In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons

Two Chicago restaurants — Topolobampo and North Pond — are among the five nominees for Outstanding Service at this year’s James Beard awards.  WBEZ’s Monica Eng joins Morning Shift to discuss what makes great service from how the waitstaff presents the menu to how the maitre d greets you when you walk in the door. We also take calls from listeners about what constitutes great restaurant service to them.

Tuesday’s primary in Indiana could represent Ted Cruz’s last chance to block Donald Trump from running away with the Republican nomination for President.  Morning Shift talks with WBEZ Northwest Indiana bureau reporter Michael Puente about that race, the presidential contest on the Democratic side as well other races Hoosiers are weighing in on Tuesday, including the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, a race for an open State Senate seat in Northwest Indiana and a hotly contested battle for Lake County Circuit Court Judge.

In honor of National Small Business Week, we’re talking to a different small business each day.  Go Dutch Today is a dating app that promotes connections without the worry of who’s picking up the tab. It lets users match with another person, pick a type of date to go on and then split the costs of that date through the app.  The Chicago-based startup was the winner of last year’s South Side Pitch, a contest that showcases entrepreneurship, and the application is set to release this spring.

Everyone needs a good laugh, and Chicago is holy ground when it comes to creating laughs via the art of improv.  If you’re a long-time fan of improv or you’re ready to dip your toes in the water, the 19th Chicago Improv Festival is the perfect place to start.  Organizers choose the best-of-the-best from more than 250 submissions, and the whole range of improv will be played out at venues across the city.  Two of the biggest names in improv — Susan Messing and Rachael Mason — join us to talk about everything from how they do it to how they teach it to women in the improv world.  Plus, they perform a few minutes of improv based on a prompt from a Morning Shift listener.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert is heading to prison for over a year for bank fraud, but he can’t be prosecuted for abusing four teen boys decades ago. It often seems the only time we hear about statutes of limitations is when they allow a criminal to avoid prison because enough time has passed since he or she perpetrated a crime. So, why do they exist? What problems do they cause? And when are they actually a benefit?

It’s National Small Business Week, so Morning Shift will be speaking with a different small business each day. We kick things off with Rumi Spice, an outfit based in Back of the Yards that imports saffron from Afghanistan for distribution in the United States. The company founders are U.S. military veterans who served in Afghanistan and went on to Harvard Business School. They’re driven by the desire to create a profitable business, but also by the mission to support Afghan farmers so they do not have to grow poppy for opium production.

For the latest installment in our series Working Shift where we interview Chicagoans with interesting jobs, we check in with a commercial pilot. Robert Mark has been in the aviation industry for about 50 years of experience and has logged 7,000 hours in the air. He joins us to answer questions and give us some insight into what it’s like to fly.

Earlier this year, the Chicago Tribune reported that city officials haven’t been doing enough to warn residents about potential threats of lead in the water.  Now, the Emanuel administration is responding by testing for lead in some of Chicago Public Schools. WBEZ’s Monica Eng joins us with an update.

After Liz Jackson’s chronic illness forced her to walk with a cane, she realized that assistive devices were not designed with style in mind. So she started a campaign to make retailers and designers more aware of the needs of the disabled community and how things like canes and wheelchairs should evolve just as other fashion does.  Jackson is in Chicago on Sunday for the Chicago Humanities Festival’s spring program about style, and she explains how she’s pushing for design accessible to all people.

When Wisconsinite Holly De Ruyter moved to Chicago to attend Columbia College, she experienced a kind of culture shock. No fish fry on Friday? No supper clubs?  At the time, she hadn’t realized that those commonplace Wisconsin traditions were unique.  Later, she decided to explore her roots in her documentary Old Fashioned: The Story of the Wisconsin Supper Club. Jenn White talks to De Ruyter about the dinnertime customs of our neighbor to the north. We also open up the phones for comments from listeners.