It was a busy news week with the government shutdown and the roll out of the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces.

WBEZ reporters and producers were busy putting together stories and conversations of national, regional and local significance, and we’ve collected some of those stories all in one place for you to enjoy this weekend.

WBEZ’s Linda Lutton looked at the current plight of Chicago’s neighborhood schools in light of heavy competion from charter, magnet and selective schools, which seems to be spreading the current freshman class thin and jeopardizing everything from sports to music.

Future uncertain for Chicago’s neighborhood high schools

John Lillig, a resident of the West Ridge neighborhood on Chicago’s far North Side, asked our Curious City crew about the history of Indian Boundary Park Zoo, which is rumored to be closing. This is what they found out:

Chicago’s long-forgotten zoo

Writer Leah Pickett tackled street harrassment this week, soliciting stories from other Chicago women about how they’ve been treated in public by men, groups of men and even mixed groups of men and women.

Standing up to street harassment

Half the public and two-thirds of the uninsured say they don’t have enough information about the Affordable Care Act to know how it will impact them. So WBEZ’s Shannon Heffernan put together a primer on the law with 8 things everyone should understand.

Understanding the basics of the Affordable Care Act

And writer Alison Flowers continues the Exoneree Diaries with a look into the conviction of Jacques Rivera, one of three people she is profiling in a year-long series on WBEZ that looks at the Illinois justice system.

Exoneree Diaries: Jacques Rivera’s conviction

Tim Akimoff is the Digital Content Director at WBEZ. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.