Podcast appearances and mentions of claudia morell

A team of WBEZ reporters spent a day embedded on the West Side where migrants are in a holding pattern, staying in the 12th District police station, a tent city or a nearby shelter. The result is a look into a slice of the migrant experience, and the network of Chicagoans who have stepped up to help them. Reset talks to WBEZ reporters Kristen Schorsch, Mariah Woelfel, and Claudia Morell. We also check in with Erika Villegas, a volunteer helping migrants at the 8th District police station, and Sonia Lopez, employee of New Life Centers.

City Council members have a lot of meetings. But how many of the full council, committee, and subcommittee meetings do they actually attend? WBEZ, The Daily Line, and Crain's Chicago Business analyzed records from 526 meetings between May 2019 and December 2021, charting our alders' attendance. The highest attendance rate was 93%, and the lowest was 54%. Guess which of those rates belonged to freshman alders and which were from Council veterans. WBEZ's Claudia Morell and The Daily Line's Erin Hegarty break down the numbers with City Cast Chicago Host Jacoby Cochran and discuss if they will have any impact on next year's election cycle. Here's where you can check your alder's score. Follow us on Twitter: @CityCastChicago Sign up for our newsletter: chicago.citycast.fm Call or Text Us: (773) 780-0246 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if you skipped half the meetings you were supposed to attend for work? A third? A quarter? Could you still be effective? Would you still know everything you needed to do your job well? To earn your full paycheck? That's what you should ask of your elected representatives, too. On this week's show, we're digging into an investigation that Crain's, WBEZ and The Daily Line published this week about how often members of Chicago City Council show up. There's good news: aldermanic attendance improved since the last term that ended in 2019. Back then, the average alderman attended only 65 percent of all the meetings they were supposed to – that includes committee meetings where the real sausage-making happens, and the full City Council, where things get final approval. This time, the average alderman attended just over 80 percent of required meetings. That's a big jump, but still represents hundreds of absences. And the lowest-ranking alderfolks – including one under indictment and two running for higher office – showed up less than 60% of the time. Along with reporters Erin Hegarty and Alex Nitkin of the Daily Line and WBEZ's Claudia Morell, A.D. Quig sorted through nearly 11,000 records from May of 2019 through the end of 2021 to get you these answers. On this show, we take you behind the scenes of our reporting process. We wrote three stories for this analysis: one breaking down the numbers, where you can look up how you're alderman did; another about whether virtual meetings are here to stay – and the drawbacks to it; and a third about what we called do-nothing committees, ones with big budgets and important mandates, but that meet rarely. We break down what our findings say about how Council works… and doesn't. You can read all three stories, for free, at chicagobusiness.com, wbez.org and thedailyline.com. We all want to hear from you, too. How does this change your opinion about your alderman or alderwoman? What else do you want to know? We're here to listen and eager to report more. Until then, let's get to it. Here's A.D.'s conversation with The Daily Line's Alex Nitkin and Erin Hegarty and WBEZ's Claudia Morell.

For months, The Daily Line has been teaming up with WBEZ and Crain's Chicago Business to calculate how often all 50 aldermen have been absent from meetings of their assigned City Council committee meetings between May 2019 and December 2021. The resulting project, published on Monday, includes a deep dive into how the results break down, what they mean for the way the council conducts business, and what it says about power (and the lack thereof) in the City Council. In this cross-over episode with the AD Q&A podcast, Crain's reporter A.D. Quig talks to Alex Nitkin and Erin Hegarty of The Daily Line and Claudia Morell of WBEZ about what this investigation tells us about Chicago government in 2022.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot campaigned on bringing civilian oversight to the Chicago Police Department in her first 100 days. On Monday, she announced a deal with a coalition of community groups seeking police reform. Reset hears from a grassroots activist, an alderman on the City Council's Public Safety Committee and WBEZ city politics reporter Claudia Morell.

Little-known fact: in Chicago, you don’t need to be an elected official to propose legislation to City Council. But does this process really work? Has anyone ever done it? WBEZ city politics reporter Claudia Morell investigates. Along the way she speaks to a former governor and a cab driver who have tested it out for themselves.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday added Wisconsin, Nebraska, Missouri and North Dakota to the city’s quarantine list of nearly two dozen states with rising coronavirus cases. Reset checks in with WBEZ’s Claudia Morell for the details.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot blocks a six-month delay on recreational weed sales starting Jan.1. Cook County Board proposes a 3% pot tax. Plus Gov. JB Pritzker signs a pension consolidation bill,Reset breaks down these stories and more in WBEZ’s Chicago and Illinois News Roundup.GUESTS: A.D. Quig, government and politics reporter at Crain’s Chicago BusinessClaudia Morell, WBEZ City Hall reporterLolly Bowean, Chicago Tribune reporter

WBEZ city politics reporter Claudia Morell joined Reset with details from Chicago City Hall directly after the City Council voted to pass the Mayor's budget.

Heather Cherone of the Daily Line, John Byrne of the Chicago Tribune, and WBEZ’s Claudia Morell talk about the mayor’s budget address, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and much more on our Friday News Roundup.

What the heck just happened, Chicago? Lori Lightfoot won the mayor’s race by a gargantuan margin. City Council veterans got the boot. Here’s what Tuesday’s results might mean for the future of the city.Reporting by Becky Vevea, Claudia Morell and Dan Mihalopoulos. Editing by Al Keefe. Production by Justin Bull and Becky Vevea.Each week at On Background, WBEZ’s team of political reporters brings you the backstory on the week's big story. Host Becky Vevea and guests take you inside the back rooms of Chicago and Illinois government to better understand the people, places and forces shaping today’s politics.

Lori Lightfoot was catapulted into the spotlight in the fallout from Laquan McDonald’s murder. But before that, she was hardly a household name in Chicago. WBEZ’s Claudia Morell zooms in on three pivotal moments in the life of the unlikely mayoral frontrunner — moments where she defined her circumstances, and moments where she was defined by them.

It was an election for the history books. With no incumbent on the ballot and 14 candidates for mayor, just a third of all registered voters in Chicago cast ballots this week and the results are in. WBEZ’s Becky Vevea, Dan Mihalopoulos, Claudia Morell break down what it all means for the city and what’s next.

Federal authorities have charged Chicago’s longest-serving alderman with a single count of attempted extortion. The charge comes a month after the FBI raided Ald. Edward Burke’s City Hall and neighborhood offices. The WBEZ politics team takes a closer look at what the feds say Burke did and what it all means for Chicago politics. Reporting for this episode comes from Dan Mihalopoulos, Kristen Schorsch, Claudia Morell, Alex Keefe, and Becky Vevea. Editing by Alex Keefe. Production by Justin Bull. Each week at On Background, WBEZ’s team of political reporters brings you the backstory on the week's big story. Host Becky Vevea and guests take you inside the back rooms of Chicago and Illinois government to better understand the people, places and forces shaping today’s politics.

This week, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel put forward a road map for his successor to fix the city’s beleaguered pensions. The directions include: legalizing pot, opening a casino in Chicago, borrowing money, and changing the state constitution. WBEZ’s Al Keefe, Claudia Morell and host Becky Vevea explain what pensions are, how Chicago’s pensions got so messed up, why the solutions are so difficult, and why you should give a s*** about it right now. Editing by Al Keefe. Production by Justin Bull. Each week at On Background, WBEZ’s team of political reporters brings you the backstory on the week's big story. Host Becky Vevea and guests take you inside the back rooms of Chicago and Illinois government to better understand the people, places and forces shaping today’s politics.

There’s been a lot of talk of who will control Congress and which governor will run the state of Illinois for the next four years, but there are dozens of other races on your November ballot. Every statewide office (besides Illinois' two U.S. senators) is up for a vote. Many county seats are too. And the people in those jobs will be spending your money and making laws about your life. So in this episode, we’re going to tell you everything you need to know about some of the other important races on the ballot — all in the time it takes for our producer, Justin Bull, to drink a cup of coffee. Reporting in this week's episode came from Claudia Morell, Michael Puente, Kristen Schorsch, Carrie Shepherd, and Mariah Woelfel. Justin Bull provided production assistance.Each week at On Background, WBEZ’s team of political reporters brings you the backstory on the week's big story. Host Becky Vevea and guests take you inside the back rooms of Chicago and Illinois government to better understand the people, places and forces shaping today’s politics.

Chicago has elected a number of Latinos into political office, including aldermen, county commissioners, state representatives, and members of Congress. But the city has never had a Latino mayor. Could 2019 be the year? Host Becky Vevea interviews Victor Reyes, a top member of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration and leader of the now defunct Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO). And WBEZ’s Claudia Morell explains why a Chicago electorate split into nearly even thirds has yet to produce a Latino mayor. Plus, a look at the possible candidates ahead of the February mayoral election. Each week at On Background, WBEZ’s team of political reporters brings you the backstory on the week's big story. Host Becky Vevea and guests take you inside the back rooms of Chicago and Illinois government to better understand the people, places and forces shaping today’s politics.

The week started with a bombshell announcement from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. On Tuesday, joined by his wife Amy Rule, the two-term mayor announced he will not seek a third term in February. In this episode you’ll hear a one-on-one interview with Emanuel and WBEZ City Politics reporter Becky Vevea. They talk about his biggest regrets, where he’s headed, and what it was like holding the seat once held for nearly half a century by the Daleys.  What brought us to this game-changing moment in political history? WBEZ investigative reporter Dan Mihalopoulos explains the context: how Emanuel went from the chosen successor of the Daley dynasty in 2011 to the first mayoral candidate to be pushed into a runoff in 2015. From Laquan McDonald and police reform, to broke pension funds and record tax hikes, he explains how Emanuel would have had the hardest election of his life.  City political reporter Claudia Morell digs into the history of what it takes to win a mayoral race in Chicago.  Each week at On Background, WBEZ’s team of political reporters brings you the backstory on the week's big story. Host Becky Vevea and guests take you inside the back rooms of Chicago and Illinois government to better understand the people, places and forces shaping today’s politics.

Ken Davis talks with the Daily Line’s Claudia Morell about two mayoral programs intended to help local businesses. But there’s little public accountability for the programs, and in one case, a loosely associated package of tax incentives intended as a way to attract and retain jobs in Chicago has resulted in more than 90 million in tax savings for developers with only a few thousand jobs as a result. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

There are a lot of opinions about the news media, the future of broadcast journalism and what constitutes professional reporting. On this week’s Fordham Conversations we explore these questions and more by listening to past interviews from former hosts. Fordham Professor Dr. Bill Baker talks with Mary Wilson on how to save the ailing print industry. Then, News legend Sam Donaldson talks with WFUV’s Claudia Morell about citizen journalism and its questionable influence on the new industry. Finally, WFUV’s Lauren Naymie talks to Fordham Alumni Lynn Neary about how she got her start in radio.

WFUV’s Claudia Morell talks with ABC News veteran Sam Donaldson. He was awarded the WFUV Charles Osgood Lifetime Achievement Award in Broadcast Journalism for 2013. Donaldson is known best for his time as ABC’s White House Correspondent for Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Clinton. Donaldson also covered numerous historical events such as the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iran-Contra Affair, and President Clinton’s impeachment. He’s anchored several shows, including World News Sunday and Primetime Live with Diane Sawyer. Donaldson wrote a book about his early career and time covering the White House called “Hold On, Mr. President!” where he defends and explains what some have called an aggressive style of reporting. During the interview Donaldson discusses his time in Washington, and examines how news has evolved with the rise of Internet and the 24-hour-news cycle.