Something seems shady at City Hall. It’s not the first time a Chicago politician is operating in the dark. But the actions of Mayor Brandon Johnson are conspicuous for the progressive union organizer who ascended to office on bold promises of cogovernance with the pantheon of Chicago’s political left who coalesced around him. Since taking […]
Category: Feature
Posted inNews & Politics
The moment met the CTA
When the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) first announced its Meeting the Moment action plan last year, workforce and service delivery issues were at the forefront. Officials pointed to the “Great Resignation” as creating an unusually competitive job market, leading to high attrition rates among bus and rail operators. Mass resignations during the pandemic, along with […]
Posted inNews & Politics
What happens when your loved one goes missing?
This story is part of the Chicago Missing Persons project by City Bureau and Invisible Institute, two nonprofit journalism organizations based in Chicago. Read the full investigation and see resources for families of the missing here. Shantieya Smith was a protector in her North Lawndale home, where three generations lived under one roof—the cousin you’d […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Target: rats
My hair is neatly combed these days, no longer the “rat’s nest” my mom affectionately called it when I was a child. But, as I enter Harold Washington Library on a recent autumn day, I still feel an affinity for the creature multiple mayors have identified as Chicago’s top public enemy. I’m here to look […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Judges challenge police credibility in court
Between 2008 and 2022, judges found the testimony of 40 law enforcement officers in Cook County to be incredible or unbelievable, but few officers faced significant repercussions.
Posted inNews & Politics
How many opioid overdoses occur on the CTA?
I first reached out to the CTA over email this July, asking them if they tracked opioid overdose-related deaths. I didn’t get an answer to that question until August. The answer was no. But by then, I had already started trying to figure out the numbers on my own.
Posted inNews & Politics
An online refuge for care workers during the Ukraine War
Content note: some of the names in this story have been changed to protect anonymity. Editor’s note (added November 6, 2023): the writer, Tracy Baim, is related to Clark Baim, who is a main subject in this story. It’s Sunday morning in August 2022, and midway through an online group therapy session, Mariia, in Kyiv, […]
Posted inFeature
Chicago church part of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
Content note: this story includes details of a violent hate crime against a teenager. From the first World War to the 1970s, more than six million African Americans migrated from the Jim Crow south to cities including Chicago. As documented by The Warmth of Other Suns author Isabel Wilkerson, the Great Migration “was not solely […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Lose your car, but keep the debt
It feels like something I don’t have much power to prevent. Like an occasional mosquito bite that you can’t control, it’s just in the air. Except that mosquito sucks $100 from you here and there. Eric Hoskins Eric Hoskins has never owned a car in Chicago. The slew of expenses car ownership incurs in the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A city of sanctuary: Chicago’s role in the 1973 Chilean coup
Hortensia Bussi held back tears as she addressed a crowd of more than 2,000 people gathered at DePaul University on a December afternoon in 1973. She was in Chicago because, on September 11, 1973, with spring in the air and Chile’s national holiday on the horizon, military aircraft launched from the port city of Valparaíso […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Dan Bigg’s legacy of positive change
This August 21 marked the five-year anniversary of Dan Bigg’s death. As the CRA gets ready for their 2023 barbecue, I dropped by to learn more about Dan and his legacy from folks who knew him best.
Posted inNews & Politics
CTA employees share the personal cost of working inside the nation’s second-largest transit agency
Poor bathroom access, shortened recovery times, and safety concerns impact employee morale and, by extension, the commuter experience.
Posted inFeature
‘Just trying to help him stay alive’
Sheila Haennicke was woken up around 2 AM on November 16, 2021, by an Oak Park policeman who informed her and her husband that their 29-year-old son was found unresponsive and his body was at Ascension Resurrection Hospital. In the hours before, Sheila Haennicke’s son, David Haennicke, died of an accidental overdose on the CTA […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Anatomy of an intervention
Incidents like this happen, or almost happen, on the CTA every day, so why am I telling you about this one?
Posted inNews & Politics
Does BDS solidarity lose elections?
On a Saturday evening in May, Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, an elected member of the South African National Assembly and the grandson of Nelson Mandela, stood on stage at the Chicago Teachers Union and recited a chant from a South African tradition that echoed across the rooms of the hall. Mandela, invited to Chicago by organizers […]