In the Loop

For the past 47 years, Bruce Iglauer has run Chicago's Alligator Records, one of the last remaining labels dedicated solely to the blues. Like any small label owner, he's had his share of ups and downs, but through it all, he's stayed true to his mission: to bring this unique American music to a worldwide audience. Many of these moments are captured in the new book Bitten by the Blues--the Alligator Records Story, written by Iglauer and Patrick A. Roberts. Iglauer joined the Morning Shift to share some memorable moments in blues history.

Congress has until midnight Friday to reach a bipartisan spending deal or face a partial government shutdown. Nancy Pelosi has gained enough support to be re-elected House Speaker, and President Trump is under increased scrutiny following revelations in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) of the 5th district joins the Morning Shift to talk about the future of the Democratic-led House of Representatives and the looming government shutdown. A federal judge in Texas ruled the ACA unconstitutional Rep. Mike Quigley: I guess I’d like to see the Supreme Court act  — that this is already settled law. The fact that there was a horrible tax law put in place shouldn’t change the basic facts and the basic law that the ACA is important, it’s constitutional. But of course, it had to happen in Texas. And it had to happen at the begin of (Democrats) coming back to take control of the House after eight years in the desert. President Trump said he would shut down the government over border wall funding Quigley: It’s instructive to remember a couple things: the Republicans have been in the majority the last eight years. This would be the second major shutdown in that time  — they’ve chased away two of their speakers in the meantime  — and there have been two other minor shutdowns. The Republicans control both chambers. They don’t need a single Democratic vote to do this, yet the president still says this would be a shutdown based on our not willing to compromise. And he talks about the fact that this relates to the border wall. Last year, 2018 funding provided over $1 billion for border security  — that money has yet to be spent. There has been talk on the Senate side among Democrats of extending that and having something a little over another $1 billion a year for border security. I think probably because the president is having a horrible month publicly and legally, this is his grand distraction. And I don’t think he cares what it means to shut a large part of the government down over the Christmas holiday. On building consensus within the Democratic caucus Quigley: Coming from Chicago with its tradition of trying to get things done, I’d like to think  — obviously I have a liberal bent  — but I still want to get things done. I want to fund the government, I want to drive resources back to Chicago. And all the things that we care about, whether it be climate change or gun violence or health care or education  — they all require a consensus to get them done. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election Quigley: The special counsel’s purpose and his role is to decide who to bring to justice. The House Select Committee on intelligence investigation -- of which I am a member and have a been a part for two years -- was prematurely halted on a partisan basis by the Republicans. Its purpose is to find out exactly what the Russians did, who conspired with them, how to prevent it in the future and how to inform the American public. So if I’m going to be fair and consistent… when I tell my Republican colleagues, “you never should have shut down this investigation” — when I tell them to leave the Mueller investigation alone, it is only fair for me to say to those on my side of the isle the same thing. Let’s get this work done.

From the jazz clubs featuring a young Louis Armstrong to the churches that birthed gospel to the dance clubs that brought house music to the world, Chicago has been home to some of the world’s greatest working musicians. Matt Brown, who teaches at the Old Town School of Folk Music, wanted to pay homage to the city and the players who’ve made Chicago a “musical ground-zero” for performing and recording.  So he gathered an eclectic stack of songs with Chicago roots, and put together a crack studio band to record them let by guitar player and vocalist Steve Dawson. The project is called ‘On Big Shoulders’ and Brown and Dawson joined the Morning Shift to tell us more about it.

More than 1.2 million Illinois workers who lack access to a retirement plan through their employer may finally benefit from a statewide initiative passed in 2015.  Businesses that employ 500 or more people and don’t offer retirement plans of their own are now required to participate in the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program, which automatically enrolls employees in a state-administered retirement plan. The state is rolling out the program in three waves through November 2019, when businesses with 25 or more workers will be required to participate.Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs sat down with Morning Shift host Tony Sarabia to talk about the program.

A tax policy expert says he fundamentally disagrees with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that Illinois lawmakers must amend the state’s constitution to address the city’s looming pension crisis. While it may be the only way to eliminate automatic annual 3 percent increases in pension payouts, Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability says the plan is misguided. “Why we disagree: Why take away the constitutional protection for workers when legislatively, you can create a Tier II, Tier III, Tier IV that has a different cost of living adjustment, COLA, for workers going forward?” he told WBEZ’s Morning Shift. The constitutional amendment is the first of four "sequential steps" Emanuel laid out in a speech to the City Council Wednesday to address the additional $1.1 billion a year Chicago will need to pay into its pension system by 2023. The second step is pension obligation bonds. By issuing POBs, the city could realize significant savings as long as the effective interest rate on those bonds is lower than the interest rate on the city’s pension liabilities, which the mayor says is currently between 7 and 7.5 percent.  Mayor Emanuel likened that move to “refinancing your mortgage at a lower rate.” Mr. Martire, who supports the idea, said it’s like trading a more expensive form of debt — the debt owed on past-due pension payments — for a less expensive form of debt — the debt owed to bondholders. Issuing POBS does not increase the city’s overall debt burden. The mayor also called for legalizing recreational marijuana and establishing a Chicago casino as ways to raise revenue. So, are the mayor’s ideas the best solutions? Morning Shift explores the city’s pension woes and some possible fixes.

School can be a minefield for students—whether it’s struggling academically or socially, kids face lots of challenges. Perhaps the most serious but mostly unspoken experience some students face: domestic violence or sexual abuse.  The latter came to the fore this past summer at Chicago Public Schools when a Chicago Tribune investigation found problems of sexual assault in CPS and an insufficient system of reporting and accountability. But the problem is not just in CPS.  A new report finds that across the state, schools are lacking in sufficient guidelines for dealing with domestic and sexual violence.  The report, which came out Monday, is the work of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. Morning Shift sat down with Wendy Pollack, the author of the report and the director of the Women’s Law and Policy Initiative at the Shriver Center to talk about the report’s findings and recommendations. On the findings of the report Tony Sarabia: One of the things you did in this report is you talked to not only caseworkers and social workers, but students in schools across Illinois? What did you find specifically when it came to what you were being told by students, and did anything surprise you? Wendy Pollack: Unfortunately, not too much surprised me because I’ve been working on these issues for a while. But what came to light is that schools are just lacking in any kind of protocol or policies so that students and parents and guardians and staff know what the process is and who to report to if there are incidents of violence and how can students get the kinds of supports they need in order to heal and move on.Some recommendations to consider going forward Pollack: We need a written policy that’s student centered, trauma informed, that lays out: Who are the go-to people? So everybody knows who to go to, who has the training, empathy, who has the understanding of those kinds of situations to be able to respond in an appropriate manner. What’s happening now is if students are revealing, they’re revealing to a favorite teacher who may or may not have any idea of how to handle the situation or be aware of any kind of protocol that might exist in the school. So it’s very haphazard. What we’re suggesting and recommending is that there are clear and transparent policies in place so that everybody knows and understands what the rules of the game are. And school personnel are then held accountable for implementing those policies in the way that they should. Everybody’s been put on notice about this problem. [...] Even when these issues [on assault in schools] come out, the conversation immediately goes to the people who are committing these crimes and acts of violence. Now, that conversation needs to happen, but it’s the students and survivors who get left out in the cold. And they need to be part of the conversation so they can be part of the solutions.On why already-required training is not taking place in many schools Sarabia: There’s a law that says training should take place, but it’s not happening. What does Illinois law require schools to do, and why do you think it’s still not happening? Pollack: We see this through the #MeToo movement and the accusations against powerful people and institutions and corporations and churches and schools, we’ve seen this in sexual assault on campus discussions… that these people in these institutions kind of wraps themselves in protective shield because of fear of reputation and certainly of fear of liability. And what we need is more transparency so we can pierce through those fears and really come up with solutions to these issues. Otherwise survivors are just left out in the cold and left alone to continue to be re-traumatized. LEARN MORE:   Ensuring Success in School (Shriver Center report)   Hundreds of sexual misconduct complaints pour into new CPS Title IX office (Chicago Tribune)

It’s December, so you’re probably starting to hear Christmas music everywhere. “Jingle Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” are all favorites, but what about the Hallelujah Chorus? You know that one right? It’s the famous chorus from Handel’s Messiah. The Messiah was originally written in 1741 to celebrate Easter, but now thousands of orchestras around the world perform it every year at Christmas time.  In Chicago alone, you can go see the Chicago Symphony’s Messiah, the do-it-yourself Messiah, and even the Jazz Gospel Messiah at the Auditorium Theatre. What is the Messiah, and how did it get so famous? Lindsey Adams joined us to shed light on this mystery is. She’s a mezzo-soprano soloist who’s sung in countless Messiah performances, and she’s also a music teacher at Mary, Seat of Wisdom School in Park Ridge.  

It was a big week in criminal justice, politics and education news in the Chicago area. We heard closing arguments in the trial of three Chicago Police officers accused of a cover-up in the 2014 fatal police shooting of Chicago teen Laquan McDonald. Candidates for Chicago mayor submitted challenges to their opponents’ petition signatures and racked up endorsements from prominent labor and education leaders. Meanwhile, teachers at Acero Schools charter network continue their historic strike for better pay and smaller class sizes. It’s the first charter school strike in the nation. Morning Shift host Jenn White dives into those stories and more with WBEZ criminal justice reporter Patrick Smith, Daily Line managing editor and City Hall reporter Heather Cherone and Chicago-based freelance reporter Kim Bellware.

David Orr had his last day as Cook County Clerk last Friday, a post he's filled since 1990. he talks about his years in service and his plans for the future.

A bioethicist weighs on on what could be causing the rise of out of state abortions in Illinois and how it effects those women coming to Illinois for the procedure.