In the Loop

One year after the horrific shooting at a Parkland, FL high school, we discuss the mental scars formed after shootings, and what’s being done to help kids swept up by trauma and violence in Chicago. And for Valentine’s Day, the evolving world of the romance novel in the era of #MeToo 

La Casa Norte, an organization serving homeless families and youth in Chicago, just opened a new $20 million dollar state-of-the-art facility in Humboldt Park.   Sol Flores is La Casa Norte’s executive director, and she’s been working to make this project a reality for years. But now...she’s wrapping up her time with the organization to join the Pritzker administration as Deputy Governor. Plus bird advocates move to make changes in the city's building codes to include protections for our flying friends.   

llinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Special Prosecutor Joe McMahon want the state Supreme Court to send the Van Dyke case back to Judge Vincent Gaughan for a new sentence. Plus, we revisit conversations with descendants of Ida B. Wells.  The anti-lynching crusader and civil rights pioneer became the first black woman to have a downtown street named for her when Mayor Emanuel officially changed Congress Parkway to Ida B. Wells Drive.  

While white, Latino, and Asian populations in Chicago have grown over the last decade, the Black population is in decline.  Demographer Rob Parel talks about what that means for the city, and for the city’s next mayor.  And Janae Bonsu is the new leader of Chicago’s Black Youth Project 100.  She talks about her background, and her agenda for the next couple of years.

In a city filled with hard-working musicians, Mike Maimone is right up there.  Averaging 100 live dates a year for the past 12 years, he’s also released 6 albums and 6 EP’s on his own label, and done plenty of session work for other artists.  Maimone plays the blues with a swampy New Orleans-influenced sound reminiscent of Dr. John or Leon Russell.  And in his own words, he brings “a little queerness to traditionally straight blues-based genres”.

From the shooting of a 1-year-old to the wide-open mayoral race,  WVON commentator Kimberly Egonmwan, ProPublica Illinois reporter and columnist Mick Dumke, and WTTW political correspondent Paris Schutz  lay out everything you need to know about the biggest news stories in and around Chicago this week.

Asian-American voter engagement is historically low for a number of reasons.  But several Chicago-area groups are trying to change that.  And the latest on the Sterigenics plant in suburban Willowbrook.  Cancer numbers for residents are 9 times higher than average, but authorities have been slow to act.

Our panel looks at the racist and anti-Muslim emails of the Cubs ownership patriarch Joe Ricketts, and debates how far owners can go before fans abandon their beloved teams. Then we look the best ways to deal with the never-ending parade of robocalls to your home and cell phone.  

Our panel looks at the racist and anti-Muslim emails of the Cubs ownership patriarch Joe Ricketts, and debates how far owners can go before fans abandon their beloved teams. Then we look the best ways to deal with the never-ending parade of robocalls to your home and cell phone.  

Economists say a carbon tax could help change behavior, slow climate change. Plus Chicago's potholes, and refugee women have the power in a new fashion collective