CDC highlights lifetime risks for contracting HIV

By Kierra Gray One in two black men, one in four Latino men and one in 11 white men who are gay or bisexual have a risk of contracting HIV in their lifetimes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released these latest statistics recently. [vimeo 158651535 w=474] The AIDS Foundation of Chicago helped host […]

How the Chicago protest movement helped Kim Foxx win the State’s Attorney nomination

By Kierra Gray On Primary Election night in Chicago, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez conceded to Democratic rival Kim Foxx. Alvarez faced intense criticism after her office waited 400 days to release a police dash cam footage showing the shooting death of Laquan McDonald by former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. When the video was released last […]

Sanders and Clinton battle for donations in Chicago

By Kierra Gray While they battle for votes in advance of tomorrow’s primary election, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are also battling for donations in Chicago. Using publicly available data of contributions, DNAInfo recently compiled a neighborhood map of Chicago categorizing the donations received by the two Democratic candidates. The results by zip code show […]

On International Women’s Day, workers rally for better treatment

By Kierra Gray Women workers rallied Tuesday outside the so-called “Rock N Roll” McDonald’s in River North to fight for a 15-dollar minimum wage and an end to workplace discrimination. In honor of International Women’s Day, workers from fast food restaurants presented a petition to the manager at the McDonald’s. The protesters said gender, race and age […]

New legal action in Laquan McDonald case

By Kierra Gray A coalition of lawyers, community activists and leaders filed a petition Tuesday requesting that the Circuit Court of Cook County remove State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez from the Laquan McDonald case. In October 2014, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old McDonald 16 times, leading to his death. The city, and Alvarez, delayed the release […]

Local activists trying to energize millennial voters

By Kierra Gray Robert Moses thinks millennials can have a big say in the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. The 23-year-old University of Illinois at Chicago student is an organizer for the non-profit Chicago Votes. Its goal is to register new voters and makes complex political issues easy for young people to understand. “I feel like they’re [millennials] engaged by doing […]

The name is the least of the controversy for Chi-Raq

By Kierra Gray In Spike Lee’s new film Chi-Raq, he explores gang violence and the use of sex strikes as a tactic to combat violence. This modern-day adaptation of Aristophanes’ ancient Greek satire “Lysistrata” is set on the South Side of Chicago. After a stray bullet kills a young child in a gang war, our […]

FDA asks you what natural should mean on food labels

By Kierra Gray “If taken in literal terms, very few products offered in a grocery store are ‘natural.’ Most products are highly processed, packages, and sterilized to a degree that is unrepresentative of nature,” one anonymous skeptic told the FDA.  “Labeling a product as ‘natural’ can be misleading to the layperson and should not be […]

Lucas Museum location lawsuit continues (Video)

By Kierra Gray Last week’s approval by the City Council to sanction the lakefront site for the Lucas Museum is not stopping Friends of the Parks from pursuing the group’s lawsuit against the Chicago Park District and the city. So controversy over the site continues even after the city and the Chicago Bears franchise negotiated […]

New Chicago budget hikes property taxes

By Kierra Gray Chicago homeowners are facing an estimated 13 percent property tax increase after the City Council voted 35-15 to approve Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $7.8 billion dollar city budget Wednesday. The fiscal 2016 budget includes $755 million in additional taxes and fees. Chicagoans will see the property tax increase take effect over four years.