At 29, Kina Collins is the youngest black woman to run for Congress in Illinois
By Brandon Raphael Dupre Medill Reports Kina Collins wears a black shirt with white block letters spelling out the names of the four congresswomen known as The Squad. She greets the owner of L!VE Café in Oak Park with a hug before taking a seat at the table in the back corner. “Give credit where […]
Via no longer sees Uber and Lyft as direct competitors: Its operations chief discusses strategy and the future of transportation
By Kari McMahon Medill Reports Via, Chicago’s third largest ride-hailing service behind Uber and Lyft, expanded its reach in the city in August 2019 with novel strategies such as partnering with Northwestern University on a new and improved Safe Ride program, which provides free rides to students in the evening hours to prevent students walking […]
Protestors demand new trial for inmate who alleged torture
By Samone Blair Medill Reports Protestors gathered at Daley Plaza Feb. 25 to call for the release of Gerald Reed, an inmate who was allegedly tortured by Chicago detectives, after a Circuit Court Judge reversed a decision that had granted him a new trial. On Feb. 14, Judge Thomas Hennelly reversed the December 2018 decision […]
How the islanders of Vieques used cinder blocks to build a protest movement on health care
By Alison Saldanha VIEQUES, Puerto Rico — On Valentine’s Day eve, colorful string-lights run through the green buttonwood and mango trees of La Plaza, the town square of Isabel Segunda in the heart of Vieques, a 52-square-mile island off the coast of Puerto Rico. On the ground, painted cinder blocks lay in irregular rows and […]
Virginia Rounds wants to save America’s manufacturing industry with apprenticeships
By Amy Sokolow Medill Reports Last month, 12,000 Americans who work in manufacturing lost their jobs. But Virginia Rounds, 44, has a plan to get them back to work: apprenticeships. Popular in Europe, these salaried training programs teach people on-the-job skills such as metalworking and also give them stipends for community college classes. Rounds, director […]
