Jesse tells the surprising story of the two roughest days of his life. Interview by Bea Bosco.

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The Factory is the curatorial and production wing of Vocalo.org, the only radio station to fill most of its airtime with listener-created audio.

I headed over to Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet School to see if there were more issues at the school which may have lead up to Monday’s tasing of student.

Jennifer Matthew, mother of Keaira Matthews, said she and a few community organizers and members of her church would be at the school protesting school administration’s handling of her daughter’s incident. About 2:30 p.m. Mark Carter, a member of VOTE (Voice of the Ex-Offender) arrived with several protesters. But Matthews never came. As students were dismissed at 2:45 p.m., Paul Johnson, another member of VOTE, spoke to released students on a bullhorn. Johnson singled out Officer Brown who is reportedly stationed at the school. He asked the students to stage a walkout on Friday to protest Keaira’s tasing.

In front of the school, an unnamed protester began to taunt the police and school security as he videotaped them. Read the rest of this entry →

The Associated Press has spoken: WBEZ is king.

WBEZ was named Outstanding News Operation in the Chicago-St. Louis Radio Division by the AP.  WBBM 780 took home second prize.

Other awards won by WBEZ :

Best Newswriter – Ashley Gross
2nd – Robert Wildeboer

Best Reporter – 2nd – Robert Wildeboer (1st place to BBM’s Bob Roberts).

Best Investigative Series – “Moldy Metropolis: Homeowners Struggle with Leaky Concrete” – Ashley Gross, Cate Cahan

Best Series/Documentary – “Where They Are, Why They’re Gone: Three 9th Grade Dropouts” – Linda Lutton, Sally Eisele
2nd – “Facing the Mortgage Crisis” – Ashley Gross, Adriene Hill, Cate Cahan

Best Hard News Feature – “Are Aldermen Taking It Easy on Carothers?“  – Sam Hudzik, Cate Cahan
2nd – “Money Collected by Cook County for Kids Not Going to Kids” – Robert Wildeboer, Cate Cahan

Best Use of Sound – “The NIU Community Reflects on 2008 Shooting” – Carrie Shepherd, Aurora Aguilar

So yeah, we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.

Even the bartenders at SXSW aren't immune to Pitchfork's influence.

Wednesday I started my day with the awesome Lunchbox chat discussion on SXSW. After grabbing lunch with WBEZ-ers Nick White and Jason Saldanha and the inimitable Lunchbox guest Jesse Thorn, I sat in traffic for a very long time looking for a parking spot. (Does that count as breaking my only rule of not waiting in lines? I don’t think it does.) Eventually I made it to a day party where one of the bands Jim DeRogatis mentioned in The Lunchbox was playing. They’re called Those Darlins and since I enjoyed their set, I shot a tiny bit of video since I didn’t see DeRo there.

Read the rest of this entry →

Photo by Tripp (Flickr pool)

Top story: The  CTA will be testing a new policy called “Don’t clean the buses and trains til we get more money.” What’s next? Dudes can set up tents on the train? Let’s go back to allowing big boom boxes, too. I’ve got a great idea: instead of always telling us but never enforcing the “no smoking, littering or radio-playing on the CTA” rule, why not let people do it (above photo) and just tax them? If you want to eat on the train? $1. If you want to play that boom box? $2. If you want to rub up on someone without their permission? Well, that still gets you arrested. This is going to get ugly. Smelly, then ugly.

B story: Earlier this week, Teachers’ Union Prez Marilyn Stewart shot back at CPS Chief Ron Huberman about his ‘Doomsday’ budget scenario for the Chicago Public Schools. Read the rest of this entry →

For the past few months we’ve been talking about Illinois’ Department of Juvenile Justice as part of our series Inside and Out.

Photo by Carlos Javier Ortiz

We’ve tracked down kids with warrants out for their arrest, spent the day with a probation officer, examined suicide attempts among incarcerated youth and reported from inside one of Illinois’ eight youth prisons. One thing we haven’t done yet is to compare Illinois with other states to see how our juvenile justice system stacks up.

Illinois spends an average of $233 per day to incarcerate a single youth. That’s more than $85,000 per year per child.

That number is one thing.  Turns out–comparing it in an apples to apples way is quite another. Read the rest of this entry →

The “billboard” that the Cubs want to install at Wrigley Field is… well, I’ll let you be the judge.

This rendering sent by the Chicago National League ball club:

Mister Annoying, Jim Nayder–travels the world to find annoying music–so you don’t have to.  Here’s a gem he uncovered, that also drove the snakes out of Ireland!”

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