The state has made about $500 million in marijuana tax revenue since the state legalized recreational use. Social programs have benefited from those funds, but experts say it won’t last forever.
President Trump directed federal agencies to fire probationary workers on Thursday, Feb. 13. Federal workers are typically on probation for a year or two after being hired. There are roughly 82,000 federal workers based in Illinois according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Reset gets the latest from Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mitch Armentrout and gets reaction from former federal worker Anthony Stanford.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the country. It’s driven by policy decisions over the decades, but it’s also reinforced by personal networks and perception rather than experience. A new book, titled “Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How To Disrupt It,” uses first-person testimonials to explore how racist messaging can perpetuate this dynamic.
Reset sits down with co-authors Tonika Johnson and Maria Krysan to hear how this book came to be, and how it could inform disrupting segregation.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
Is the American Dream achieved at the expense of the American Negro? That’s the question that civil rights icon James Baldwin and conservative leader William F. Buckley debated in the Cambridge Union on February 18, 1965.
A new play at DePaul’s TimeLine Theatre’s is bringing that question to modern audiences, capturing the relevance of the debate 60 years later. Reset sits down with the two lead actors, Teagle F. Bougere and Eric T. Miller, to find out what it’s like to reenact a haunting historical discussion and how the play resonates with the current moment.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
“A Raisin in the Sun” is a Chicago classic. The play by Lorainne Hansberry tells the story of a Black family looking to move out of a cramped South Side apartment and defy social and political limits to realize their dreams. There would be no “A Raisin in the Sun” without Lorraine’s father Carl Hansberry, a real estate broker turned civil rights activist who helped end restrictive covenant laws that prevent certain people from buying and living on a property.
Reset learns more about Carl Hansberry with Gabrielle Randle-Bent, dramaturg, University of Chicago professor and associate artistic director at the Court Theatre.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
What is the purpose of schools? Most people would say to teach children to meet their potential and to prepare them for the world. But in her new book “Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism,” Chicago author and sociologist Eve Ewing presents readers with an exhaustively researched history of how U.S. schools have been a place where separation and inequality have been enshrined by design. Reset checks in with Ewing to explore the role of schools in America and a better way forward.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
’Tis the season of love. Whether you’re dating, single, newly wed or married for years, everybody could use a little advice on love and relationships.
Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Reset checks in with love guru and psychologist Alexandra Solomon, who is also the host of the podcast “Reimagining Love.”
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
From jerk chicken to fresh squeezed juice to sweet treats, Chicago Black Restaurant Week offers something for everyone, not to mention an opportunity to explore a new restaurant. Reset checks in with founder Lauran Smith and participating restaurateur Dave Clausell, owner of Jerk Yard Chicago.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
Illinois is offering buyers an incentive of $4,000 per electric vehicle. But at the federal level, the Trump administration is moving in the opposite direction, cutting plans for more EV charging stations, among other moves. Reset gets the latest and learns what might be ahead for EVs in Illinois and beyond with Reset sustainability contributor Karen Weigert and Dany Robles, legislative relations director with the Illinois Environmental Council.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
What does it take to get a wrongful conviction overturned?
Quite a lot, according to investigative reporter Alison Flowers, who says proving innocence is much more difficult than proving guilt. She has investigated the cases of many wrongfully convicted individuals, including that of Chicagoan Robert Johnson.
In our last episode, Invisible Institute reporter Erisa Apantaku explained how Johnson has spent nearly 30 years in prison for a murder almost everyone knows he did not commit.
What’s clear is that a lot must go right to overturn a wrongful conviction (and even more so before the exonerated can try to earn compensation from the state). Flowers explains what a wrongfully convicted person needs — “the three-legged stool of wrongful convictions” — an advocate on the outside, an attorney in your corner and media attention.
