It rarely feels like we’re at a loss for news in Illinois but January proved to be a bumpy ride on most news beats. There were more than enough political, economic and legal intrigues to go around. A tax hike of 67 percent, efforts to abolish the death penalty, not to mention Chicago’s first truly contested mayoral race in decades. Those items just skim the surface of the news that was this past month.

To help Eight Forty-Eight wade a little deeper for the January installment of its Month in Review series, host Alison Cuddy was joined by three of the region’s journalists: Micah Materre is the anchor of WGN News at Nine, Salim Muwakill is the senior editor of In These Times and Michael Puente reports on Northwest Indiana for WBEZ.

Music Button: Otis Rush, “Mean Old World”, from the CD Chicago The Blues Today, (Vanguard records)