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Chicago Tribune
15-06-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Letters: Government's reversal on COVID-19 shots for pregnant women is alarming
Illinois has been a leader in identifying the causes of maternal mortality and creating solutions that would address the causes. Last year, the University of Illinois at Chicago was designated a Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health, building on the state's successes and allowing us to invest in the next generation of researchers, connect community members with research and investigate the impact of stress on birth outcomes. We understand our efforts can be upended by an emerging crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is a key example. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health's most recent Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report (2023), the number of women who died during or within a year of pregnancy from 2020 to 2022 was well above the average of deaths during the five years prior to the pandemic. While we anticipate that the next report will detail how COVID-19 impacted pregnant women in Illinois, we already know from national data that maternal deaths increased by 33% after March 2020 and that the mortality risk of pregnant patients with COVID-19 infection at delivery was approximately 14 times higher compared with those without. As a physician researcher, I have seen the importance of gaining the trust of patients and the public. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's announcement that COVID-19 vaccine boosters will not be recommended to pregnant women, which was done without consulting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, left clinicians to navigate a situation in which research is being actively disregarded by those setting federal policy. Not recommending this vaccine jeopardizes insurance coverage of the vaccine and clinicians' ability to gain the trust of pregnant women for vaccines at a time when they are at risk for adverse outcomes. How can we expect pregnant women to trust clinicians if we recommend vaccines that they may not be allowed to access? Are we to advise patients to disregard CDC recommendations? How do we train future researchers and clinicians if epidemiologic data is ignored? We need to listen to research and learn from data. Barring pregnant women from accessing the COVID-19 vaccine is not clinically sound and will negate our collective efforts to improve maternal health in Illinois and nationally. This will have a chilling effect on efforts to investigate and address causes of maternal morbidity and Father's Day here, I am once again reminded of the father I was blessed with. My mom and dad had five girls. Sadly, their first baby was stillborn, and at the ages of 19 and 26, my parents had to bury their little girl, marking her grave with a small headstone for little 'Linda Jean.' They then had four more girls — I was the second of the four, born in 1950. My dad was a mail carrier all of his working days and oftentimes found it hard to make ends meet. We didn't have the best of everything, but we had all we needed — most importantly, his devotion, his time and his unending love. As kids, we didn't realize that times were so tough. The one story that I remember most vividly was when Dad drove me to my piano lesson. At the time, the lesson was $2 for 45 minutes. I happened to look over when he was getting the $2 out of his wallet one week and saw him pull it out — all folded up in a neat little square in the corner of his wallet. The rest of his wallet was empty. You see, Dad got paid only every other week. It was many years later that I realized on the off days of the month, his wallet was empty — except for the $2 that he had set aside so I could take piano lessons. How blessed I was!I started teaching in 1975 and walked away from the classroom this year. After 36 years of teaching high school and 25 years as a college adjunct, I have some unsolicited observations and advice for the fathers out there. In all my 50 years involved with teenagers, I have never met a messed-up kid who had a good relationship with his or her father. Granted, I have met some problem children with wonderful moms, but then I met the dads, and the source of the kid's anger and unhappiness became clear. I also should point out that not all of the kids who had terrible fathers had difficulties, but those kids with bad fathers who turned out OK usually had a positive father figure there for them — a grandfather, an uncle, an older sibling, a stepdad. Over the years, I've heard all of the excuses for fathers not being involved with their children: 'The ex is difficult,' 'I have to work too much,' 'I have a second family to raise now,' 'My kid doesn't respect me,' 'My kid is angry.' But all of the excuses fall before this one simple truth: That child is a part of you walking around out there, and he or she needs you to assist him or her on the way to a healthy adulthood. Another truth I've learned is that, despite acting like their intent is to spend all of their parents' money, the thing that most kids really want is time. No one really has enough time or money, and how we spend our time and our money is a pretty good indicator of what we value. Instinctively, kids know this. So, this Father's Day, if you are a father and your relationship with your child is not the best, vow to work this year to improve that relationship. Don't blame the ex or the child or the circumstances. Just be a better dad. Be there for looking at the footage of President Donald Trump recently speaking to the German chancellor regarding D-Day, nothing these last few months surprises me except the behaviors coming from the White House. I am the proud daughter of my late dad, who was a bombardier with the 8th Army Air Corps who flew 35 missions over Germany in a B-17 bomber. My late father-in-law fought at the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944, my late uncle was wounded at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, and my husband's great uncle was a sailor whose warship was sunk by the Japanese in 1942 and whose headstone may be found in Manila. My friend's father-in-law was the groom in a wartime wedding in which my mom was the maid of honor. This man was an Army paratrooper who was later killed on Omaha Beach and never met his child. The point is that these brave men fought and many died in defense of our nation and the world. The president spoke as if a war between nations was similar to a fight between brawling children. For all of those involved, the remembrance of D-Day was not a great what I needed, a huge belly laugh while reading the Tuesday Tribune article ('Judge denies Madigan's motion for new trial') about former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's approaching sentencing. Through his defense attorneys, he stated that he amassed a personal fortune of $40 million by choosing 'frugality over extravagance, remaining in the same modest home for more than fifty years while making prudent savings and investment choices.' Hey, that's the same lifestyle my husband and I have chosen over our 38-year marriage! Living that lifestyle has not brought our personal fortune anywhere near $40 million. Maybe Madigan can busy himself during his retirement teaching all of the hardworking, frugal, living-below-their-means folks his personal tricks to growing our income to be multimillionaires. Let us in on the little secrets of the good old politician's club for growing your own personal Pope Leo XIV in that White Sox cap leads me to believe that someday he'll replace St. Jude as the patron saint of lost causes.
CBS News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Chicago area high school, college students staging walkout in support of immigrant rights
Chicago high school, college students to walk out in support of migrant workers Chicago high school, college students to walk out in support of migrant workers Chicago high school, college students to walk out in support of migrant workers High school and college students across the Chicago area are holding walkouts on Friday to protest President Donald Trump. The Chicago Coalition Against the Trump Agenda says students will be walking out of schools, including the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, Evanston Township High School, Northwestern University, and others. The students will hold a rally in support of immigrants' rights at the Federal Plaza at 5 p.m. This follows Thursday's nationwide May Day protest, which typically focused on honoring organized labor and workers' rights. In Chicago, thousands gathered to rally and march from Union Park to Grant Park in support of migrant workers and against the Trump administration's immigration actions.
Chicago Tribune
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago Humanities Spring Festival boasts Leslie Odom Jr., Eve Ewing and Paul Reiser — because culture isn't dead yet
You know how you don't know which end is up right now? Nobody is interested in facts. (So we hear.) Expertise is no longer valued. (So we hear.) Humanities are being yanked out of higher education. (Students would rather join hedge funds.) Just last month, University of Illinois at Chicago announced it planned to close its School of Literatures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics. The world is on fire, and night is day, and war is peace. And yet, the Chicago Humanities Festival is doubling down. You might even say its Spring Festival, which begins later this week and runs through early June, looks so committed to rallying a defense to the New Reality, it's provocative. How else to read a festival of ideas featuring best-selling historian Timothy Snyder on freedom, plus historian Heather Cox Richardson (of the popular newsletter 'Letters From an American') on the need to revitalize democracy? (Both are part of the festival's Lakeview Day at the Athenaeum on April 27.) Want to hear directly from the front lines? David Rubenstein, always the most interesting person in the room, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, former chair at the Smithsonian, current chair of the board of trustees at the University of Chicago and chair emeritus of the Brookings Institution, will likely talk about being fired by President Donald Trump from his position as chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (That's April 21.) Activist Tamika Mallory (May 18) will discuss the creation of the Women's March. Deborah N. Archer (April 24) will talk about what it's like to be president of the ACLU now, and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (May 18) will talk about facing armed protestors in 2020 who insisted that Trump won the election. A single afternoon at Bridgeport Day (May 10, at the Ramova Theater and the Co-Prosperity gallery) plays like its own pointed argument for the importance of the free thinking, featuring an all-star group of 21st-century intellectuals: At 4 p.m., Chicago's Eve Ewing discusses her excellent new book, 'Original Sins,' on the history of how American schools fail Black and Indigenous students; at 1 p.m., Maggie Nelson links personal jaw pain with the current need to connect socially; and at 2:30 p.m., essayist Rebecca Solnit talks a bit of everything — abuse of power, climate change, democracy … In fact, if you're feeling excessively distracted by social media lately, there's also a chat for that: MSNBC's Chris Hayes on March 17. Issues with capitalism? That's the New Yorker's John Cassidy on May 18. Just don't know how to argue with people anymore? University of Chicago philosopher Agnes Callard makes a case for Socrates on April 27. Thoughtful-palooza? Sanctuary City Limits? Maybe the Chicago Humanities Festival just needs a better name now, a reminder the humanities is the study of culture. For instance, May 18 (Lincoln Park Day, at the Chicago History Museum), you could hear Chicago cartoonist Chris Ware discuss R. Crumb with his new biographer Dan Nadel, then return that afternoon for Ibram X. Kendi ('How to Be an Antiracist') talking about his new young-adult biography of Malcolm X — and a conversation with Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller, of 'Hamilton' and 'Rent.' I almost feel bad for the festival's relatively lightweight opener: Paul Reiser, at the Music Box on Thursday. Speaking of 'Hamilton' — Leslie Odom Jr. (he won a Tony Award for playing Aaron Burr in the original cast) sings at an Art Institute of Chicago Day on June 7. That same day at the museum, there's a chat with cartoonist Alison Bechdel ('Fun Home'), and, apologies to hipsters for burying the lede here: Director Jim Jarmusch (on guitar) will deliver a very rare concert with experimental lute player Jozef van Wissem. Should art for art's sake prove too slight right now, might I suggest comedian Ed Helms, who brings his popular 'SNAFU' podcast to Chicago (May 3) to discuss the history of huge (and quite real) fiascos, from CIA-trained feline spies to Project A119, an United States Air Force plan to detonate a nuke on the moon, as a show of military strength. See? The world has always been full of wackos. The question is, after the chatting, discussing and thinking — are we going to do something? The Chicago Humanities Spring Festivals begins March 13 and runs through early June. For information on additonal events, times, locations and ticket prices, visit
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Classic housing types like 3-flats, triple-decker and painted ladies could help solve the US housing crisis
In Chicago, they're called 3-flats. In Boston, they're called triple deckers. New York City folks refer to them as brownstones. And in San Francisco, they're known as painted ladies. Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) Home prices in America could fly through the roof in 2025 — here's the big reason why and how to take full advantage (with as little as $10) We're talking about triplexes, or homes with three separate housing units stacked on top of one another under one roof. And according to Stewart Hicks, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 'these buildings might be the key to solving the mounting housing challenges that we're facing in cities today." Yet cities are facing big challenges in having these buildings constructed. And it's only making the affordable housing crisis even worse. Triplexes are commonly found in densely populated cities. But building more of them may not be in the cards anytime soon. And that's a shame. As Hicks explains in a video posted to his channel, "In many cases, these structures offer on-ramps for homeownership and building equity and wealth. They can encourage and develop strong neighborhoods, and maybe even familial bonds if generations remain living together." "Buying a two-flat didn't just mean more breathing room and more pleasant living conditions. They were always intended as wealth-building investments. Rental income could cover the mortgage and provide a degree of economic security," says the Chicago Architecture Center. Yet dated zoning codes commonly get in the way of increasing the number of these homes in cities by disallowing anything more than single-family homes on a single lot in a residential area. There's also what Hicks calls the "economics of construction" that's become a barrier. The National Association of Home Builders recently said that broad inflation in the global economy since 2022 — particularly in building material prices — has driven up the cost to construct a home. Other factors increasing building material prices are disruptions in supply chains and growing demand for sustainable and green options. Construction costs accounted for 64.4% of the average price of a new home in 2024 compared to 60.8% in 2022, according to NAHB's most recent Cost of Construction Survey. Hicks says that a three-unit home could easily cost over $1 million to build in big cities. And in today's mortgage rate environment, those who buy those homes as investments will need to charge top market rates to cover their costs. That's not going to address the issue of affordable housing, though. Read more: I make $60,000/year, the only earner, and I worry about my family if I pass away — here's how 5 minutes can get you 7-figure coverage starting at just $2/day In a recent Pew Research Center survey, 69% of Americans said they were "very concerned" about the cost of housing. And a 2024 Center American Progress survey found that 76% of people feel similarly. That data also found that 72% of urban residents feel housing affordability is getting worse. In a 2024 report, the Brookings Institution estimated that the U.S. housing market was short 4.9 million housing units in 2023 relative to the mid-2000s. And as of 2023, roughly half of renter households were housing cost-burdened, per the 2023 American Community Survey — meaning, they were spending more than 30% of their income on housing. That amounts to nearly 21 million households in total. Triple-unit houses can help solve the problem by allowing for more individual units within the same lot — provided they can be built more affordably. To that end, though, the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program could help. It's a program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that provides funding and incentives to state and local governments for facilitating affordable housing. Specifically, the program targets communities that are actively taking steps to remove affordable housing barriers such as outdated zoning laws and inefficient procedures. Not only can triplexes help address the U.S. housing crisis, but they could also promote multigenerational living, which is a beneficial thing itself. Among adults in multigenerational households, 40% point to financial relief as a perk, according to Pew Research Center. And for 33%, this arrangement helps address the need for caregiving. Critics of triplexes might argue that they're not only eyesores, but that they exacerbate density issues in already packed cities and have the potential to de-value nearby properties. In the wrong context, these buildings could cause more harm than good. They can be easily converted into luxurious single-family homes or they may be bought for cheap and demolished since land values are high. "In these cases then instead of just gently encouraging more density like we want, it just serves to increase land values until longtime residents are forced out and it ends up solving nothing in the end," says Hicks. But all told, there's much to be gained by removing barriers to triplex construction. As Hicks says, 'Folks are coming to recognize just how important these buildings are to their cities and the people who live in them.' Is your savings account struggling to keep up with soaring grocery prices? Here's how 2 minutes can earn you 9X the US national average — with no monthly fees One dozen eggs in America now costs $4.15 — and $14.35 for a pound of sirloin steak. Both record highs. 3 simple ways to protect your wealth in 2025 Jamie Dimon issues a warning about the US stock market — says prices are 'kind of inflated.' Crashproof your portfolio with these 3 rock-solid strategies This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Chicago Tribune
30-01-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
UIC undergraduate resident advisers move to unionize: ‘These are workers'
In a move that could make them some of the first undergraduate student workers to unionize in Illinois, resident advisers at the University of Illinois at Chicago filed for union representation Thursday. The undergraduates filed for representation with the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 39, a Madison, Wisconsin-based labor union that represents workers in nonprofits and health care and at universities. Union organizers said more than 85% of the 170 undergraduate housing staff workers at UIC had signed union cards. The undergraduate workers, organizing under the name Housing Staff United, also include students who work as front desk employees in campus residence halls and peer mentors who live in the dorms. The move comes as part of a swell of undergraduate student organizing that has swept college campuses throughout the country over the last several years. In the public sector, undergraduates at the University of Michigan and California State have joined unions in the last year. But much of the organizing has taken place in the private sector. Since 2022, the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union elections and enforces federal labor law in the private sector, has certified close to two dozen undergraduate student unions across the country. Undergraduate workers at UIC, who as public university employees filed for representation with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board instead of the NLRB, say they are seeking higher pay, additional time off and the removal of a one-year cap on raises. In addition to free housing and a meal plan, RAs make a stipend of $75 to $120 every two weeks, organizers said. That can work out to less than $2 per hour if RAs work the 20 hours they are contracted for, organizers said. 1 of UIC student workers from the Residence Hall Association office make protest signs on Jan. 29, 2025, for a rally. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Ellison Radek, a UIC junior and RA, said the demands of the job — RAs are responsible for anywhere between 30 and 80 first-year students, she said — often mean that housing staffers find themselves working more hours than they are contracted for. RAs are responsible for mediating disputes between first-year students who have never lived in dorms before, Radek said. They work overnight on-call shifts and respond to facilities issues in the residence halls. They monitor the dorms for alcohol and respond, in conjunction with campus police, to sometimes serious mental health incidents. One of the changes RAs hope to win in a contract, Radek said, is an on-call counselor who will come to the dorms in the case of mental health emergencies. 'There's also such a huge emotional and mental toll that this job takes on you that doesn't seem to really be respected or understood by our supervisors,' Radek said in an interview with the Tribune. On Thursday, dozens of the undergraduate housing student workers rallied outside a lecture hall on the university's campus. There, they presented members of the administration with a request for voluntary recognition of their union, said Evan McKenzie, an organizer with OPEIU. In a statement, university spokesperson Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez said UIC had not received the students' union petition but would 'carefully review any potential petition received.' 'The University of Illinois Chicago is committed to fostering a positive and collaborative environment where student employees feel valued, heard and supported,' she said. 'Regardless of the outcome, we remain dedicated to the well-being and success of our workforce while continuing to prioritize the needs of our students.' OPEIU represents undergraduate student workers at a number of private colleges and universities, including Swarthmore, Georgetown and Smith. In the public sector, the union has sought to represent undergraduate workers at Temple University, a public university in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board initially dismissed the students' petition and the case is now awaiting a hearing, McKenzie said. None of the private sector undergraduate unions formed since 2022 were in Illinois, according to the NLRB. But in 2017, student library workers at the University of Chicago voted to unionize with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. According to reporting by the Chicago Maroon, the student library union, which fought for recognition all the way up to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, included both graduate and undergraduate student workers. 'This would be exceptional,' Bob Bruno, director of the labor studies program at University of Illinois, said of the UIC students' union campaign. At UIC, graduate students and faculty members are unionized with the Illinois Federation of Teachers. It's possible the university will attempt to challenge the undergraduates' right to organize, Bruno said. Under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, 'student' is one of the groups excepted from the definition of an 'educational employee.' (Graduate students performing research and teaching duties are considered educational employees, however.) But Bruno said he thinks the undergraduate student workers should still be considered employees under the act, despite the fact that they are also students. 'They're clearly employed,' he said. 'The university pays them. They report hours, they perform work.' The petition could also potentially set up a test of the state's Workers Rights Amendment, which Illinois residents passed by referendum in 2022 and which enshrines the right to unionize and collectively bargain in the state's constitution. Bruno said he thinks the still-untested amendment would protect the undergraduates' right to unionize, even if the state's Educational Labor Relations Board were to disagree. 'We are talking about workers,' McKenzie said. 'They happen to also be students at the university, but 100%, full stop, these are workers and they deserve the right to unionize just like any other worker in Chicago.' In the private sector, undergraduate student unions have garnered widespread support on campus in recent years, with most union elections passing by wide margins. William A. Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College in New York, said the surge in undergraduate student organizing, which follows a similar mass movement amongst graduate students, represents a 'sea change' in the understanding of the role of labor both on campus and off, particularly among young people. Herbert characterized undergraduates union campaigns as part and parcel with the surge in union organizing among young people off campus, including in high-profile campaigns such as at Starbucks. 'It's a generational shift,' Herbert said. The swell of private sector undergraduate unions was made possible in large part because of a 2016 labor board decision that found both graduate and undergraduate student workers were university employees and therefore eligible to organize, Herbert said. During the first Trump administration, many student worker unions held off on filing new election petitions, with some — including University of Chicago graduate students — withdrawing active petitions because they feared providing a Republican-controlled labor board an opportunity to overturn the precedent established during the Obama years. But during the Biden years, more than 53,000 graduate and undergraduate student workers in the private sector joined unions, according to the labor board. Now, experts say a Republican labor board may attempt to curtail the right of private sector student workers to organize again. During the first days of his presidency, Trump, as expected, fired the labor board's progressive Biden-appointed general counsel. He also fired one of the Democratic members of the board, Gwynne Wilcox, in an unprecedented move Wilcox described as 'illegal' and which she said she would challenge legally. Since the November election, at least three undergraduate student union campaigns have withdrawn petitions with the NLRB. Those include undergraduate basketball players at Dartmouth, who voted to unionize last spring. The petition withdrawals in the private sector represent a strategic decision unions are making, once again, to avoid providing a new NLRB majority an opportunity to overturn the 2016 case law, Herbert said. But at UIC, the uncertain future of federal labor law won't affect the undergraduates' campaign. 'We're very lucky to be in Illinois,' Radek said, 'where we have such strong labor laws.'
