In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons

What's That Building? Well, in this case, it's hard not to know, since the owner's name is emblazoned on the side in letters 20 feet high. Crain's Chicago Business real estate reporter Dennis Rodkin joined Morning Shift to share details about this controversial tower for the latest installation of "What's That Building."  

Chicago had 762 murders in 2016, the highest total since 1996. To address the problem, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pledged to add nearly a thousand police officers to the force. Morning Shift talks with Chicago Tribune reporter Bill Ruthhart about the diversity of opinion that aldermen have on the plan and some questions they have raised about how the plan will be implemented. 

By January, many Chicagoans can feel that the winter will never end, or are tempted to hibernate until spring. Another option? Embrace the season. Stop hating on the cold and lean into being a resident of the frozen tundra that is Chicago in January. So turn off Netflix, ditch the slippers, and head out into the great unknown… or at least some sledding at Soldier Field.  For ideas of what to do in Chicago that only the wintertime can offer, Morning Shift talks to Teisha Daniel, Chicago Park District’s Center Director at Northerly Island.

Nearly three years ago, we talked with video game designer Michael Block about an idea he had for a video game. It would be an adventure game, based on- and in Chicago’s South Side. The game has the player make the kinds of choices that kids in certain Chicago neighborhoods have to make every day. The characters and the story lines would be based on real people and actual events. Now, the game is about to be released.

Illinois lawmakers begin the new year confronting the same political stalemate that has derailed approval of a state budget for more than a year. WBEZ state politics reporter Tony Arnold talks to Morning Shift about the immediate and potential long-term consequences of the ongoing budget impasse. 

Chicago plans to replace nearly a quarter of a million street lights in the city with LED bulbs. Though the update is long overdue, and LEDs are energy-efficient, cheaper and brighter, many are not happy with the potential change. Experts say the city may have the specs wrong, and warn of health risks, including cancer, diabetes and sleep loss. Some residents are also concerned about the amount of increased light pollution and the potential reduced visibility of the night sky. The city recently extended the comment period to Jan. 9.

Oral historian and writer Studs Terkel was famous for getting his subjects to think about their everyday lives in a new way. Late last year, Project& and Radio Diaries teamed up to resurrect Studs’ interviews that led to his famous book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. Jane Saks, founder of Project&, and Joe Richman, founder of Radio Diaries, recorded those subjects forty years later to see how their work-and feelings about it-had changed. We hear from them about that process, and also memories from Studs Terkel’s longtime producer, Lois Baum.

From indictments to investigations and Rahm Emanuel's potential battles with Donald Trump, the Morning Shift looks at the year that was in Chicago politics and what to watch for in 2017.

Illinois lawmakers in Springfield are beginning this new year with the same old problem: A lack of a state budget. The stopgap budget that lawmakers were able to cobble together last summer expired with the beginning of 2017. So now, the fight over how to pay the state’s bills - and whether those decisions will include Governor Bruce Rauner’s other legislative priorities, still remains to be seen. Here to take Morning Shift listeners through the ins and outs of the budget battle and talk about where the state might - or might not - go from here are the Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson and newly minted WTTW reporter Amanda Vinicky, formerly statehouse bureau chief at Illinois Public Radio.

With each new year, comes resolutions. And one of the most popular New Year Resolutions? To read more. And who better to talk over the best book recommendations from 2016 than WBEZ’s own nerdy ladies? Tricia Bobeda and Greta Johnsen join the Morning Shift to talk about the best books they read last year, including some breakout debuts, the latest in the wizarding world of Harry Potter and lots of lady boss inspiration.