul Art Museum.
 
 The show traces the group’s transformation into an influential civil rights group…. and it comes at a moment when museums are under the microscope.
 
 HOST: LANE

In recent weeks federal agents have been targeting and arresting Latino immigrants across the Chicago area. 
 
 Many of these arrests are made without warrants, and use extremely aggressive tactics. 
 
 The situation is creating so much anxiety, that some immigrants in Chicago’s Mexican community are considering returning to Mexico.
 HOST: MELBA

Last month, during a military-style immigration raid on a South Shore apartment building, a man heard a knock at his door.
 
 It wasn’t federal agents, but a mother and her young daughter — pleading for a place to hide.
 HOST: MELBA

The value of gold has gone up 53-point-7-percent this year- reaching a valuation of $4 thousand dollars - and it’s on track to keep climbing. Inflationary pressures, tariffs, and asset allocation have all contributed to the surge and local retailers are riding the wave. 
 
 HOST: LANE

The records, out physically Oct. 10 and via streaming Oct. 31, capture musical vignettes over the course of McCraven’s last decade.
 HOST: LANE

The jarring, military-style immigration raid on a South Shore building in Chicago two weeks ago captured the nation’s attention.
 
 Federal officials blamed an influx of Venezuelan migrants for the building’s dangerous conditions when they raided and arrested 37 people in the middle of the night. 
 
 But longtime tenants say the building was in terrible condition long before the raid and the migrants moved in.
 
 HOST: LANE

Can individual members of the Illinois National Guard refuse orders to deploy in Illinois?
 
 It’s not often service members have to contemplate whether their orders are legal or illegal but sometimes they do. 
 
 The burden is left to the service member to understand the distinction and what their options are if they believe their orders are illegal. 
 
 Richard Hayes is a retired Army general and the former head of the Illinois National Guard. 
 
 HOST: LANE

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’s question is from Zayla who asks, “What steps should I take to be able to save up to buy a house one day?”
 
 HOST: LANE

The nun who’s credited with praying the Loyola Ramblers men’s basketball team to the NCAA Final Four in 2018 has died.
 
 Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt died at 106-years-old. 
 
 HOST: LANE

The tournament at the University of Illinois Chicago drew over 200 puzzlers who came for crosswords and camaraderie. “I want my ego checked,” said one participant. “That’s mission accomplished.”
 
 HOST: LANE

A deadly smash-and-grab in downtown Chicago is raising questions about the best way to reduce crime in the city. 
 
 One of the alleged offenders was a peacekeeper who had recently posed for a photo with Governor J-B Pritzker.
 
 Allies of the Trump administration point to such incidents as proof that Chicago needs National Guard troops.
 
 But experts say it’s not that simple. 
 
 They contend that violent crime is down, thanks in part to those who mediate conflict in the city’s toughest neighborhoods.
 
 HOST: LANE

A supersized music festival with a funny name is unfolding all month long in Chicago. 
 
 The Ear Taxi Festival is running now through November second.
 
 It features forty concerts, twenty venues and four-hundred musicians.
 
 HOST: LANE

We’ve been getting a lot of questions from you about what type of training the National Guard soldiers get – and what they’re allowed to do while deployed in an American city. 
 
 We know guardsmen from Texas have been at a training site in Elwood, Illinois. 
 
 In other cities they’ve been stationed around federal buildings.
 
 Here in Illinois that could mean the immigration processing facility in west suburban Broadview where protests have been happening for weeks. 
 
 But legal experts say guard soldiers do NOT have the authority to do ordinary law enforcement.
 
 HOST: LANE

The immigration enforcement sweep now underway in the Chicago area has come with a lot of bravado from President Trump and his administration.
 HOST: MELBA

Though the weather may feel otherwise, fall is in the air, with apple picking, corn mazes and more. 
 
 And that means big bucks for local businesses.
 
 To walk us through the demand for fall activities, Sun-Times reporter Mariah Rush talked with WBEZ’s Melba Lara. 
 
 HOST: LANE