East Chicago residents face risk of high lead
By Cloee Cooper Sarah Willis lives near a former U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery, Inc. plant with her husband and granddaughter in East Chicago, Indiana. The area was designated as a Superfund site, a federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. While residents in the nearby […]
Fat Rice brings Macau to Chicago
By Nona Tepper She is Chinese-American, from Chicago. He is Portuguese- American, born in Lowell, Massachusetts, an area with a large Southeast Asian population. But their creation is a perfect merger of their two cultures. It’s also a reflection of their quest to show how cuisines evolve globally.
For the love of birds: Carolyn Marsh’s 30-year fight for the Hammond environment
By Puja Bhattacharjee Plan to navigate through the Horseshoe Casino parking lot and take a short walk along the lakefront before you can get to the turnstile entrance of the Hammond Bird Sanctuary in Hammond, Indiana. I followed Carolyn Marsh, 72, into the sanctuary early one morning. Marsh cleaned the bird baths inside the sanctuary, […]
Parents, teachers call CPS special education budget an ‘atrocity’
By Meredith Francis and Emily Olsen After several public hearings, two budget drafts and a threatened teachers strike, some parents and teachers say the Chicago Public Schools budget still fails to protect the safety and well-being of special education students. “Students who need one-on-one assistance for feeding and changing, and extreme behavior problems have no […]
Schneider tops Dold in hard-fought race to represent the 10th Congressional District
By Sarah Haas and Nona Tepper It was the nail-biter everyone expected. The hotly contested race to represent Illinois’ 10th Congressional District proved to be just as close as pollsters predicted, with Democrat Brad Schneider battling late into the night in an effort to claim the seat of U.S. Rep. Bob Dold. In the end, […]
It’s deja vu all over again in Dold/Schneider race that’s too close to call
By Sarah Haas and Nona Tepper The stakes are high in Illinois’ 10th Congressional District. That’s because incumbent Rep. Bob Dold and his Democratic challenger Brad Schneider are facing off once again, although their 2016 contest has proven to be different than their previous races in 2012 and 2014. Both candidates have overhauled their political […]
Iran nuclear deal raises heat at first Dold/Schneider debate
By Sarah Haas The Iran nuclear deal formed the narrative line of a contentious debate Sunday night between U.S. Rep. Bob Dold, R-Kenilworth and Democrat Brad Schneider, who is trying for the second time to unseat Dold in the 10th Congressional district. The candidates squared off before a packed house in the auditorium of Lake […]
Will local millennials defy traditional voter ‘drop-off’ patterns?
By Sarah Haas and Nia Prater The voting phenomenon widely known as the millennial “drop-off” may not hold to be entirely true for young people in the Chicago area on Nov. 8. A combination of factors, including registration drives on college campuses and the contentiousness of some hotly contested national and local races, seem to […]
Study finds widespread sexual harassment toward Chicago’s female hospitality workers
By Anna Foley Kasey Nalls was 23 when she started her first casino job in northwest Indiana, clad in a tight blue velveteen uniform, serving drinks as a cocktail waitress. During her first shift, Nalls said a male patron approached and said: “I’ve got the cock, you’ve got the tail.” According to a new study […]
Power To The People: Tasha Viets-VanLear
By Thaddeus Tukes [A version of this story, A profile in power: Activist Tasha Viets-VanLear fights for black freedom in Chicago was co-published in The Grio and on SJNN (Social Justice News Nexus)] An aura of serenity and peace permeates the room when Tasha Viets-VanLear enters. Clad in all black with a gray scarf, she sips […]