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Afternoon News: Friday February 23, 2024 Feb 23, 2024

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A Cook County judge ruled that a referendum that would have allowed a tax increase in Chicago to fund homelessness prevention is invalid. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is trying to permanently get rid of the state’s 1% grocery sales tax. Gov. Pritzker also wants to earmark more money for the state’s Department of Children and Family Services: $2.3 billion over the next fiscal year.

To offset decades of racist housing policies, this Chicagoan is getting creative Feb 23, 2024

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Tonika Lewis Johnson calls her latest project – unBlocked Englewood – “a very unusual art project.”

It involves beautifying the 6500 block of South Aberdeen Street in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood – though things like murals, gardens, gazebos and landscaping – that’s not the unusual part.

“But,” she said, “if we were to just start doing art right away, it would be an insult to people on that block.”

Johnson said the homeowners there, like so many other minority Chicagoans on the South Side, are still suffering from racist housing practices of the 20th century that devalued the land in those neighborhoods and prevented many from becoming homeowners in the first place.

So Johnson did something a little different, by applying for grants from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events that would combine public art with home repairs. She got them. And the effects have been transformational, according to some of the residents of 65th and Aberdeen.

In this episode, Johnson talked with Rundown podcast host Erin Allen about how she’s pulling it off, and why.

“We can be as creative as we want when we’re trying to dismantle these systemic injustices,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t have to be as complicated as we make it.”

Morning News: February 23, 2024 Feb 23, 2024

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Chicago Board of Education votes to tell schools to prepare for no more cops in schools next year. The same board is officially ending private custodial management after years of complaints that schools were filthy. A new initiative in Chicago aims to double youth employment in the city in the next three years.

Afternoon News: Thursday February 22, 2024 Feb 22, 2024

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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is asking for a much more modest increase than he did last year to the MAP grant that helps low-income students pay for college. Gov. Pritzker is also under fire from Republicans for his plan that does not raise a popular state tax credit to fully cover the effects of inflation. Metra has unveiled plans to buy zero emission, battery-powered trains.

Why COVID precautions are an accessibility issue Feb 22, 2024

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Last May, the federal government declared the end of the pandemic public health emergency. But COVID-19 is still widely circulating, and Chicago event organizers are taking precautions into their own hands. Emily Dupree started Clean Air Club after her partner caught COVID while masked at a concert. “If we’re going to meaningfully reduce the disease burden in the country and around the world, we have to target air quality,” she said. Dupree and some COVID-cautious event organizers see these types of precautions as an issue of accessibility—and we all stand to benefit. In this episode, Rundown producer Sarah Stark talks to Dupree about COVID-safer events and the case for cleaning the air we breathe.

Morning News: February 22, 2024 Feb 22, 2024

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Governor J.B. Pritzker made education a focal point of the nearly $53 billion state spending plan he laid out yesterday. Dollar Stores in Chicago will be prohibited from opening within a mile of existing locations under an ordinance passed by the City Council. The Chicago Sky are prepping for an active WNBA draft.

Afternoon News: Wednesday February 21, 2024 Feb 21, 2024

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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled his nearly $53 billion spending plan during his State of the State address in Springfield. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced a major development plan today that relies on borrowing $1.25 billion to pay for affordable housing units and other projects. The Chicago City Council is adding new restrictions to limit the spread of chain dollar stores.

Explore afrofuturism and ‘the multiverse’ in a new show at the Adler Planetarium Feb 21, 2024

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There’s a new sky show at the Adler Planetarium that asks kids and families to explore big questions – like, are there multiple universes? – through the eyes of a little girl from Chicago named Niyah.

“This film, in particular, follows her journey as she explores every piece of her being and what it means to be a young girl trying to find her way in the universe,” said Taylor Witten, who co-wrote “Niyah and the Multiverse” with Chicago author and filmmaker Ytasha Womack.

Womack said another big theme is Niyah’s journey through her own Black cultural heritage.

“We wanted to establish that Niyah, being a young girl, has a cultural relationship, as we all do, to space and time, and to explore that through this lens of afrofuturism,” Womack said.

In this episode, Womack and Witten talk with The Rundown podcast host Erin Allen about tackling these ideas.

Morning News: February 21, 2024 Feb 21, 2024

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Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is delivering his budget address later today, and there’s one line item that Democrats and Republicans are strictly divided on. He also wants to spend more than $20 million dollars next fiscal year to help prevent more pregnant Black women from dying. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is expected to introduce a major development plan today that relies on borrowing more than $1 billion.

Afternoon News: Tuesday February 20, 2024 Feb 20, 2024

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Governor JB Pritzker will deliver his budget address tomorrow. The Chicago Board of Education is working on a plan to remove all police assigned to schools by this fall. The Illinois Department of Public Health warns people could still contract respiratory viruses in the coming months.

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