In the Loop

The latest jobs report out Friday shows the U.S. economy added 261,000 jobs in October. But can job growth stay strong as the Federal Reserve works to tamp down inflation? Reset checks in with Diane Swonk, chief economist at financial services firm KPMG.

A patient at Northwestern Medicine’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute is expected to go home this week after receiving the state’s first heart donated after circulatory death. Reset learns more from the institute’s Dr. Jane Wilcox about how this technology could help save countless lives.

Food waste emits methane as it breaks down, a process that contributes to global warming. Reset talks to Jonathan Pereira, executive director Plant Chicago and Amy DeLorenzo of the Illinois Food Scrap and Composting Coalition about composting pumpkins after Halloween to keep them out of landfills. Plus, we get some pumpkin cooking tips from Jordan Wimby, a food preservationist and cultural historian also known as “Melanin Martha.”

For decades chemical relaxers have been central to the hair regimen of many Black women. Recently, court cases and ongoing studies have challenged that these same chemical relaxers are linked to cancer.

Reset convenes a panel featuring Arionne Nettles, lecturer at Northwestern University; Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times columnist; and Dr. Maya Green, Chief Medical Officer at Howard Brown Health on what this means for Black hair.

Reset talks about recent reports of ring-wing campaign mailers disguised as newspapers with NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and WBEZ politics reporter Dan Mihalopoulos. Then Reset learns about the importance of media literacy with Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, executive director of National Association for Media Literacy Education, and Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise at the Poynter Institute.

The recent attack of Paul Pelosi has once again put a spotlight on rising political violence in the U.S. It’s just one of many examples of threats and attacks, particularly by far-right groups, that have occurred in the wake of Donald Trump’s former presidency. Reset speaks with historian Kathleen Belew about why we’re seeing this rise and violence and how it might affect the election just one week away.

If you’re not going to fight for your community, then who is? Residents of the Southeast Side came together when a car-shredding facility planned to move its factory to their neighborhood. But with General Iron behind them, what’s left to do in the fight for clean air and water on the Southeast Side? Reset talks to two local residents: Gina Ramirez, Midwest outreach manager for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Vanessa Bly, co-founder of Bridges // Puentes Justice Collective about their work to improve the lives and health of their neighbors.

The Supreme Court heard two cases that could determine whether colleges and universities are allowed to consider race as one of many factors in the admissions process.

Reset discusses what we learned from Monday’s oral arguments with Steven Schwinn, professor of law at University of Illinois Chicago Law School and co-editor of Constitutional Law Prof Blog. Then Reset learns what local college students have to say about affirmative action with Nereida Moreno, WBEZ education reporter.

A good Samaritan’s work is currently at risk of being undone by the city and some neighbors.

Andy Robledo has been supplying Chicago’s homeless with high-quality tents for about a year to brace for colder weather. But now some of those tents face removal by the city.

Reset finds out more about Robledo’s efforts and what the city’s “sweeps” of tents and encampments could mean for Chicago’s unhoused.