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Cicada-infused Malört shots are all the buzz at Lombard brewpub
Want to try a shot that won’t be around for another 17 years?. A suburban brewpub is pouring up shots of cicada-infused Malört to celebrate the arrival of two adjacent broods of the insect in Illinois. Noon Whistle Brewing in Lombard got the idea to create the creepy...
Who’s in Brandon Johnson’s cabinet? Many are holdovers from the administrations he often criticizes.
The vast majority of people leading city departments in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration have extensive experience in Chicago city government. But people who have never worked in city government are the ones closest to the mayor, in senior leadership positions within his office. Overall, Johnson’s administration is notably diverse,...
At Sueños, this set is for the girls — thanks to an all-women DJ party started in Chicago
In 2021, Miriam Paz was the only female DJ performing at the first Sueños Music Festival. This weekend she’s returning for the festival’s third year — she’s one of the event’s “official” DJs — and presiding over a lineup that spotlights more female performers than ever.
Who wins during the cicada eruption of 2024? It turns out it’s the caterpillars
More than just a nuisance, periodical cicadas are an important player in the forest ecosystem. A 2023 study published in the journal Science, found that 80 species of birds started eating cicadas instead of caterpillars during the Brood X emergence, which had an effect on trees where the caterpillars live.
What you should know about IVF
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 6 adults across the globe experience infertility at some point in their lifetime. There are a variety of treatments to address this issue from medications to surgery to assisted conception options like intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization, or IVF. IVF is...
CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. under fire from Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is set to introduce ordinances that call upon Mayor Brandon Johnson to fire CTA President Dorval Carter, amidst calls for “new leadership” in the transit agency. Also on the agenda for Wednesday’s council meeting is a vote on the city’s contract with Shotspotter, a...
Select DMV offices add summer Saturday hours for teens applying for their first licenses
When school’s out this summer, getting into the DMV is about to get easier for Chicago-area teenagers and their parents. Ten driver services facilities will be open Saturdays exclusively for teen drivers applying for their first licenses and permits, under a new summer program announced Tuesday by Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
International LGBTQ+ travelers warned of Pride Month terrorist threats: ‘We take our chances when we travel’
The gay community is often subjected to threats and violence. But those threats reached a new level as the federal intelligence community issued a warning to international travelers, citing potential attacks against LGBTQ+ events during Pride Month in June. The U.S. State Department issued a “worldwide caution” alert Friday, saying...
A Chicago playwright finds plenty of drama in the amateur adult film industry
Brynne Frauenhoffer has a thing for dramatic workplaces. The Chicago-based playwright has set previous plays in a vape shop and a Pizza Hut. Frauenhoffer’s new play, Pro-Am, produced by First Floor Theatre and premiering at The Den Theater in Wicker Park through June 15 is another workplace drama. But this time, the coworkers at the heart of her story are a group of sex workers renting rooms in a shared house in Miami.
Cubs’ Shota Imanaga is crushing it on the mound, but life as a Chicagoan is coming along more slowly
Look, Cubs newcomer Shota Imanaga brought this upon himself. Imanaga, 30, has been so obscenely good since arriving from Japan, we have no choice but to compare him with giant pitching names present and past. The lefty starter is 5-0 with a minuscule 0.84 ERA, the fourth-lowest after the first...
‘We are a tough people’: Anonymous Chicago artist Dont Fret loves this city
Dont Fret is a Chicago-born cartoonist, muralist and self-published author who loves his city. He’s anonymous in part because he spent his childhood tagging walls across Chicago,. “You’re a Chicagoan,” he writes in his book, “This Is No Quiet City.” “Your eyes and heart are wide open, and that...
Periodical cicadas emerge in Chicago area after 17 years
We’ve been hearing it for months: The cicadas are coming. Now, the wait is over. Leslie Baldacci saw the signs and knew the cicadas were near, but when she woke up Friday morning, she was shocked by the invasion of cicadas swarming the tree in front of her Morgan Park home.
Trucks kept backing into this man’s house. Now, City Hall is after him to repair the damage.
Robert Christie has had enough. The Chicago man lives in a beige-brick bungalow at North Cicero Avenue and West Ainslie Street on the Northwest Side — a house that for years has been a magnet for reversing semi-trucks whose drivers don’t heed signs’ warnings and realize too late they can’t make it through a low-clearance bridge at Gunnison Street just south of his home.
How Angel Reese has juggled her first month as a professional athlete
ARLINGTON, Texas — Angel Reese has made it perfectly clear that she has no intention of being one-dimensional in the WNBA. Since being drafted by the Sky with the No. 7 pick a month ago, Reese attended her first Met Gala, appeared in a Good American ad campaign that’s featured on billboards in downtown Chicago and made her WNBA debut. She had 12 points and eight rebounds in the Sky’s 87-79 loss to the host Wings on Wednesday night.
New hope? Why the Bears believe they will succeed where George Lucas failed
Dazzling drawings, a cheerleader in the mayor’s office, and a possible new crown jewel for a lakefront already known as the “glory of Chicago.”. It sounds a lot like the last few weeks, when the Bears proposed a new, publicly owned $4.7 billion lakefront development south of Soldier Field.
WBEZ’s Weekly News Recap, May 17, 2024: Brandon Johnson’s first year, Trump Tower’s tax troubles and more
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson responds to a question in his City Hall office during an interview with The Associated Press in Chicago. The rookie mayor's bumpy first year has been a test of his progressive credentials. He's navigated an evolving migrant crisis, budget gaps, persistent crime and a troubled transit system to name a few. While there have been wins for workers and social services, he's struggled with businesses, police and fellow Democrats. Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press.
CTA riders and a transit reporter talk about their experience mid-commute
What’s going on at the CTA? Sluggish ridership is a main reason that Chicago area transit agencies including the CTA are facing a $730 million budget shortfall, according to a recent WBEZ analysis of transit data. So why aren’t riders riding? And what do they think of the CTA...
From Chicago headlines, an eminent composer births a new opera about Nazi-looted art
Rare is the opera that tells a Chicagoan’s story. And while Before It All Goes Dark, a new work by the in-demand composer Jake Heggie, unfolds mostly in Prague, the protagonist is a middle-aged Vietnam veteran named “Mac” from Lyons, Ill. Before It All Goes Dark, which...
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