Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Sources and methods. The crown jewels of the intelligence community. Shorthand for how do we know what's real? Who told us? If you have those answers, you're on the inside. And NPR wants to bring you there. From the Pentagon, to the State Department, to spy agencies, listen to understand what's really happening and what it means for you. Sources and Methods, the new national security podcast from NPR. Good afternoon. I'm Lisa Labez, and this is The Rundown.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is vowing not to back down against President Trump after Mr. Trump posted on social media that the governor and Mayor Brandon Johnson deserve to be jailed. Trump says both Illinois officials are not doing enough to protect.

ICE agents as they gather up migrants in the Chicago area. Governor Pritzker yesterday drew some laughs when he was at a forum with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz when a reporter asked both whether they're worried about being jailed for being Trump critics. Do you both believe that you could sincerely be arrested? Yes. I'm asking any of you to come visit me in the gulag.

Pritzker's El Salvadoran reference was to the notorious Central American mega prison where Trump's administration has sent scores of migrants. Meantime, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is calling an executive order he signed this week a pathway to. The order creates what are called ICE-free zones. This prohibits immigration officials from using city-owned property to stage, process, or otherwise operate. And it was inspired by reports of ICE using a city-owned law.

lot at kedzy and harrison my colleague sasha ann simons asked the mayor in our in the loop program how effective will the order be won't they just set up somewhere else next door they they will and then what well As I said, these are unprecedented times. The mayor says there's no playbook for what's happening right now and says it's important to challenge the federal government where it is currently possible, for example, by taking them to court for violating a city order.

Demolition of the historic Damon silos has resumed. The city had paused the demolition of the former grain silos near South Damon Avenue and the Stevenson Expressway. The demo is considered environmentally complex because dust that gets stirred up as the silos are torn down, and that has the potential to create harmful pollution. The city has approved a new plan to better control that dust.

And local artist Tonika Lewis-Johnson can now add genius to her resume. The Chicagoan is among the latest class of MacArthur Fellows. The class was announced this morning. My colleague Courtney Kippers reports the so-called genius grants come from the Chicagoan. Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Johnson is among 22 recipients this year. She says the award is validating for her social justice-oriented work in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

just for me, it's for my neighborhood. And I'm just really happy to kind of be a mascot for the genius that always existed here. Through her work, like the Folded Map Project, Johnson has shown a light on systemic inequities in Chicago, and she says this award will give her stability and allow her to think bigger. And just a quick note, the MacArthur Foundation is a financial supporter of...

WBEZ. You're listening to The Rundown. If you look closely at a map of Chicago, you can see there is a hole on the city's southwest side. It's in the 19th Ward. And it's a part of the city that's not officially part of the city. Curious City has the story behind that hole. I'm Mariah Wolfel. Ahead of Chicago's mayoral election in 2023, freelance journalist Taylor Moore noticed something odd about the 19th Ward map. It was so strange to me.

If the rectangle wasn't part of the 19th Ward or part of Chicago, what could it possibly be? Taylor asked Curious City, what is that hole in the 19th Ward on the southwest side? And why is it there? The short answer? It's a cemetery, Mount Greenwood Cemetery. But there are a bunch of other cemeteries all over the city that don't show up as holes. So what's the deal?

Turns out this piece of land is an unincorporated part of Cook County. And what's going on here has a lot to do with the funeral industry as a whole, which has deep roots on the city's southwest side. First, we gotta go back. Way back. According to historian Carol Flynn, when glaciers formed and receded in the area, they created big ridges of land and eventually sand dunes.

That land was not good for farming, so it was too porous, but it was perfect for cemeteries and eventually for golf courses. Funerals became big business there. People would take a train down for the day, attend a funeral and then stick around at a nearby tavern for food and drinks. The area became known as the Seven Holy Tombs, or to some, Seven Cemeteries and Seven Bars.

Carroll says Mount Greenwood was also a party town, which ended up contributing to why it was one of the last surrounding villages to incorporate into the city of Chicago in 1927. Mount Greenwood became kind of an area for a lot of... gambling against loans. There was a big greyhound racing course just west of the cemetery for a number of years. Eventually, the town needed sewer services, better schools, and to the chagrin of the town's makeshift and rowdy police force, real law enforcement.

Carroll says at the time, because the cemetery wasn't going to bring in property taxes for the city, it just didn't get incorporated. And there have been no efforts to incorporate it in more recent years either. Paula Everett's family has owned the cemetery since the 1940s. She says it doesn't really affect her nowadays being in unincorporated Cook County, except for when it comes to police services.

I can't call 911 from my phones because I'm not, they can tell I'm not in the city. So I have to call 311. She can call the sheriff's office, but it takes them a half an hour to get there, and it hasn't always been the most effective. Meanwhile, on the far north side in the 40th Ward, Alderman Andre Vasquez says he's worked well with local police regarding calls about Rose Hill Cemetery, and residents have been known to file complaints.

I think the most we got was during COVID because people were using this as like a hangout spot during COVID because, right, we couldn't go out into places. He says the cemetery doesn't affect his work as an alderman much, but around election season, he gets a little ribbing. A few blocks of residences are included in the same precinct as the land of the cemetery, so that patch actually shows up in vote counts each year.

So then we get the joke every time of like, oh, look who voted in that precinct. And the dead bodies do vote in Chicago, right? So when you see any votes out of that precinct, it's like a quick joke. And it's like, all right, yeah, yeah, yeah. He says that's a little too on the nose for Chicago. For Curious City, I'm Mariah Wolfel.

Weather today, sunny, seasonable, very pleasant to high in the mid-60s. Clear tonight in Chile, a low in the upper 40s, and sunny in mid-60s on Thursday. You can find the latest news whenever you want at WBEZ.org or on your radio. at 91.5 FM. I'm Lisa Labas. Thank you for listening.