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How one Chicago call center works to prevent homelessness

Jan 14, 2020
Workers connect qualifying callers with one-time emergency aid.
A Chicago call center worker asks callers how they ended up on the verge of homelessness.
David Wagner/KPCC

Manufacturing needs workers. Chicago has plenty. Where’s the disconnect?

Dec 11, 2019
A high rate of unemployment persists in some parts of Chicago, despite a worker shortage in manufacturing.
Production supervisor David Casarrubias monitors a fabric-cutting machine at Freedman Seating company in Chicago.
Esther Yoon-Ji Kang

Chicago's Lincoln Yards development under scrutiny

Apr 3, 2019
Who will the multibillion-dollar project benefit?
A rendering of Lincoln Yards.
Courtesy of Sterling Bay

Let's do the numbers: St. Patrick's Day edition

Mar 15, 2018
From closed bars to Pedialyte, here are a few things you might not have known about the holiday.
A water taxi navigates the Chicago River shortly after it was dyed green in celebration of St. Patrick's Day on March 11, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Parking tickets are bankrupting Chicago residents

Mar 6, 2018
Why Chicago has more parking ticket debt than other major American cities, and who the system targets.
Scott Eisen/Getty Images

African-Americans are leaving Chicago for a better quality of life in neighboring Indiana

Jan 29, 2018
Issues with schools, a stagnant job market and affordability have driven 12,000 blacks from Cook County in the last year.
William Godwin in his office in the Miller Beach section of Gary, Indiana.
Natalie Moore/Marketplace

What happens when sexual harassment becomes ingrained in work culture?

Dec 20, 2017
While some industries may be going through a watershed moment of zero tolerance for sexual harassment, other workplaces may be much slower to change. A recent investigation by the New York Times into two Chicago-based Ford Motor Co. factories shows an entrenched culture of harassment and sexual assault. Senior correspondent Susan Chira, along with her colleague […]

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Chicago's decaying water system is delivering disparate rates

Nov 9, 2017
Minority and lower-income residents are struggling to pay skyrocketing bills for a basic resource, says Patrick O'Connell of the Chicago Tribune.
“How far you are away from Lake Michigan doesn't always correspond with how much you pay for water,” says journalist Patrick O'Connell.
Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty Images

Chicago’s short-lived soda tax faced relentless opposition

Oct 11, 2017
Cook County, Illinois, home to Chicago, passed a penny-per-ounce tax on soda late last year. The driving force was raising revenue in a state with deep budget woes. But legal challenges delayed the tax going into effect, and a strong campaign from the beverage industry has soured public opinion on the measure. It was repealed […]
Chicago's skyline looking north is visible from a window of the Sears Skydeck. 
Tim Boyle/ Getty Images