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.
Feb 27, 2024•4 min
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 l...
Feb 27, 2024•9 min
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.
Feb 27, 2024•4 min
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.
Feb 26, 2024•4 min
Kelley Engelbrecht moved to Chicago in 2020. One day, she and her husband were driving around the city, and an abandoned building caught her eye. Emblazoned on the side of the building were huge block letters spelling out “Mr. Mr. Fungi.” “We were like ‘What does that even mean?’” she recalled. Engelbrecht decided to follow her curiosity about the graffiti tag by reporting on it for Chicago Magazine. In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Engelbrecht about graffiti, street artists and legacy....
Feb 26, 2024•17 min
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is proposing a new plan to fully fund the state’s pension systems, which have been in significant debt for years. Chicago Public Schools plans to end its contract with the police department this summer, but district officials revealed last week this won’t necessarily save money. Local Ukrainian activists spoke with WBEZ this weekend on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Feb 26, 2024•5 min
A Cook County judge ruled that a referendum that would have allowed a tax increase in Chicago to fund homelessness prevention is invalid. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is trying to permanently get rid of the state’s 1% grocery sales tax. Gov. Pritzker also wants to earmark more money for the state’s Department of Children and Family Services: $2.3 billion over the next fiscal year.
Feb 23, 2024•4 min
Tonika Lewis Johnson calls her latest project – unBlocked Englewood – “a very unusual art project.” It involves beautifying the 6500 block of South Aberdeen Street in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood – though things like murals, gardens, gazebos and landscaping – that’s not the unusual part. “But,” she said, “if we were to just start doing art right away, it would be an insult to people on that block.” Johnson said the homeowners there, like so many other minority Chicagoans on the South Side, a...
Feb 23, 2024•19 min
Chicago Board of Education votes to tell schools to prepare for no more cops in schools next year. The same board is officially ending private custodial management after years of complaints that schools were filthy. A new initiative in Chicago aims to double youth employment in the city in the next three years.
Feb 23, 2024•5 min
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is asking for a much more modest increase than he did last year to the MAP grant that helps low-income students pay for college. Gov. Pritzker is also under fire from Republicans for his plan that does not raise a popular state tax credit to fully cover the effects of inflation. Metra has unveiled plans to buy zero emission, battery-powered trains.
Feb 22, 2024•3 min
Last May, the federal government declared the end of the pandemic public health emergency. But COVID-19 is still widely circulating, and Chicago event organizers are taking precautions into their own hands. Emily Dupree started Clean Air Club after her partner caught COVID while masked at a concert. “If we’re going to meaningfully reduce the disease burden in the country and around the world, we have to target air quality,” she said. Dupree and some COVID-cautious event organizers see these type...
Feb 22, 2024•19 min
Governor J.B. Pritzker made education a focal point of the nearly $53 billion state spending plan he laid out yesterday. Dollar Stores in Chicago will be prohibited from opening within a mile of existing locations under an ordinance passed by the City Council. The Chicago Sky are prepping for an active WNBA draft.
Feb 22, 2024•5 min
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled his nearly $53 billion spending plan during his State of the State address in Springfield. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced a major development plan today that relies on borrowing $1.25 billion to pay for affordable housing units and other projects. The Chicago City Council is adding new restrictions to limit the spread of chain dollar stores.
Feb 21, 2024•4 min
There’s a new sky show at the Adler Planetarium that asks kids and families to explore big questions – like, are there multiple universes? – through the eyes of a little girl from Chicago named Niyah. “This film, in particular, follows her journey as she explores every piece of her being and what it means to be a young girl trying to find her way in the universe,” said Taylor Witten, who co-wrote “Niyah and the Multiverse” with Chicago author and filmmaker Ytasha Womack. Womack said another big ...
Feb 21, 2024•18 min
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is delivering his budget address later today, and there’s one line item that Democrats and Republicans are strictly divided on. He also wants to spend more than $20 million dollars next fiscal year to help prevent more pregnant Black women from dying. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is expected to introduce a major development plan today that relies on borrowing more than $1 billion.
Feb 21, 2024•5 min
Governor JB Pritzker will deliver his budget address tomorrow. The Chicago Board of Education is working on a plan to remove all police assigned to schools by this fall. The Illinois Department of Public Health warns people could still contract respiratory viruses in the coming months.
Feb 20, 2024•3 min
“My toxic trait is that I’m a ‘what-if’ person,” said Hannah Sellers, one of three co-owners of Lot’sa. Lot’sa is a new community art space in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood, and it has multiple identities: store, gallery, gathering place. Sellers opened Lot’sa with sisters Cheryl and Sarah Hinman. But the three were friends long before they opened a business together. In this episode, Rundown producer Sarah Stark talks to Sellers about working with friends and fostering an artistic communit...
Feb 20, 2024•15 min
A new Illinois law allows gun owners to keep assault-style weapons if they disclosed them by January 1, but state registration rates are low. Illinois lawmakers are back in Springfield today with some potential fireworks over spending on the horizon. The strange, otherworldly sounds of microtonal music will be heard in Chicago at the annual Frequency Festival.
Feb 20, 2024•4 min
Early voting is expected to resume Wednesday morning in Chicago and Cook County following a brief shut down. White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf wants $1 billion of public money to help build a new South Loop stadium for the team. The Chicago area will see highs in the 50s as this year’s average February temperature continues to rise.
Feb 19, 2024•4 min
Joseph Perez is known to many as Sentrock – the muralist and street artist whose work can be experienced on walls, in illustrations, and as action figures across Chicago and the U.S. You’d probably recognize his signature character, a boy with a red bird mask named the Bird City Saint. In this episode, the artist talks with The Rundown podcast host Erin Allen about his childhood and storytelling that inspire his work – and how it manifested into a three-room exhibit at the Elmhurst Art Museum. T...
Feb 19, 2024•18 min
The annual U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute conference brought together thousands of high schoolers from around the country. A new research center at the University of Chicago aims to reduce disparities in cancer prevention and treatment. A proposed bill in Springfield could make it easier for people who own products from microwaves to video cameras to get those items fixed.
Feb 19, 2024•5 min
A Chicago woman who was the victim of a wrongful police raid five years ago is demanding the city enact reforms to prevent others from experiencing what she did. Labor unions are targeting two far-right state lawmakers in southern Illinois by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars toward their primary opponents. A project to help restore the environment for aquatic plants in part of the Illinois River kicked off this week.
Feb 16, 2024•4 min
Emily and Tyler Nevius celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in January, but they were too tired to throw a big party. In the past few months, years of hard work have culminated in the opening-slash-reopening of the Ramova Theatre. The historic movie theater in Bridgeport is now a concert venue, backed by the Neviuses, Chance the Rapper, Jennifer Hudson, Quincy Jones and dozens of other investors. Rundown podcast producer Justin Bull talks to the Neviuses about the years, tears and beers tha...
Feb 16, 2024•17 min
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson isn’t saying whether the city will chip in more money along with the state of Illinois and Cook county to care for migrants. The Illinois comptroller wants the governor to prioritize putting any new, available money towards the state’s rainy-day fund. Incumbent Iris Martinez is facing a tough re-election battle to keep running Cook County’s Circuit Court system.
Feb 16, 2024•5 min
The Chicago City Council has rejected letting the union for rank-and-file cops bypass the Police Board and contest the most serious discipline in private arbitration. The state of Illinois and Cook County are partnering to spend another $250 million to care for migrants being sent to Chicago. The head of Columbia College Chicago is stepping down July 1.
Feb 15, 2024•3 min
WBEZ investigative reporter Dan Mihalopoulos broke the story in 2021 about a major internal investigation within the Chicago Park District – one where several current and former supervisors in the aquatics department were accused of regularly committing “sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, workplace violence and other criminal acts.” The fallout from the scandal included resignations, apologies, promises, lawsuits and – effective Jan. 1, 2024 – a new state law that makes it easier f...
Feb 15, 2024•17 min
The Chicago City Council today is scheduled to take its final vote on who should make decisions in serious police discipline cases. A proposal in Springfield would require any law enforcement agencies encrypting their police scanner transmissions to still make their live activity available to the media. Details on where Chicago residents can cast their ballots early for the March 19th primary starting today.
Feb 15, 2024•5 min
Some of Lurie Children’s Hospital’s communications are back up, two weeks into a cybersecurity issue. Employees at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago are the latest to work toward unionizing. The National Weather Service has called for a hazardous weather outlook overnight across north central and northeastern Illinois.
Feb 14, 2024•4 min
Sulyiman Stokes grew up in Auburn Gresham on Chicago’s South Side, and he fell in love with music at a young age. His winding artistic journey has taken him to Los Angeles and back to Chicago, and he has stepped in and out of the music industry. Now, he’s carving out a path as a multidisciplinary musician and photographer. In this episode, Stokes talks about using his art to tell Black narratives. This episode was produced by Ari Mejia for WBEZ’s sister station Vocalo and their Chi Sounds Like s...
Feb 14, 2024•10 min
Some Chicago anti-violence activists are worried about a city decision to disconnect a gunshot-detection system. A new proposal before Illinois lawmakers would allow terminally ill people to end their own lives with lethal medication. Both Democratic candidates running for Cook County State’s Attorney are pledging to reduce crime if elected.
Feb 14, 2024•4 min
