For those who pushed for Illinois minimum wage increase, automation poses questions, challenges
By Dwight A. Weingarten Medill Reports The Illinois state minimum wage will rise to $9.25 an hour on Jan. 1, 2020, increasing for the first time in a decade, and to $15 an hour by 2025. But the struggle of low-wage workers and their political allies who fought for the increase face a seemingly steep […]
In the Information Age, civil rights activist promotes mathematics education to foster national citizenship
By Dwight A. Weingarten Medill Reports Activist Bob Moses hearkened back to the Civil Rights Movement when describing his inspiration for The Algebra Project, which seeks to raise the floor of math literacy for students in the bottom quartile of state standardized exams across the U.S. In the spring of 1963, Bob Moses found himself […]
Looming power plant closure leaves Hopi seeking new energy and revenue sources
By Dwight A. Weingarten Medill Reports Walpi and the Hopi Landscape Traveling north nearly 300 miles from Phoenix along winding roads lies Walpi, a village inhabited for more than 1,100 years. Walpi sits atop First Mesa and looks down from a 300-foot peak on the land of the Hopi nation that stretches across three mesas, […]
Amara Enyia looks ahead after mayor’s race
By Dwight A. Weingarten Medill Reports Midway through her run for mayor, Amara Enyia relayed a question that a young girl asked her on the far South Side when she learned Enyia was running for mayor of Chicago. “Wow, how do you do that?” the girl said. “I looked at her and I sort of […]
Chicago mayors: A mixed legacy on the environment
By Dwight A. Weingarten Medill Reports When Chicago’s first Mayor William B. Ogden took office in 1837, he along with two alderman crafted the city seal. The city’s motto, “Urbs in Horto,” or City in a Garden, that appears at the bottom of the seal, quickly lost much of its literal meaning even with huge […]
Two mayoral candidates propose city public bank
By Dwight A. Weingarten Medill Reports While 12 of Chicago’s mayoral candidates addressed issues of housing, immigration, policing, among other critical issues at a packed forum, two zeroed in on an emerging but untested idea for a municipal public bank. “We need to create a municipal bank that is from the community, for the community, […]
Born from the soda pop tax repeal, independent commission to examine Cook County revenue
By Dwight A. Weingarten Medill Reports Balancing your family budget often starts with taking a hard look at available income before determining the expenses you can afford. For Cook County, a new Independent Revenue Forecasting Commission will be mapping out the county’s projected revenue starting in April in response to widespread criticism that forced repeal […]
