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Friday, December 26, 2025 Dec 26, 2025

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This holiday season, the Evanston Symphony Orchestra hosted a new kind of concert. The so-called “barrier-free” performance was designed for people with disabilities and their loved ones. That includes accessible parking, an ASL interpreter and a sensory-free room where people could retreat if they got overwhelmed. About a hundred attendees of all ages poured into the performance at the Evanston Township High School Auditorium, where volunteers encouraged the audience to participate in a singalong performance and shake jingle bells.

Wednesday, December 24, 2025 Dec 25, 2025

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Faith leaders were denied access to pray with detainees at the Broadview ICE facility today. Illinois is part of a multi-state coalition suing the Trump administration for targeting gender affirming care. A holiday-themed pop-up in Humboldt Park takes inspiration from a Puerto Rican Christmas tradition. And Jake Connelly, a 13-year-old from Arlington Heights, is the newest star of the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things." Plus, one Curious City listener wanted to know: What customs associated with Christmas are distinctly Chicago traditions? Well, Curious City goes behind the scenes of one long-time local tradition: "A Christmas Carol" at the Goodman Theatre.

Becoming Bovino Dec 23, 2025

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Who is Gregory Bovino? For months, the Border Patrol Commander-at-Large led agents through Chicago on an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign, while making sure his noticeably uncovered face was in front of as many cameras as possible. But there’s very little information online about Bovino’s background, his experience, or his rise to overnight prominence. So our team went digging – to his hometown in North Carolina, and to California where his Border Patrol career got started. In “Becoming Bovino,” Sun-Times investigative reporter Lauren FitzPatrick and WBEZ investigative reporter Dan Mihalopoulos sit down with WBEZ’s Patrick Smith to share what they found about Gregory Bovino – from his upbringing, to his efforts to keep himself in the limelight.

Monday, December 22, 2025 Dec 22, 2025

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The Chicago Bears are the toast of the town after an overtime win Saturday against the Green Bay Packers. The Cook County Clerk’s office has selected the couple who will receive the county’s first marriage license of 2026. Operation North Pole is an annual holiday charity event for children with life-threatening illnesses. It returned for the first time since COVID. Plus, the biggest life expectancy gap between Chicago neighborhoods is 20 years, from West Garfield Park to the Loop. One of the solutions to closing this gap is playing out in Garfield Park.

Friday, December 19, 2025 Dec 19, 2025

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The Chicago City Council has approved the revenue portion of a rival, aldermanic-led spending plan that does not include a corporate head tax as Mayor Brandon Johnson wanted. It still requires a second official vote to be fully adopted. The Trump administration said the Chicago Transit Authority’s new security plan “fails to meet the need for immediate, measurable corrective action” and threatened to withhold up to 50 million dollars from the agency. Chicago six-piece soul band Hollyy will play its fifth-annual holiday show at Thalia Hall. Plus, a state panel documenting alleged abuses by federal immigration agents held its first meeting. The Illinois Accountability Commission plans to interview witnesses and review bystander videos on social media.

Thursday, December 18, 2025 Dec 18, 2025

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A state commission examining wrongdoing by federal agencies during the so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” is now taking testimony. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he will do "whatever it takes" to avoid a government shutdown. A coalition of alders advanced a rival budget proposal, and the plan still needs a full council vote. The Chicago Bears will host arch-rivals the Green Bay Packers Saturday night. Plus, fans of the novelist Jane Austen celebrated her 250th birthday through a Regency ball – complete with a string quartet, historical snacks, and dancers in gowns stitched from YouTube tutorials.

Wednesday, December 17, 2025 Dec 17, 2025

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Chicago's Jewish community continues to mourn the victims of the mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration in Australia. An Illinois state task force is investigating why violence against women and girls in Chicago is disproportionately high. Chicago officials are urging people to get their vaccines before gathering with friends and family for the holidays. Plus, a school on Chicago’s southwest side has long had a club to support students without legal status and to raise money to help them go to college. But this year with immigration enforcement tearing families apart, the club has changed course.

Tuesday, December 16, 2025 Dec 16, 2025

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U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino has returned to the Chicago area. Illinois might not be able to generate all the power it needs to meet future demand because coal-fired plants are shutting down and newer, cleaner sources aren’t coming online fast enough. The Chicago Blackhawks are playing in Toronto without star center Conor Bedard due to an upper-body injury. Plus, a Chicago theater company created its own holiday-inspired version of the “Real Housewives” reality television series: The Real Housewives of the North Pole.

Monday, December 15, 2025 Dec 15, 2025

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Jewish leaders in Chicago are mourning the lives lost in Australia this weekend, but say they won’t live in fear as Hanukkah celebrations continue this week. Actor and film director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were killed in their Los Angeles home yesterday. Some anti-violence advocates want the Chicago Transit Authority to allow violence interruptors to patrol the transit system. Plus, the move-out deadline has passed for the last residents of a Chicago apartment building raided in the fall by federal immigration agents. A judge ordered the troubled South Shore building vacated by last Friday and appointed a manager to secure the property and help residents relocate. Tenants say that “help” was merely a check and a list of phone numbers to call. WBEZ's Esther Yoon-Ji Kang spent some time with one resident as he scrambled to figure out where he goes from here.

Friday December 12, 2025 Dec 12, 2025

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Patients in Illinois who are terminally ill will be able to request life-ending medication with a doctor’s prescription starting later next year. A proposed city-wide ban on the sale of hemp products now includes an exception for THC-infused beverages. The National Weather Service says snow is likely Saturday afternoon with evening wind chills near 20 below zero. Plus, We recently asked people in Illinois prisons this question: “If you could spend one afternoon on the outside with a family member or friend, where would you go and what would you do?" A man named Robert Jernigan wrote us saying he’d take his mother to her church, so he could play music and sing for her. For WBEZ’s statewide journalism project called Prisoncast!, producer and editor Robert Wildeboer packed up a keyboard and drove to Pinckneyville prison in Southern Illinois.

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