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Where was Rep. Aaron Schock at 25?

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:45:00 -0500

At 31, (soon-to-turn 32 in late May), Congressman Aaron Schock is the youngest participant of the Year 25 series.

It’s a designation he’s pretty used to. He was once the youngest Illinois state representative and school board president—at the same time.

At 25, Schock lived in an old house that was supposed to be condemned by the city of Peoria, Illinois.

But Schock bought it and flipped it himself when he finished college.

He was also a few years into his stint as an Illinois state rep, but that was only a part-time gig. Most of his days were spent in the private sector, working in real estate.

Schock says he had no idea as a 25-year-old that he’d live most of his days in Washington as a federal lawmaker. But as he told WBEZ’s Lauren Chooljian, he’s pleased with how things have turned out so far.

Lauren Chooljian is’ WBEZ’s Morning Producer/Reporter. Follow her @laurenchooljian.

More from this series

Dan Savage | Sen. Dick Durbin | Rick Bayless

CPS limits coverage from closing schools

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:03:00 -0500

On Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Education will decide whether to close 54 schools it says are failing or underutilized.

Since the recommended list of closures was announced in March, the city has been in a heated debate about whether some schools should be taken off the list. Media access to these buildings has been almost impossible, and some worry decisions will be made without a thorough inspection.

Arturs Weible is a music teacher at Lafayette Elementary School in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. He directs the only string orchestra at a CPS elementary school.

“We have 85 kids participating in the program. And these kids have higher expectations to keep their grades up. They have to keep their behavior in order,” he said. “And so these kids are basically doing above and beyond pretty much anything that’s being asked of an elementary school child.”

Lafayette is slated to close because CPS considers it an underutilized building. Weible disagrees, and says all parts of the building are in use, but maybe not at all times of the day.

He says he wants the public to see the school before a decision is made.

“To not allow media coverage within school hours is not fair to these parents. They don’t have a voice otherwise. The media is the voice of the community,” he said.

Before CPS CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett announced the closings list, Weible said journalists got into Lafayette easily. Now, it’s like a black out with the exception of heavily restricted visits.

The district said since late March, every media outlet has had access to a proposed closing school and/or receiving school.

CPS says with less than a week until the board vote, it’s denying media access to the closing schools because it would be too disruptive. But a number of news organizations including WBEZ and Catalyst magazine say they’ve been denied access to closing schools since the list was made public.

Some reporters have successfully entered closing schools through other means.

“I was invited to come to Garvey by a parent,” said Kate Grossman, deputy editorial page editor for the Chicago Sun-Times.

She toured Garvey Elementary on the city’s South Side earlier this spring. It’s another school proposed to be closed because of underutilization.

She said there are numbers to back up CPS’s closing recommendations, but there’s also the reality of what’s happening inside.

“You can see that by going to these schools and seeing that they have quite a lot to offer kids even though on paper they’re underused,” she said. “So I think it’s a crucial part of the decision making when you’re deciding to close a school and consolidate it with another to know what you might be losing.”

Grossman said her visit to Garvey was very different from when she was invited by CPS to tour a receiving school with CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett.

“It was lots of people, and you can’t really do a lot of in-depth reporting when you’re following a school CEO around. And the principal might not be comfortable speaking her mind,” she said.

A student at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism also tried to gain access to schools without permission. CPS threatened to sever ties with Medill if it happened again.

Professor Marcel Pacatte agreed the student was wrong, but said the district’s response was extreme.

“A student was told yesterday there would be no more audio recording at closing schools. So that’s a fairly draconian issue,” he said.

Pacatte said now he’s making sure students are going through the proper channels to ensure Medill can continue covering the schools.

“I get where they’re coming from but I still don’t understand how they think it’s beneficial for the citizens of Chicago or the students in the schools of the district in the city itself to prevent stories from being told,” he said.

Media restrictions aren’t uncommon for urban school districts.

But Emily Richmond with the National Education Writers Association says too many restrictions can force reporters to find another way into the schools.

“There’s really no substitute for being able to just step back and watch what’s happening around you and have that first hand observation. And who knows what stories they would find in there,” she said.

Richmond says with an historic number of schools that could be affected, news coverage needs to go beyond statistics and present a clearer view of what’s happening.

Susie An covers business for WBEZ. Follow her @soosieon.

A quiz before flying

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 05:00:00 -0500

This'll be the last post for the Meyerson WBEZ news blog. (At least for now. Life is long. Never say never. You know.)

Thanks to the talented WBEZ team for making me welcome in this space the last three months or so, and for tolerating my almost daily attempts to test the limits of the website production system.

And thanks to you for your comments, questions, suggestions and -- most of all -- for your attention.

As for what's next: Stay tuned.

The blogging continues at meyerson.blogspot.com.
Follow @Meyerson on Twitter.
Subscribe to updates here.

Comments or questions? Email Meyerson@gmail.com.

And, now, what better note on which to leave than a final news quiz?

ANNOUNCEMENTS.
* For help preparing this week's quiz, thanks to readers Phil Vettel, Joe Hass, Andrew Thackray, Patrick Heylin, Phil Marty, Steve Rozwalka, Jf Powalowski, Brent Zhorne and Jenna Brown Russell.
* Follow us on Twitter: @WBEZ and @Meyerson.
* Looking for previous WBEZ Meyerson news quizzes? Here you go.

Louder Than a Bomb 2013 Indy Finals

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:56:00 -0500

The 2013 Individual Poet Finals, took place Wednesday, March 6th at 7pm at Chicago Cultural Center's Preston Bradley Hall. The top individual poets in the city worked to earn a spot on the 2013 Louder Than a Bomb All-Star Team.

Indy Finalists:

Antoine Funches, Simeon Career Academy

Gerardo Duran, Little Village North Lawndale High School

Mariah Starks, Simeon Career Academy

Emma Coleman, Northside College Preparatory High School

Mia Harris, Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy

Jada-Amina Harvey, Kenwood Academy High School

Camara Brown, Oak Park and River Forest High School

Kyle Morshita, Maine West High School

Joseph Faragio, Parker School

Tanya Smith, Kuumba Lynx

Sejahari Villegas, Kuumba Lynx

Taylor Robinson, Phoenix Military Academy

The largest of its kind in the world, Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) is Chicago’s rapidly-growing teen poetry festival, which took place at various venues around Chicago beginning February 16 and continued through to the finals on March 9, 2013. Aiming to bring teens together across racial, gang, and socio-economic lines, LTAB is a friendly competition that emphasizes self-expression and community via poetry, oral story-telling, and hip-hop spoken word.

Louder Than a Bomb 2013 Semi-Finals

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:01:00 -0500

The Louder Than a Bomb 2013 Semi-Final bouts featured the top 12 individuals vying for a spot in the Indy Finals and the top 16 teams competed for a slot at Team Finals.

Competing Teams: Whitney Young High School, Little Village North Lawndale High School, Simeon Career Academy, Evanston Township High School

Individual Poets: Olivia Shine (Nicholas Senn High School), Dawn Smith (Bowen High School), Diana Sarfo (St. Ignatius College Prep), Amanda Villaronga (Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School)

Competing Teams: Homewood Flossmoor High School, Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, Kenwood Academy High School, Noble Street Charter High School

Individual Poets: Nora Engel-Hall (InVerse), Kayla Polo (Mather High School), Emma Coleman (Northside College Prep High School), Christian Rivera (Roberto Clemente Community Academy)

Competing Teams: Oak Park and River Forest High School, New Trier High School, Jones College Prep, Maine West High School, Francis W. Parker School

Individual Poets: Doktor Germz, Nathalie Irmer, Jasmine Jones

Competing Teams: Percy L. Julian High School, East Leyden High School, Phoenix Military Academy, Kuumba Lynx

Individual Poets: Jordan Hurst (Providence Saint Mel School), Michael Hargrove (Westinghouse College Prep), Charles Davis (Urban Prep-Bronzeville High School), Megan Vinson (Merrillville High School)

The largest of its kind in the world, Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) is Chicago’s rapidly-growing teen poetry festival, this year which took place at various venues around Chicago beginning February 16 through to the finals on March 9, 2013. Aiming to bring teens together across racial, gang, and socio-economic lines, LTAB is a friendly competition that emphasizes self-expression and community via poetry, oral story-telling, and hip-hop spoken word.

WBEZ responds to criticism that “Go Make Babies” ads leave LGBT people out

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 05:00:00 -0600

When WBEZ launched its new ad campaign, it knew it would push some buttons. As part of the station’s yearly member drive, WBEZ has been satirically urging listeners to “go make babies,” arguing that “interesting people make interesting people.” The idea is that WBEZ wants to get new listeners tomorrow, and the campaign saucily plays into that idea. Aimed at the “curious class” (the station’s pet name for its listenership), billboards and ads urge the WBEZ faithful to “do it…for Chicago.” Rick Kogan apparently just has an effect on people.

Although the station has never before delved into Jonathan Swift territory, it’s hardly the first tongue-in-cheek campaign from the local radio station. Last year’s summer fundraising campaign featured cat videos, having fun with the idea that cats are the superstars of the internet. The campaign’s tagline quipped, “Research shows that cat videos make people happy. Happy people donate.” One promotional video starred cats in wigs playing Terry Gross and Gene Simmons during a particularly tense interview, and others recreated segments with Bill O’Reilly and Kanye West as incorrigible felines.

However, while cats are politically neutral (although I imagine the dog lobby got barking mad), babies are different. The use of babies is inherently loaded, commenting on our national discourses on procreation, family planning and population control. In the past few weeks, the station has received concerned calls and emails from listeners who felt that the campaign promoted overpopulation and eugenics, and some were even concerned that the “Go Make Babies” message would inspire children to do the same.

According to Vanessa Harris, the Director of Marketing at Chicago Public Media, WBEZ anticipated some of these criticisms and assures people that the station doesn’t actually expect anyone to make children. It's about visibility, not babymaking. It's about people.

However, one criticism has been particularly close to her heart. In the weeks since the campaign launched, some LGBT Chicagoans have voiced their concerns that the campaign leaves them out of the discussion. After billboards began to pop up across the city, criticism of the ads quickly populated Facebook and social media feeds: What if we don't want kids? Do we have to be like straight people to be included? Is heteronomativity part of the deal? Others wondered whether their inability to make children makes them less valued as listeners. As someone who works for WBEZ, a friend of mine approached me to ask how she should respond to the ads. Not only does she identify as queer, but she and her partner might not be able to have children. She felt like the campaign was insensitive to her struggles with fertility.

The campaign’s heteronormativity gets more explicit when you log onto WBEZ’s new dating app, which you can access through GoMakeBabies.com. The app attempts to set you up with other “interesting” people in the Chicagoland area but assumes all its users are heterosexual. When I informed the app that I’m single and ready to mingle with a nice Chicago gentleman, it suggested some eligible straight men for me—even though our endless love might be bound to have a few, um, obstacles. The app thought I was a hetero lady. (Not that there’s anything wrong with hetero ladies.)

Last weekend, I sat down with Vanessa Harris at the Bourgeois Pig in Lincoln Park to discuss the campaign and address the LGBT community’s concerns about its rhetoric. I felt they had a right to feel marginalized, as the campaign potentially sends the wrong message, and that WBEZ had a responsibility to be accountable to that criticism. Harris said that she understood the concern and didn’t want any of the station’s viewers to feel excluded. Of all the concerns, Harris felt that this was the one that had the biggest potential to turn off a core group of the station’s viewership.

For Harris, this criticism is particularly relevant, as she made a decision fifteen years ago not to have children. However, to her, the campaign speaks to the idea of exposing a new generation to public radio. Harris stated that people are exposed to public radio in one of two ways. Either they were exposed to it in college, by a friend or a classmate, or they grew up on it. I’m a prime example of the latter, as my mother would listen to A Prairie Home Companion on the weekends when I was young, and I finally understood what Garrison Keillor was talking about when I got older.

Although Harris doesn’t plan on having children, she fully expects to help raise her sister’s children and “make them awesome.” She felt it was a part of our intergenerational exchange: “As an adult, you just want to seek children out and expose them to things.”

As an older brother, I understand the sentiment, and sometimes I feel like Zooey Deschanel in Almost Famous, passing down my wayward rock-and-roll records. (A recent mix included Beach House and Vampire Weekend.) The last time I visited home, I was determined to make my tween-aged brothers into Joss Whedon fans. Getting them to like Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog is one of the prouder moments of my life, although we’re still working on Buffy. They’ll come around eventually.

Harris and WBEZ want to pass public radio down to a new generation of young people, who often don’t surf the radio in traditional ways. For WBEZ, the problem becomes: “How do you stumble across public radio?” According to Harris, WBEZ has to “tell people we exist.” “We want everybody to give public radio a try,” Harris said. “People see millions of advertisements a day. Only one is going to stick with them. We wanted to do something to break through and reach people.”

According to Harris, society is changing, and LGBT people and same-gender families are a huge part of that. Examples like the TV program Modern Family show that people find themselves in families in “so many different ways,” whether that’s adoption or otherwise. There is no one way to have a family, whether that’s the one you’re born into or the one you choose.

The station hopes to further reach out to Chicago’s LGBT community through advertisements specifically oriented to a queer audience, which were meant to be released shortly after the start of the campaign. Forthcoming print and digital ads will ask queer listeners: “You know who loves rainbows? Infants.” They will be released in local LGBT publications like Windy City Times. According to Harris, the only reason WBEZ didn’t push them sooner was because the station didn’t want the ads to come out of nowhere, instead having them build on the preexisting campaign. Without context, the ads wouldn’t make sense.

When I asked her what she would say to that LGBT listeners who might have felt left out, she put it simply: “I’m sorry. I wish I could hug each and every one of you. We are completely dedicated to you as an audience. We’re in this together.”

If you would like to hear more bad animal puns, follow Nico on Facebook or on Twitter @Nico_Lang.

Why is it so hard to expunge juvenile records in Cook County?

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Thousands of kids get arrested each year at school in Chicago, and that might not be news to you.

But what might be surprising are what can be long-term consequences of juvenile arrests, even for comparatively minor offenses.

And how hard it can be for a young person to get out from under an early and damaging mistake.

We talked with one young woman about just such a story.

We’re calling her Laura to protect her privacy. Laura’s mom is a respiratory therapist, and a single parent. After she immigrated to this country she attended nursing school, but wasn’t able to finish. When Laura was 12, she’d help her mom study and she remembers that the material was “really rigorous, like really tough.”

At the same time it was super interesting to her. Laura says she knew even then, that her profession would involve working with people. And by the time she was 21, she’d passed her board exams to become a registered nurse. Now she was just waiting for that envelope.

“So we got the letter and we were just so excited. It was like. Okay. We got the license! We got the license!” she recalls.

Turns out, it wasn’t a license. It was a letter. From the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

“So I was reading the letter and basically it said that I was prohibited, like it was in bold – prohibited from practice. And I’m like, whaaat?”

The letter gave a date when Laura was in elementary school. A date when she’d been charged with battery and bodily harm. Laura’s thinking, nooo. But then she had a dim recollection from way back in 8^th grade.

“And basically we were fighting, police were around the corner,” she says. “They came and picked us up. They didn’t even put us in handcuffs, they just put us in the car, took us to the police station and had us cool off in different rooms. And we got our fingerprints done.”

Laura had what’s called an informal “station adjustment,” informal because there was no admission of guilt. The incident is resolved right there. It isn’t referred to the state’s attorney’s office, the young person doesn’t even go to court.

But what Laura didn’t understand at the time, and her mother apparently didn’t understand, is that when she left that station, Laura had an arrest record.

Eugene Roy, commander of youth investigations for the Chicago Police Department, isn’t surprised: “Absolutely. If somebody is arrested - there is an arrest record.”

He says if the child is older than 10 years of age and the offense is either a Class A or Class B misdemeanor, that child is photographed and fingerprinted.

To get that license to become a registered nurse Laura had to first have fingerprints taken for a criminal background check. That’s where things got sticky. The FBI notified the licensing board in Illinois of Laura’s early arrest, something Laura says she “just never expected to happen.”

Laura was arrested in ‘04. By 2010 the law in Illinois had changed. Since then juvenile records are no longer sent from the state police to the FBI, which is the agency that dispenses information for criminal background checks.

However. Here’s the problem: About ten years earlier a different state law permitted local police departments to send juvenile arrest data to the Illinois State Police—and they routinely forwarded it to the FBI.

In that decade, well over 170, 000 young people, 17 and under, were arrested in Cook County at least one time. It’s anybody’s guess how many of those records were forwarded to the Illinois State Police and ultimately the FBI.

Just like Laura, all those young people have been exposed to the possibility that a long-ago record could suddenly pop up in their lives. In a very negative way.

Mariame Kaba is the head of Project NIA, a grassroots group that works to reduce youth incarceration. “I mean this to me is infuriating. And it’s wrong. And it’s unfair,” she says.

Kaba’s a friend of Laura’s, and is the person Laura called when she first got that letter and panicked. Together, they gathered certified court documents and statements to answer the licensing agency’s questions about the circumstances of Laura’s arrest.

They made their case and today Laura is working as a nurse at a hospital right here in Chicago.

Just to be sure this doesn’t happen again, they also expunged-- or cleared -- Laura’s record.

“I don’t know many 20 year olds or 21 year olds who are going to be able to navigate this process on their own. The process is very difficult,” Kaba says.

The first step is to retrieve the arrest history report from the agency that made the arrest in the first place, though she adds: “But the police. Like, that’s like a big entity. And many young people are fearful of the police.”

And retrieving the arrest report is just the beginning.

Then you have to figure out the right court forms to fill out and file a petition to expunge.

Then get the forms to the Clerk of the Court’s office.

Then wait. And maybe have a hearing.

Then if expungement is granted, pay $124 for every arrest. If you do it all correctly, the whole process can take two to three months.

It upsets Kaba that people have to go through this.

“This tells you something about what we mean when we talk about the “school to prison pipeline,” she says. “The fact that schools are calling the police on young people, arresting them directly from school. Those young people go to the precinct. The precinct says: ‘It’s not a big deal.’ And that is the record that is following her now? What are we doing? We’re actually making it much harder for those young people to be productive citizens later on.”

So what’s the solution?

Kaba says, “The short version is, first and foremost, you should be able to expunge your record immediately. Okay, so you get arrested and nothing happens after that – you have a mere arrest? You should be able to expunge at any point in your juvenile career.”

The way the law is now, even for an arrest with no conviction, a kid has to wait until 17 to try to clear a record.

If it’s a more serious arrest where a judge declares a kid “delinquent” a young person usually has to wait until turning 21, or beyond, before a record can be expunged.

Here’s an interesting statistic: About 40 percent of all youth arrested in Cook County never get sent to court. The kid was never charged, never stood before a judge –Kaba wants automatic expungement of those kind of arrests as soon as young people turn 18.

“We’re willing to accept that if you had a conviction then you’d have to go through the regular process of doing an expungement. Fine. But for a mere arrest? Get rid of that.”

Meanwhile, you’d think there’d be an awful lot of people lined up to expunge their juvenile records.

But, as it turns out, the juvenile expungement numbers around here are grim.

In 2011, almost 17,000 juveniles got arrested in Cook County. Just about enough to fill the Allstate arena in Rosemont. And because some kids get arrested multiple times, the number of arrests was more like 30,000.

So! Thirty thousand juvenile arrests. Guess how many juvenile expungements ? Wrong. Guess again. No. The actual number? 67.

2012 wasn’t much better: Over 25,000 juvenile arrests in Cook County . The number of juvenile expungements last year? 70.

Why so few?

Cost is part of it. And the hassle of gathering records. But also, people who follow this tell us, the process is so complicated, so daunting -- people start, but never make it to the finish line.

Kaba’s group and others drafted legislation about a year ago to make it easier for a young person to expunge his record if he’s been arrested, but hasn’t been convicted.

The chief opponent was the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. The bill died in a Senate committee last spring.

WBEZ wanted to ask the State’s Attorney’s office about their views on juvenile expungement. But a spokesman declined, saying that if a specific expungement proposal makes its way through the legislature in the future, they’d reconsider talking with us.

Cook County Juvenile Arrests and Expungements

Sources: Office of the State Appellate Defender and Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County*

Broken down by year, this chart shows the number of juvenile arrests in Cook County, the number of expungements (see definition here) requested for juvenile records and the number of expungements granted.

Note 1: Expungements are recorded in the year that they are granted, not the year of the offense.
Note 2: As of Jan 1, 2010, 17 year olds in Illinois arrested for misdemeanor offenses are considered juveniles, not adults
Note 3: For an explanation of which juvenile records are eligible for expungement, see website of the Office of the State Appellate Defender.

*General Data Dissemination Disclaimer by Clerk of Circuit Court: The information provided is a custom produced summary of the electronic court record that is maintained by the Clerk of the Circuit Court for internal and administrative purposes, from the paper documents with an understanding that the information is true and correct in as far as all aspects of the documents physically filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court. The official court records are held and maintained in the hard copy paper files in the courthouse or other official Clerk’s repositories. The Clerk diligently strives to maintain accurate, complete and timely data in its electronic databases but shall not be liable for any consequential, exemplary, incidental or special damages arising from or in connection with data or information produced in response to the request for custom programming. However, because of the many variables involved in producing customized electronic data reports, users should not cite the provided information as an official or authoritative source and are advised to independently verify all information. All Users are advised to independently verify any information or data obtained with official court information reposing in the court files (i.e., pleadings, orders, half sheets, file jackets and the contents thereof, etc.).

Hackers hit government site, threaten 'chaos'

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Four things (plus!) for Monday, Chicago:

'THIS TIME THERE WILL BE CHANGE, OR THERE WILL BE CHAOS.' That's been the warning from the "hacktivist" group Anonymous over the weekend, as it took control of the U.S. Sentencing Commission website -- not once but twice, the second time turning it into a version of the old arcade game "Asteroids" -- to protest what it calls a "twisted and distorted perversion of justice," which it blames for the suicide of Chicago-born Internet activist Aaron Swartz.
* New rule outlawing smartphones' unlocking (so they can be used on other carriers) is "The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far)" -- The Atlantic.
* Facebook could kill the phone as we know it -- GigaOM.

'PUBLIC BROADCASTING FINALLY SACKS UP AND HIRES A REAL MAN WHO WILL TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT OBAMA.' Wonkette examines a controversial hire by Georgia Public Broadcasting.
* In one interview, Obama says he might not let his son (if he had one) play football.
* And in another, he and Hilary Clinton get along "like an old and happily married couple."

'PEOPLE ARE PISSED OFF.' An insider says CNET staffers aren't swallowing parent company CBS' decision to ban coverage of products targeted for legal action by CBS.
* New WBEZ ad campaign urges listeners to "Make Babies" -- for the "2032 Membership Drive."
* Nice emails sent by the moms of the reporters who cracked the Manti Te'o story.
* Departing New York Times editor takes 75,000 Twitter followers with him.

YOU'LL GET A CHARGE ... A legal settlement between credit card companies and merchants means that, as of yesterday, sellers are free to tack up to 4 percent extra onto your purchase price if you choose not to pay with cash.

ANNOUNCEMENTS.
* See that Comments space below? It's waiting for you to weigh in. What about those Anonymous guys? Are they heroes, or just vandals? Should the president get busy and have a son? Should he let him play football? Wouldn't it be nice to see a young Barack Obama Jr. ante up for WBEZ's 2032 Membership Drive?
* Get the latest from WBEZ by email. Sign up here.
* Soundtrack for preparation of this issue: WBEZ's 2001 interview with Aaron Swartz, then a visionary 14-year-old.

'Morning Shift': #80 The legislative session goes on

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:37:00 -0600

The Steve Edwards Interview

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 05:00:00 -0500

I was very sad to learn that today's interviewee would be leaving WBEZ. Steve Edwards was the first person to ever interview me at the station. His good nature and professionalism made me, and I'm sure many others, feel comfortable on-air. After over a dozen years with the station and a stint as the host of The Afternoon Shift, last week Edwards took his leave to work at the University of Chicago's new Institute of Politics.

Edwards’ reports and interviews have been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Chicago Headline Club, the RTNDA, the Associated Press, UPI and Public Radio News Directors, Inc., and he earned a National Headliner Club's Grand Award for radio.

I got a little help from Steve's former colleagues, who will miss him, for some of the "deep cut" questions.

Your new job sounds very professional but a little confusing to the sleep-deprived. What will you be doing there, in layman’s terms?
Well, the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics is modeled after a similar institute at Harvard, which was established in honor of President John F. Kennedy to “promote greater understanding and cooperation between the academic world and the worlds of politics and public affairs.” As Deputy Director, Programming, I’ll help create public programming across multiple platforms; opportunities for students to become engaged in politics and public service; and a program for visiting fellows – elected officials, journalists, policy-makers, and the like – to come to Chicago for an academic term to interact with students, faculty and the public around the important issues of our time.

As a listener and a guest I’ve always enjoyed how professional and prepared you are on-air. That said, can you describe a moment or two when you found yourself completely caught off-guard on-air?
There are too many to count, but the one that comes most immediately to mind happened on my very last episode of The Afternoon Shift. Usually, my colleague, Melba Lara, tosses back to me between the 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. hours by saying “Hour two of The Afternoon Shift is just ahead. Steve, what’s coming up?” And then I tell her. At least that’s the idea. And the thing is, because we’re in separate studios, Melba and I can’t see each other. So, you have to trust that the other person is actually there – and paying attention – which I wasn’t on this day. I’d absent-mindedly stepped out of the studio to introduce myself to filmmaker Andy Wachowski before our upcoming interview, so when Melba asked me what’s coming up next…there was dead silence on-air. Our director/producer Jason Marck then jumped in to save the day, joking that I’d had enough and decided to quit on the spot. And I came racing back, out of breath, and blurted something incomprehensible.

What accomplishments are you proudest of as a journalist?
Most of all, I hope I’ve been able to share a few stories and conversations that have deepened our understanding of the world around us, and, as poet Sonia Sanchez put it so well during a recent interview, our understanding of what it means to be human. Then again, a longtime colleague did tell me recently that she thought the single best moment in my career was the WBEZ pledge drive video where I jumped in the lake, fully clothed.

What tips do you have for other hosts and journalists on how to quickly prepare for an interview?
Ask short, focused questions. And listen relentlessly.

As a journalist, what do you like best about Chicago politics?
The fact that it closely resembles a dastardly family melodrama.

As a resident, what do you like least about it?
The fact that it too often serves self-interests rather than the public interest.

Aside from NPR, what radio stations/podcasts do you most enjoy listening to?
I’m an omnivore when it comes to audio. I listen to all the AM talk stations, sports radio, WFMT, WDCB, XRT, B96 and V103. I’m a huge fan of the shows Tonic and The Signal on CBC Radio 2 and podcasts like WTF and Love & Radio, among others. I also love late night college radio, where you can often find some great extended DJ sets.

What do you listen to with your kids in the car?
Most of the above – plus lots of our own music. I’m not big on the “kids music” thing, per se. I think great music is great music, regardless of genre or life stage.

Speaking of your kids, we had fun chatting about American Idol this summer, which we both watched. What else do you watch with your kids?
Well, I have younger kids, so Idol was in a class by itself in terms of family watching, though followed closely at times by The Voice and So You Think You Can Dance? (I do, but I can’t). My kids are also waaaaayyy into PBS, not just PBS kids, but real PBS – you know, like, America’s Test Kitchen and Chicago Tonight. In fact, he’ll hate that I’m telling you this, but my son, William, used to stand in front of a mirror at the age of 3 pretending he was Phil Ponce. I’ve since tried to introduce him to the Real Housewives franchise as well, but without success.

I’ve been asked by NPR listeners whether you look like your voice (I said yes). Have you received any weird comments over the years from listeners who met you in real life who commented on the face/voice correlation?
Thankfully, no. I think they save those for behind my back.

What will you miss most and least about working at Navy Pier?
Most: Watching the changing of the seasons via the Lake.
Least: Watching the changing of the seasons via the tourists.

What was your favorite pledge drive giveaway?
Hmmm. That’s a good one. That Tivoli radio really is amazing, though it’s a bit pricey for some. And I’m always a sucker for the magazine combos. Oh – and that free Chipotle burrito coupon they used to give out on certain days? That rocked.

What celebrity gossip magazines do you read? If one were to set up a celebrity gossip fantasy league, how would that work?
Ha! You’ve done your research, Zulkey. Nice. US Weekly, of course, is the gold standard. And as a former player in such a league, I can safely say that I definitely don’t read it enough. We "drafted" celebs and received points based on where and how often the members of your "team" appeared in the magazine. My wife, Andrea, and I played for one year and got spanked. It wasn’t even funny. People were trading for celebrities we hadn’t even heard of. To give you an idea of how outclassed we were, I gambled big that 2007 was going to be Whitney Houston’s comeback year.

Who is your favorite rock drummer and what’s your favorite song to drum to?
Favorite rock drummer? Probably either Stewart Copeland of The Police or John McEntire of The Sea and Cake and Tortoise. Favorite song is too hard. "Tom Sawyer" by Rush would be the classic answer here, but I can’t stand it.

Tell me about the time you got into a fight on a party boat whilst in college. Did you win?
Damn, you’re good! Who is your source on this stuff? Short answer: No. Long answer, I escaped by a TKO. The story is too long to recount here, but for the record, I simply stepped in – quite chivalrously, I might add – to defend a good friend of mine who was being harassed repeatedly by a group of drunken party-goers. And you know what I learned? I learned never to do that again. I also learned that one should never wear loafers on a boat deck in the rain when 300 lb. men are trying to beat you up.

How does it feel to be the 328th person interviewed for Zulkey.com/WBEZ?
Vivifying.