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February, 2012
Growing up in Mexico and then Mesa, Ariz. with a mother who worked long hours, Jose Castro started writing out of loneliness. Soon he was rapping, and after turning 18 he moved to Las Vegas to try to make it big.Several years ago he felt like he was close— performing at the House of Blues and other big venues, working with producers and musicians with major label connections. Like many well...
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February, 2012
On a cold November evening, the strip of 75th Street in Englewood felt bleak and deserted, lined by boarded-up and dilapidated buildings. Outside a liquor store, young men appeared hyper-aware—on the lookout for conflict or danger. But the atmosphere inside a corner storefront across the street was completely different, filled with warmth and energy as South Side residents crowd the...
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February, 2012
"It wasn’t easy trying to survive a bullet to the chin,” rapped Ondelee Perteet, 17, to the tune of Lil Wayne beats played off his smartphone on Nov. 5.Ondelee was shot in the face at a birthday party at his older sister’s West Side apartment during Labor Day weekend in 2009—leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. His wide, sparkling smile is unaffected by the puckered scar on the right side of...
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January, 2010
At National Railway Equipment Company in south suburban Dixmoor, an old yellow locomotive wheezes into action. The noise makes conversation nearly impossible, and thick plumes of diesel exhaust permeate the air. Thousands of locomotives like this pull millions of tons of freight across the country each day, and in the process cause thousands of premature deaths and myriad other health problems,...
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January, 2010
Air pollution might be the last thing on busy commuters' minds as they wait for trains to pull into Union Station. But inside Union Station, on the platform and even inside the train, people are exposed to particulate matter at levels far exceeding what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe, according to testing done by the Clean Air Task Force commissioned by Respiratory Health...
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January, 2010
Una vigorizante tarde de noviembre, un juego informal de basquetbol y softbol están en marcha en Hawthorne Community Park en Cicero. Cerca, una niña joven juega en un jardín, persiguiendo a un Border Collie con un rastrillo de plástico. Los sonidos de risa y deportes son subrayados por un ruido sordo constante, marcado por pitos fuertes y jadeos mecánicos. Estos son los sonidos de Cicero...
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January, 2010
Download a briefing sheet of this issue [PDF] On a crisp late afternoon in November, pickup basketball and a softball game are going strong in Cicero's Hawthorne Community Park. Nearby, a young girl plays in a yard, chasing a border collie with a plastic rake. The sounds of laughter and sports are underscored by a steady rumble, punctuated by loud honks and mechanical gasps. These are the...
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October, 2008
When businessman and environmentalist Tom Casten sees the Fisk and Crawford coal-burning plants spewing their emissions above Chicago, he gets angry. Not only because of the public health effects of the emissions, but because he knows there is a much better way to generate electricity for Chicago.
Casten wants businesses, legislators and the general public to see the value of recycling waste...
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October, 2008
This is the third installment in a three-part series for Chicago Matters: Growing Forward.
This year's Chicago Matters--the award-winning multimedia public affairs series made possible by The Chicago Community Trust with programming from WTTW 11, Chicago Public Radio, the Chicago Public Library, and The Chicago Reporter--will examine how the choices we make today impact our environment and...
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