City Cast Chicago

When the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for kids between the ages of 5 and 11 a little more than two weeks ago, parents quickly tried to secure spots to get their kids vaxxed. Even before the approval, Chicago Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady assured parents and guardians that getting the vaccine “was not going to be the Hunger Games,” the way it often felt when the vaccine was approved...

The Chicago Blackhawks are trying to regain the trust of fans after it was revealed last month that the team didn’t respond appropriately to a player’s allegations of sexual assault. Two hockey fans say this case represents a toxic culture that the sport must confront. Former Chicago Sun-Times reporter Evan Moore and sports reporter Jashvina Shah have been looking at toxic behavior in hockey for y...

When Kristen Kaza and Elijah McKinnon opened the events space Reunion in 2016 in Humboldt Park their mission was to create "a haven for Queer and minority creatives." Kaza and McKinnon have hosted comedy nights, dance parties, art exhibits, and other events that celebrate the LQBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. They announced in October they are closing Reunion. Kaza and McKinnon talk to host Jacoby Coc...

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez announced last week that students would not have classes Friday for “Vaccination Awareness Day,” but some parents were caught off guard and wondered how they were going to use a work day to get their kids vaxxed. Kyle Rittenhouse took the stand in his trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He faces seven charges, including first-degree reckless homicide and first-de...

The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs told state lawmakers this week they need more staff and better access to housing and healthcare. The numbers back up the critical need to take care of veterans. The rate of suicides among veterans is nearly double that of the civilian population, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. But Northwestern University professor Michelle Shumate...

The prosecution rested Tuesday in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. The Antioch resident was 17 when he shot and killed two men and injured another last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid demonstrations following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Chicago Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair is in Kenosha following the trial. She lays out what’s happened during this first week, what the defense is expected to pr...

More than $5 billion was wagered on sports in Illinois in the last year, after the state legalized sports betting. And Chicago’s big sports franchises — Bulls, Bears, Cubs, Sox, and Sky— want to get in on the action. They’re pushing a city ordinance that would allow sports betting at stadiums. While alders with arenas in their wards are on board, they’re facing pushback from gaming moguls looking...

While most of us had to adjust to getting an extra hour of sleep Sunday (and an earlier sunset), lawmakers across the country, including in Illinois, are imagining a future where we don’t adjust clocks at all. There are bills in Springfield that propose moving the state to daylight saving time year-round — a move that’s been embraced by 19 other states in the last four years — while others would p...

It’s the first Friday of November and we have two huge Bulls fans with us to look back on a few stories from across Chicago. The Triibe’s Tonia Hill and WBEZ reporter Susie An join us to discuss the media’s coverage of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, the growing number of women in Chicago radio speaking out against a toxic workplace culture, and we ask, “Why so much shade Scottie?” Also, we...

In mid-October, longtime health and food reporter Monica Eng was peeking at Chicago Public Schools’ lunch menus. Yes, for fun. Monica was pleasantly surprised to learn that CPS had launched “Plant Forward Thursdays,” the district’s take on meatless options available to about 300,000 students, many of whom rely on schools for daily meals. Of course Monica wanted to know what the “lentil Joe sandwic...

The Chicago Bulls are 6-1 for the first time since 2012 and sit at the top of the Eastern Conference. Obviously, the NBA season is barely two weeks old, but the Bulls look like a different team on the court than in previous years. Powered by DeMar DeRozan’s shooting and Zach LaVine’s scoring, the team has beat a dangerous Utah Jazz team, and had a 19-point comeback Monday in a win against the Celt...

As Chicago Public Schools students enter their third month in the school year, nearly 4,000 of them are without reliable transportation to and from school. More than half of those students are diverse learners with special needs. The district’s transportation problem stems from a bus driver shortage happening in Chicago and across the country. Late last week, the Chicago Board of Education gave an...

Mercy Hospital in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood is a safety net hospital, which means it takes any patient, regardless of income or insurance. But it’s been so much more than that. It's an institution on the South Side, where Chinese and Spanish speaking residents could talk to staff in their native language, and expectant mothers could deliver their babies close to home. So when the hospital...

It’s Friday, and just like that, Spooky Season is almost over. “Nerdette” host Greta Johnsen and WTTW’s Amanda Vinicky join Jacoby Cochran to look back on the week and say goodbye to October. A few stories on our minds: The Chicago Blackhawks released the results of an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against a former coach, state Dems dropped a new congressional map, and...

The city’s Asian American population has grown 31% over the last decade, the largest of any racial group in Chicago, according to Census numbers. Chinatown, home to the city’s largest Asian American population, however is spread across three different wards, none of which have an Asian American alder person. In fact, there isn’t an Asian American on City Council, which can make the community feel...

The Chicago Police Department says it needs to fill 1,000 vacancies on the force. Part of their strategy is a new team focused on recruitment, and the city budget expected to pass Wednesday includes about $230,000 for advertising. That’s up from $2,400. So why are cops leaving the force? And is it as dire as some city officials would have the public believe? WBEZ criminal justice reporter Patrick...

The Inspector General’s office has a broad mandate. Their job is to “promote economy, effectiveness, efficiency, and integrity by identifying corruption, waste, and mismanagement in city government.” Basically, that means trying to clean up bad behavior in a city that is known for political corruption. Joe Ferguson led that office for 12 years, through three different mayors, a federal investigati...

Many people rely on public restrooms during the day, including delivery and ride-share drivers, cabbies, and people who are unhoused. Last year during the height of the pandemic, access to public restrooms decreased as businesses and many public buildings like libraries and park field houses closed. That got Chicago Tribune investigative reporter Emily Hoerner wondering how many public restrooms a...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police have competing lawsuits over the vaccine mandate for city employees. Despite a judge ordering union President John Catanzara to stop encouraging officers on social media not to report their vaccine status, the back-and-forth continued this week as 21 Chicago police officers were placed on no-pay status for failing to comply. WTTW host Br...

On a chilly November night in 1987, Chicagoans watching the 9 p.m. news on WGN were met with a disturbing sight. They saw a person in a rubber mask bouncing in front of a spinning metallic background over some garbled sound. Two hours later, Doctor Who fans saw something similar on WTTW. Someone had hacked into the stations’ broadcast signals. But to this day, we have no idea who did it…or why. Th...

When there’s an emergency, the last thing you want to worry about is whether an ambulance will show up. But the Chicago Fire Department has just 80 ambulances for a population of nearly 3 million people. While the department says that’s sufficient, the latest audit from the city’s watchdog shows CFD is failing to meet national standards for medical response times. A long wait for an ambulance coul...

The Avalon Regal Theater in South Shore pays homage to two old venues that served as entertainment hubs for Black Chicagoans. From the 1920s to the 1960s, the Regal Theater was where the biggest names in music, from Louis Armstrong to Aretha Franklin, performed. The Bronzeville venue closed in 1968, and the building was demolished five years later. And, the Avalon Theater in South Shore has been e...

Now that the Bears have inked a deal to buy the old Arlington racetrack in suburban Arlington Heights, fans are waiting to see if the football team will really move. The Bears ultimately want a new stadium — either on the lake or in the burbs —and it’s estimated a new stadium could cost about $2 billion. Most, if not all, of that would likely fall on taxpayers. But football stadiums don’t actually...

A 14-year-old student and a 45-year-old security officer were shot and injured Tuesday as classes were letting out at Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Bronzeville. The shooting is prompting renewed questions about school resource officers. Host Jacoby Cochran reflects on that along with Block Club Chicago’s Jamie Nesbitt Golden and WCIU’s Brandon Pope. They also look at the rest of the week...

Timuel Black died yesterday at the age of 102, and while 102 seems like a lot, his accomplishments could fill multiple lifetimes. Black’s family migrated to Chicago during the first wave of the Great Migration, something he spoke about extensively and even wrote about in his first book. His family’s journey, his upbringing in Chicago, and his encounter with Nazi camps during World War II inspired...