Chicago Newsroom

Ken Davis is joined in the first segment by Kim Wasserman, Director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. They discuss the group’s initiatives to persuade the City to conduct a full re-evaluation of the neighborhood’s industrial corridor, and ways to stimulate sustainable, meaningful employment within Little Village. They have expressed public concerns that, as the North Branch Industrial Corridor in Lincoln Park transitions into offices, residences and recreational spaces, many of the less-desirable, polluting industries will be driven into their neighborhoods and others further from the central core.

The second segment features a discussion with Chicago Tribune writer and critic Chris Jones, who has written a series of recent columns about the possible revival of Chicago’s Uptown Theater. Shuttered for over thirty years and severely deteriorated, the building was once among America’s largest movie palaces, featuring “an acre of seats.” Jones says that a confluence of demographic and economic change in the neighborhood, combined with strong interest from city government, has drawn interest from the City’s most influential business leaders, including Jam Productions. They appear to believe that their $75 million plan to reopen the theater has a better chance to succeed than the dozen-or-so schemes that have failed over the decades, and that they may actually have the money to accomplish it.

This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by Northwestern University School of Law’s Sheila Bedi, The Chicago Reporter’s Jonah Newman and Black Lives Matters Chicago’s Jonathan Projanski. They discuss the City’s recent release of a draft consent decree covering police reform in Chicago. They talk about the fact that community organizations won the right to participate in the drafting of the proposed decree, and their concern that many of the recommendations their groups proposed did not make it into the final draft. They also discuss the role of the Chicago police union in opposing many of the group’s proposals and speculate that, even if the ultimate federally-monitored decree is accepted by the judge and assigned to a monitor, the process of reforming the CPD will take many years, perhaps decades. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by 45th Ward Alderman John Arena. They discuss reports that the City and the Police Department may be close to an agreement that would produce a consent decree for police reform in Chicago, but there still may be disagreement about whether officers should report each time they point their gun at a citizen. They also discuss recent reports that the city has collected more than $660 million this year in TIF proceeds, and efforts on the part of the Progressive Caucus to regulate the ways in which the funds can be expended. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by Chicago Mayoral candidate Garry McCarthy. They discuss his tenure as police superintendent from 2011 to 2015 and his assertion that Chicago has to completely reform it’s economic, educational and law enforcement policies. He also discusses his difficult relationship with Mayor Emanuel, and his dismissal following the Laquan McDonald shooting. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, who’s spearheading a petition drive to impose a mandatory two-term limit on Chicago’s mayor’s office. Quinn claims that he’s well within the time-frame for gathering the 40-to-50-thousand signatures he needs to get his initiative on the November ballot as a binding referendum. If it achieves 50%-plus-one positive response, Rahn Emanuel will be prohibited from appearing on the ballot next February. Quinn also discusses Bruce Rauner’s role in the Janus v. AFSCME case, which, decided yesterday by the Supreme Court, restricts the way unions can fund their operations by prohibiting the collection of “fair share” payments from non-members. Quinn also says he doesn’t favor clemency for Rod Blagojevich unless and until he expresses remorse for his crimes. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by two powerful advocates for union representation in the public sector as it faces strong opposition from the Supreme Court. Robert Bruno of the University of Illinois’ School of Labor and Employment Relations and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ Public Affairs Director Anders Lindall discuss the current state of collective bargaining in Illinois and in the United States.

A Supreme Court ruling on Janus v AFSCME is expected at any time, and it’s virtually assured that the Justices will side with the plaintiff. The effect of such a ruling, our guests say, will be to force the 23 states which allow collective bargaining to become de-facto “right-to-work” states. The case was brought here in Illinois.

Bruno and Lindall say that while the ruling will have its intended effect on unions at least initially, there is a possibility that the attack on union organizing may energize those who’ve benefited from union representation but not bothered to become union members, to do so.

This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by The Chicago Tribune’s Juan Perez, Jr and Jennifer Smith Richards, two reporters with the on-going “Betrayed” series, which details a decade of sexual abuse at Chicago Public Schools. They tell us that there are serious issues with the way that reports of sexual abuse are handled at CPS, in that all staff are “designated reporters,” and are mandated to contact DCFS before their own supervisors. There are also, they report, critical issues with Illinois’ State’s child protection laws with their weak background check requirements and their failure to legally prohibit sexual contact between school staff and students who are 18 or older. They outline the “dual role” the CPS Law Department has had as both a collector if information and, at times, a prosecutor of its students. And they point out that Nicholas Schuler, the CPS Inspector General, will now be tasked with investigating both current and past cases for the school system.

In the second segment, Davis is joined by the BGA’s Alejandra Cancino, who, along with Odette Yousef of WBEZ examined “thousands of public records” to conclude that the CHA has been negligent for years in the inspection, operation and maintenance of its more than 150 elevators. Firefighters have been called to their buildings hundreds of times to free trapped people from jammed elevators just in the past couple of years. Some buildings, she tells us, date from 1956, but have never had their elevators’ mechanical systems upgraded or replaced. Coincidentally, shortly before the BGA/WBEZ story published, the CHA announced a $25 million contract to renovate all of its elevators by 2020. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by Mayoral candidate Dr. Willie Wilson. Wilson is highly critical of Mayor Emanuel, who he accuses of handing out contracts and opportunities to his friends and associates while ignoring minority communities. Wilson says he favors an elected school board and strong community participation in the management of the police department, a department that he’d split into four separate entities, each with its own superintendent. He says he’d re-open the 50 schools Emanuel closed in 2013, converting them into training schools for the trades. He tells us that he sees no need for new taxes, including the graduated income tax, because the budgets can be balanced with existing revenue. He says he approves of ex-governor Pat Quinn’s petition drive to term-limit the Mayor’s office, and pledged that he’d limit himself to two terms if elected. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by Lauren FitzPatrick, education reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, and Sarah Karp, education reporter at WBEZ. They discuss yesterday’s announcement by Mayor Emanuel that he intends to bring four-year pre-K classes to every CPS elementary school in the next several years, and the free pre-K that already exists at Oscar Mayer school, which serves some of Chicago’s wealthiest residents. They also discuss the recent report by the University of Chicago on the aftermath of CPS’ closure of almost 50 elementary schools in 2013. The report concludes that the process “caused large disruptions without clear benefits for students.” Lauren FitzPatrick brings us up-to-date on her report about filthy conditions in the schools since the hiring of two private contractors, and Sarah Karp explains her ongoing reporting about cuts in Special Education, a story that resulted in the state taking control over the management of the program. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Ken Davis is joined by Tony Arnold, WBEZ’s State Politics Reporter, Hal Dardick, investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune and Heather Cherone, City Hall reporter for the Daily Line.

They discuss this week’s raucous meeting at the Chicago City Council in which about a hundred police officers showed up to express their frustration with slow progress toward a police contract, and hundreds of other protesters vented their concerns that too much money was being directed toward Mayor Emanuel’s proposed police training academy. But, as Cherone reports, all sides seemed united in their displeasure with Mayor Emanuel. The approval for the Obama Presidential Center sailed through, but not without a lone dissenter, Ald. David Moore. Moore and Ald. Carolos Ramirez-Rosa were highly visible dissenters at the meeting, and shortly afterward the Latino Caucus announced that it had expelled Ramirez-Rosa.

Tony Arnold provided an update on WBEZ’s ongoing investigation into deaths at the Illinois Veteran’s Home, and their most recent revelation that one victim probably remained in her room for as much as 48 hours before being discovered by the staff.

The panel also considered Governor Rauner’s re-write of a bill to license the State’s gun stores and extend the “cooling-off’ period to 72 hours for assault weapons. He extended the waiting period to all guns and reinstated the death penalty – a proposal that seemed to leave politicians on both sides of the aisle scratching their heads. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).