In the Loop

Target closures on the South Side. Moves to make ticketing in Chicago more equitable. A recycling investigation. The early vote in Illinois...it’s way up ahead of Election Day. Those are the stories we cover in today's edition of the Friday News Roundup Joining us this week was ProPublica Illinois reporter Melissa Sanchez, Better Government Association CEO David Greising, and Block Club Chicago reporter Lee Daniels who covers Englewood, Chatham and Auburn Gresham for the site.

State Senator Kwame Raoul is the Democrat seeking your vote in the Illinois Attorney General’s race  Yesterday on the show, we checked in with his opponent, Republican Erika Harold, a lawyer from Champaign.  So, what are Senator Raoul’s plans for the Attorney General’s office? We asked questions, and so did listeners. 

Erika Harold is a former Miss America, a Harvard Law graduate, and a downstate lawyer. She's also the Republican party's nominee for Illinois Attorney General.  She's taking on Democrat Kwame Raoul in next week's election. We sat down with Ms. Harold to ask her questions about her views and her platform, and we took calls, texts, and Facebook posts from listeners 

In 2013, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a massive wave of school closings, mostly on the city’s South Side, citing poor performance, under-enrollment or both. Parents protested, concerned for the safety of their children, many of whom would now have to deal with the threat of gang violence on their way to and from their new schools. They were also dismayed that the most important and visible anchors of their neighborhoods were being shuttered. In her new book Ghosts In The Schoolyard: Racism And School Closings On Chicago’s South Side, sociologist and writer Eve Ewing deconstructs what happened in local communities when those 50 public schools abruptly closed. Morning Shift talks with Ewing about the families she interviewed and the overall impact of the school closures on largely black and brown communities.

The November midterm elections are just one week away, and Toni Preckwinkle has her eye on both Nov. 6 and Feb. 26. The powerful Cook County Board president is up for re-election next week, but she’s also emerged as one of the top contenders to take the Chicago mayor’s office in a few months. Morning Shift guest host Kyra Kyles checks in with Preckwinkle about her mayoral run, Cook County politics and why she’s not supporting a judge who is up for retention on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Two Chicago area Rabbis share their thoughts on the tragedy Saturday, when a man entered a Pittsburgh synagogue, shouting, "all Jews must die", then began shooting at worshipers. Eleven people died in what's been described as the worst incident of anti-Jewish violence in American history,

It’s Friday, and you know what that means: It’s time for Morning Shift’s Friday News Round-up. There was a ton of news this week, from Kanye’s support of mayoral candidate Amara Enyia, to the city’s response to a federal lawsuit involving the Obama Presidential Center. We’ll talk about those stories and much more, with our first all-WBEZ panel for the roundup. Morning Shift sits down with WBEZ state politics reporter Dave McKinney, WBEZ Race, Class and Communities reporter Natalie Moore and WBEZ Cook County politics reporter Kristen Schorsch.

The building we're talking about isn't haunted by ghosts — that we know of — but it is haunted by unanswered questions. Why is there a barely marked tomb in a busy park? Is anyone buried there? And if there is … how many other human remains might be lurking beneath pretty Lincoln Park? This small stone building nestled in the curve of LaSalle Drive behind the Chicago History Museum is the Couch Tomb, one of the only hints to visitors that the southern tip of Lincoln Park was once the Chicago City Cemetery.

A Hermosa man charged in the shooting death of a two-year-old boy was arrested Friday after community members identified him to police. Alexander Varela, 27, allegedly ordered the shooting that left Julien Gonzalez dead and an 18-year-old man wounded. Verela was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm in the Oct. 6 shooting. The gunman is still at-large, which it turns out, is more common than you might think. The Chicago Police Department often struggles to identify and arrest murder suspects ― police solved fewer than one in six homicides in the first half of 2018, according to a USA Today report. The city’s “murder clearance rate” ― the percentage of murders solved by CPD ― hit a new low in 2017 and has continued to decline. Morning Shift discusses CPD murder clearance rates and how they compare with rates in other major American cities. GUESTS: Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune crime reporter Thomas K. Hargrove, founder and chairman of the nonprofit Murder Accountability Project which tracks unsolved homicides nationwide LEARN MORE: Hermosa Gang Member Charged In Connection With Fatal Shooting Of 2-Year-Old (CBS) Gang member charged with ordering shooting that killed Chicago 2-year-old: police (WGN) Chicago police solve one in every 20 shootings. Here are some reasons why that's so low. (Chicago Tribune) Chicago police solved fewer than one in six homicides in the fi​rst half of 2018 (USA Today)

Do you have a case of pre-election procrastination? It’s a common ailment where voters wait until the last minute to research the candidates and figure out what else is going to be on their ballots come Election Day. If you’re feeling a bit uninformed ahead of the November midterm, don’t worry. Morning Shift has you covered on the basics like how to register to vote and find your polling place as well as other voting-related questions. GUESTS: Matt Dietrich, Public Information Officer for Illinois State Board of Elections Heather Cherone, managing editor and city hall reporter at the Daily Line Aviva Rosman, COO of Ballot Ready LEARN MORE: Illinois Voter Information (Illinois State Board of Elections) Info On Voting By Mail (Illinois State Board of Elections)