WBEZ News

In the fight against climate change, one technology aims to inject carbon emissions deep underground. And Illinois is on the forefront of what’s become a booming business. But in recent months, residents have learned of leaks at the country’s first commercial carbon sequestration facility, in central Illinois. Now, they’re demanding more guardrails. WBEZ’s Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco recently travele...

With Vice President Kamala Harris expected to win Illinois, hundreds of Democratic volunteers from the Chicago area are spending their weekends carpooling to swing states. They’re knocking on doors of potential voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, where the race for president is tight. Many volunteers have issues they want to talk to voters about, like abortion rights. WBEZ’s Kristen Schorsch tagged...

This fall, the racial demographics of first year students at selective colleges are under the microscope. Last year, the Supreme Court all but banned universities from considering the race of applicants in order to diversify their campuses. Now - enrollment numbers are coming in for the first freshman class admitted under the new legal precedent - and people are poring over the data to gauge its i...

One of Chicago’s most buzzed about new cultural venues isn’t a fancy theater or mega arena. It’s a tiny hidden performance room in the Loop. WBEZ reporter Mike Davis went on the hunt to find Guarneri Hall. HOST: DIXON

Former President Donald Trump has historically had a rocky relationship with Chicago. But he got a warmer reception today - when Trump spoke downtown at the Economic Club of Chicago. WBEZ’s Dan Mihalopoulos covered the speech and joins me now. HOST: LARA

Chicago’s largest tent encampment is in Humboldt Park. Until recently, that Northwest Side greenspace had about a hundred inhabitants. The number is headed down as the city provides rent-free apartments to some of them. But there aren’t enough units for all the park’s unhoused people. And city officials say, apartment or not, everyone will have to leave the park. A former leader of a street gang t...

Between 10 and 20% of pregnancies in the U.S. end in miscarriage. In the two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, women across the country have been feeling the impact of restrictions to reproductive healthcare. In their new book, I'm Sorry for My Loss, two journalists and life-long friends from Chicago examine the grief of pregnancy loss and how we as a culture address it. Rebecca Little and C...

Girls flag football is on the rise in Illinois. This fall, over a hundred and fifty teams are competing for the sport’s first ever state championship. WBEZ’s Anna Savchenko brings you this story from the Taft High School stadium on the Northwest Side.

The Nobel prize in economics has been awarded to James Robinson of the University of Chicago and two economists from MIT – Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. They’re honored for “demonstrating the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity.” They found that societies with poor rule of law and exploitative institutions do NOT generate sustainable growth. Professor Robinson spoke...

Ahead of next month’s election – Illinois election officials say misinformation poses the biggest threat to undermining the integrity of the vote. The last two presidential elections were marked by Russian interference and false claims of voter fraud. As part of the Democracy Solutions Project - WBEZ’s Tessa Weinberg has more on how election officials are trying to restore voters’ trust. HOST: DIX...

Over the past year, local college students and professors have risked their degrees and even livelihoods to protest Israel’s onslaught of Gaza. Now universities are rolling out new protest policies that civil liberties advocates say further threaten pro-Palestinian speech. WBEZ’s Lisa Kurian Philip reports. HOST: LARA

A new housing policy aimed at slowing gentrification and displacement in some of Chicago’s hottest real estate markets went into effect this week. So what does the Northwest Side Housing Preservation Ordinance mean – for residents, property owners and developers? And will the ordinance accomplish what it aims to do? WBEZ’s Esther Yoon-Ji Kang sat down with University of Chicago Assistant Professor...

Earlier this year, Broadway in Chicago sent its production of Death Becomes Her to Broadway. Now the downtown theater producer is staging Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a show that is kicking off a national tour. That’s not all. Next spring will bring the group’s 25th anniversary and a world premiere musical about the life of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. WBEZ’s Mike Davis sat down with Broadway...

CPS Chief Pedro Martinez is publicly speaking publicly about the dispute that led Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to ask him to step down, and to the resignation of all the members of the Board of Education. He’s also explaining how he wants to solve the school district’s budget deficit — which is at the heart of that dispute. HOST: DIXON Reporter: Sarah Karp

The federal corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and co-defendant Michael McClain gets underway today. It’s been years in the making. Riding on the outcome is the legacy of a seemingly invincible Illinois politician known as “The Velvet Hammer.” WBEZ’s Dave McKinney has more. HOST: DIXON

On Friday, the mayor’s office said all seven of his handpicked board members were resigning amid acrimony over the direction of the school district. Today, Johnson announced new members who might be more willing to pursue his wishes. WBEZ’s Mariah Woelfel joins us now from City Hall for more. HOST: LANE

As the war in Ukraine continues – Lurie Children's pediatric psychologist Doctor Lauren Pothoff advises Ukrainian charity workers and therapists about how to support kids who are struggling there. On the heels of a 7-day trip volunteering with Voices of Children – a Ukraine based fund that provides mental health services to children caught up in armed conflict… Pothoff told WBEZ’s Clare Lane what...

36-year-old Sonya Massey was seeking mental health treatment up until the day she died. Her death at the hands of former Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson has wracked the Springfield community. It’s led to calls for changing how law enforcement responds to people struggling with mental health needs. WBEZ’s Mawa Iqbal has more on what Massey’s death can tell us about the alternative responder model. HO...

To help close the gap in the city, a pilot program called “Healing Arts Chicago” is getting creative by training local artists to serve as community health workers. One of the artists now serving as a mental health worker is Nile Lansana. WBEZ host Erin Allen stopped by the Greater Grand Mental Health Center in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood to take a class, and talk to Lansana about the work...

In a room of the Chicago jailhouse - walls were covered in flags representing other nations – like Mexico, Switzerland and Brazil. The tournament is only for people behind bars. WBEZ’s Michael Puente tells us more. HOST: LARA

I’ll be running in the marathon for the third time. For my colleague Adriana Cardona-Maguidad, it will be her first marathon. So I thought it would be fun to talk about why we’re both running it – what we hope next week looks like – and how we’ve been preparing. HOST: MIKE PUENTE

Today marks one year since Oct. 7. We've been hearing from our community throughout the year as they grapple with the war. As the one year mark approached, we asked our listeners to share their reflections. We wanted to hear from everyday people who feel strongly about the conflict from a multitude of raw, authentic perspectives. Here's some of what you shared with us. HOST: DIXON Reporter: AN

You might have noticed groups of day laborers, many of them newly arrived migrants, available for hire outside your local Home Depot. In some places, their increasing numbers have become a problem. But in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, longtime residents from Venezuela and elsewhere are working to change that. WBEZ’s Adriana Cardona Maguigad recently spent some time with them an...

College is often a time and place where young people are figuring out who they are and who they want to be. For many Jewish students, that experience has been especially fraught amid escalating conflict in and around Israel and Gaza this past year. The deaths of more than 12-hundred Israelis last October and more than 40-thousand Palestinians since then has amplified divisions in the Jewish commun...

Cook County prosecutors have dropped their case against a man convicted in the 20-11 murder of Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis. A judge then threw out that conviction and a sentence of life in prison for Alexander Villa [VIH-lah, not VEE-yah]. That means the three men charged with Lewis’ killing have all had their cases dismissed — and no one is being held responsible for a cop’s murder. At y...