In the Loop

Residents of Highland Park, Highwood and Fort Sheridan are gearing up to vote on a school referendum that has pitted neighbor against neighbor in a fight over the future of their school district. Taxpayers are split on whether North Shore District 112 should issue $198 million dollars in bonds to upgrade some schools and build a state-of-the-art middle school campus. Daniel Weil from the group Moving 112 Forward and Jeff Hamburg from Citizens Against the 112 Referendum joined us to lay out their cases.

On this episode of the Morning Shift:WBEZ’s Jennifer White checks in with listeners about the CTA rider arrested for jamming the cell phone signals of fellow passengers and asks: Do you think CTA trains should have “quiet cars”? Author and activist Shaka Senghor discusses his new memoir Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death and Redemption in an American Prison where he explains what he learned during his 19 years behind bars for murder.  We take a look inside the selection process for party delegates in Illinois with a representative from an app that helps voters prepare to head into the ballot box.  The co-hosts of the food podcast Chewing discuss why Americans are addicted to wasting food and what we can do to stop it.

A CTA rider in Chicago has been charged with a felony for jamming the cell phone signals of his fellow passengers on the Red Line so that he could enjoy a bit of peace and quiet. It got the Morning Shift team thinking: Should there be so-called “quiet cars” on ‘L’ trains? How would it work?WBEZ’s Jenn White talked with listeners about whether they think it’s a good idea and how they approach noisy situations in the confines of a CTA rail car.

When he was 19 years old, Detroit-native Shaka Senghor was sentenced to 17 years in prison for murder. He ended up serving 19 years, meaning half his life to that point had been spent behind bars. In prison, he came to grips with how his upbringing brought him to that place, started to take responsibility for his actions and learned to forgive others and himself. Senghor shares his personal journey in his new memoir Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death and Redemption in an American Prison. WBEZ’s Jenn White talked with him about what he’s experienced and how he’s trying to help the next generation of young people live positive lives.

There are just few more days of voting before the Illinois primary on Tuesday. Some names on the ballot, like the ones for the people running for President, U.S. Senate and Cook County State’s Attorney will be familiar to many voters. But there will also be a set of names the average voter probably won’t recognize: The delegates.So, who are they and how do they get on the ballot? We break it down with Aviva Rosman from BallotReady, a new app that allows voters to save the details on individual candidates and races and take it to the booth with them.

Back in September, the federal government announced it aims to cut the amount of food waste Americans create in half by 2030. This week, there’s a new report out from the group ReFed that outlines 27 fixes for getting us at least part of the way there. WBEZ’s Jenn White sat down with WBEZ food and health reporter Monica Eng and Chicago Tribune food and dining reporter Louisa Chu to discuss the problem and some steps that restaurants, stores, schools and we as individuals can take to solve it.

Today on Morning Shift:We talk to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel about a plan to build a new generation of CTA railcars and create jobs in the city. Emanuel also weighs in on the Lucas Museum and the contentious race between State representative Ken Dunkin and his challenger Juliana Stratton for the 5th District seat in the Illinois House. A member of the American Montessori Society makes the case for the Montessori method and how much it actually impacts childhood development. Chicago’s Kartemquin Films joined the show to take a look at the group’s impact as it celebrates 50 years of documentary filmmaking. In our new series “What’s that Building,” Morning Shift digs into the history of the I AM Temple in Chicago’s Loop.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined us on Morning Shift to weigh in on the heated Democratic primary race for the House seat in Illinois’ 5th district between incumbent Ken Dunkin, who is backed by Governor Bruce Rauner, and challenger Juliana Stratton, who has been endorsed by President Obama. Emanuel also discussed why the Lucas Museum should be along Chicago’s lakefront and why it’s important that a new generation of CTA cars are built here in Chicago.

Kartemquin Films is behind some of the best known documentaries — Hoop Dreams, Life Itself and The Interrupters to name a few.Founders Gordon Quinn and Jerry Blumenthal started the film collective in the 1960s to document Chicago’s most pressing struggles. As it continued to grow, Kartemquin became a powerhouse in not just the documentary world, but the film world. This year marks the group’s 50th anniversary. We talk to co-founder Gordon Quinn and executive director Betsy Steinberg about how Kartemquin approaches documentaries and how its films reflect each of the five decades the group has been in existence.

The American Montessori Society’s annual conference kicks off Thursday, attracting “Montessorians” from all over the world to Chicago.AMS board member and longtime Montessori teacher Mary Ellen Kordas makes the case for why we should teach the next generation of kids using the Montessori method, which advocates putting students of different ages in the same classroom and other practices that are not the norm in most schools today.