In the Loop

A college education can greatly improve socioeconomic mobility. In The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes Or Breaks Us, journalist Paul Tough examines the many barriers to higher education for low income and minority students.

No pot stores on the Mag Mile, and the mayor’s refusal to release all the documents related to the Laquan McDonald case are just some of the stories we’re covering in today’s Friday News roundup

WBEZ reporting has found the way the City of Chicago dishes out fines and fees associated with car tickets has affected disadvantaged neighborhoods of color more than any other. Mayor Lori Lightfoot is trying to change that, and some of her reforms will get a vote tomorrow at City Council. City Comptroller Reshma Soni describes the reforms Lightfoot is pushing, and how she thinks they’ll help people, and the city, in the long run.

Plus one woman’s mission to pair parents of children with special needs with employers offering a decent wage and flexible schedules.

From the late 1980’s and into the 90’s, Chicago’s Wicker Park was both a working-class neighborhood and a hub for young creatives searching for community and a place to hone their art. 10 years later, the area became a magnet for developers looking to cash in on Wicker Park’s hip nature and the close proximity to downtown.

Poet and activist Kevin Coval’s new book “Everything Must Go: The Life And Death of An American Neighborhood” examines the changes that Coval witnessed, what gentrification meant to Wicker Park, to Chicago, and to neighborhoods in cities facing a similar situation and fate.

Chicago singer-songwriter Kaina Castillo has been performing at venues across the city since she was a teen. The Irving Park native built a name for herself along the way, and is now touring on her first full-length album, Next to the Sun.

From federal oversight of Chicago’s public schools tied to last year’s news of CPS’s oversight of sexual abuse and assault cases, to judges in high places to an unfolding story of the continued failure of the state’s Department of Children and Family Services, our round table of reporters break down the biggest news of the week on our Friday News Roundup

Driving for a rideshare company like Uber or Lyft may be your ticket to some extra money. But if you owe fines or fees to the city, you may be blocked from doing the job. WBEZ’s Elliot Ramos explains what’s happening, and who’s affected most.

Plus activists argue in court that developer Sterling Bay has no right to use public money from TIFs to build their mega-development known as Lincoln Yards. Find out what the judge said yesterday.

Mayor Lightfoot is trying to plug a Grand Canyon-sized budget hole. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $860 million. Every penny counts. So when she found out that the Chicago Police Department dished out nearly $70 million in overtime-for just the first 6 months of 2019-she called in the superintendent to find out what was going on. Sun Times reporter Fran Spielman takes us through the past, present, and future of the city’s police overtime.

Plus Lynn Scarlett, Vice President of Policy and Government Relations at the Nature Conservancy, talks about the effect of the Trump administration’s many environmental rollbacks.

Uber wants to be more than a rideshare company. They want to dominate a number of transportation markets in the same way Amazon has become a one-stop shopping experience. To that end, Uber has leased the massive old post office building that straddles the entrance to the Eisenhower expressway, with plans to turn it into the headquarters for Uber Freight. But the company hasn’t turned a profit yet, and Wall Street isn’t as forgiving with companies as they were when tech first began to boom.

Then, steel companies are dumping poisonous chemicals into rivers and streams the feed directly into Lake Michigan. We’ll find out what’s going on, and the environmental impact.

Gregory Michie was born to teach. After years as a CPS teacher, Michie took a job as an education professor. He thought he was leaving the rough-and-tumble of daily teaching for a less stressful gig at a university. But a decade later, he was back. Michie’s new book “Same As It Never Was: Notes On A Teacher’s Return To The Classroom” looks at his return to the same school, the same grade level, and the same subjects he taught before he left in the 1990’s...and how the system and the kids have changed, and stayed the same.