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Their first baby came with medical debt. These Illinois parents won’t have another.
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — Heather Crivilare was a month from her due date when she was rushed to an operating room for an emergency cesarean section. The first-time mother, a high school teacher in rural Illinois, had developed high blood pressure, a sometimes life-threatening condition in pregnancy that prompted doctors to hospitalize her. Then Crivilare’s blood pressure spiked, and the baby’s heart rate dropped. “It was terrifying,” Crivilare said.
Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ awarded 18 top honors from Chicago Headline Club
Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism. One of those awards recognized a Sun-Times collaboration with colleagues at WBEZ Chicago, which notched six of its own honors, bringing a total of 18 Lisagors to the Chicago Public Media newsrooms. The Headline Club, an affiliate of the national Society of Professional Journalists, presented...
Pick a card, any card: The history of Chicago-style magic
WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter. Walking around Chicago in the 1940s, you’d see the Wrigley Building and the Chicago Board of Trade dominating the skyline. Prohibition was over, and taverns boomed. Jazz clubs, theaters and dance halls were places people went to enjoy themselves.
Endeavor Health launches study to target C-section rates, disparities in Black birthing patients
Endeavor Health plans to launch a $7 million study to help pregnant patients, especially Black women, be more seen and heard during labor. The goal of the study, called I’M SPEAKING, is to make sure patients have more of a say in what happens during their deliveries, and to ultimately reduce unnecessary C-sections and health disparities at hospitals around Illinois.
Photos: See the Northern lights from rare solar storm
The largest geomagnetic storm in nearly two decades is hitting earth’s atmosphere. It’s producing a beautiful glow in the sky all over the world. A sunspot has sent a stream of charged particles towards earth. As those particles hit the earth’s atmosphere they will be heated and start...
Chicago Democratic convention leaders ready for anything and see no echoes of 1968
With less than 15 weeks to go before a national spotlight descends on Chicago, Democratic National Convention leaders are swatting away comparisons to 1968 and trying to get ahead of worst-case scenarios. That includes combing through social media posts to prepare for what-ifs, trying to target disinformation, vetting 12,000 volunteers...
Some key dates in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first year in office
WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter. From crime to migrants to Gaza to a slew of progressive initiatives, Mayor Brandon Johnson had a busy first year in office, with successes sprinkled amidst a variety of crises. Here are some of the highlights, lowlights and key events from the past year.
Cabrini Art House founders want to give back to Cabrini-Green community
Marques “Merk” Elliston and Cher’Don Reynolds have been friends for decades. They met as kids living in the Cabrini-Green Homes, a former public housing project Near North Side. But as adults, they can’t return to their childhood landmarks: Cabrini-Green was demolished over the course of the early-2000s, displacing several thousand residents.
Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline deluged with calls, hindered by lack of shelter beds
Domestic violence survivors looking for a safe place to stay are driving a surge in contacts to the state’s hotline, which has seen its volume of calls, texts and messages from those experiencing abuse nearly double since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Compounding the problem, Chicago and the...
A kitchen therapy session with Tamar Adler
This week, cookbook author and leftovers lover Tamar Adler joins us to answer YOUR questions on cooking, hosting and eating. Tamar is the author of The Everlasting Meal and The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z. She also writes the newsletter “The Kitchen Shrink,” where she regularly gives out culinary advice.
A Conversation with Mom
Mothers are like superheroes, they don’t always wear capes, but they seem like they always know how to save the day. When they take off their proverbial capes, who are they as people? What is their secret to being our mothers, why did they instill certain values and while they’ve helped our dreams come true, what are theirs? This week, in honor of Mother’s Day, Taylor, Jennifer, and Cheryle sit down with their moms to ask questions they’ve never asked before, and the answers might have you shed a tear. Grab your tissues and let’s celebrate the mamas!
Behind Chicago band Red Scarves’ latest album ‘Nice Try’
Local indie band Red Scarves is out with their new album ‘Nice Try.’ It features nine tracks that navigate themes of failure, freedom and just doing your best. The four best friends came together during lockdown in the summer of 2020 to write the music for this latest project.
Medical residents are starting to avoid states with abortion bans, data shows
Isabella Rosario Blum was wrapping up medical school and considering residency programs to become a family practice physician when she got some frank advice: If she wanted to be trained to provide abortions, she shouldn’t stay in Arizona. Blum turned to programs mostly in states where abortion access —...
Musician Steve Albini — ‘provocateur, troublemaker, firestarter’ — had an outsized influence on Chicago’s sound
As a musician, sound engineer and provocateur, Steve Albini was a dominant force across Chicago’s musical landscape for more than 40 years. He died of a heart attack late Tuesday at 61. Albini’s influence as a recording engineer and punk sage spanned genres and all levels of the recording...
Steve Albini, legendary rock underground pioneer, dies at 61
Steve Albini, the legendary studio sound engineer and artist who produced albums for Nirvana, the Pixies, Jesus Lizard, PJ Harvey and countless other icons of the indie rock underground has died. He was 61. The frontman for Shellac and Big Black died Wednesday, according to a report by Pitchfork. For...
‘We Are the Culture’ author Arionne Nettles says Black Chicagoans are limitless
Journalists often avoid including themselves in the stories they tell. But when Arionne Nettles sat down to write a book about Black Chicago, she knew she had to include some of her story. “I am a byproduct of the culture that I’m talking about,” Nettles said. Her book...
Friends of the Parks ‘prepared to fight for the lakefront’ in battle for new Bears domed stadium
Friends of the Parks is “prepared to fight for the lakefront” but not ready to say if that will mean mounting a legal challenge to prevent the Bears from building a domed stadium. Gin Kilgore, acting executive director of the group, tried hard to thread a needle Tuesday,...
An insider’s guide to Albany Park: Where to eat, shop and savor spring outdoors
From Middle Eastern grocery stores to a warm bowl of Pho, Albany Park is a dining paradise. Bordered by Foster, Montrose and Elston avenues, the Northwest Side neighborhood is home to historic bungalows, a melting pot of people and an abundance of green space. We talked to four locals who...
‘Jump’ play confronts grief and family drama with magical realism
When she read the script for the play “Jump,” actor Jazzma Pryor said the themes of grief and family drama spoke to her. “[They’re] topics that everybody can relate to, will go through, have seen,” Pryor said. “Us looking at grief in a really open way...
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