Morning drive podcast and news roundup: Awesome stuff, tall building and Canadian guns

Morning drive podcast and news roundup: Awesome stuff, tall building and Canadian guns

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Jeddah Tower design from Smith + Gill Architecture. It's wicked tall.
Chicago’s top headlines, piped straight to your earbuds.

A group of 10 people pool together $1,000, $100 each, and hand it over to a charity. These monthly $1,000 donations are the single objective of the awesomely named Awesome Foundation. The Awesome Foundation began in Boston and has spread to 20 cities. WBEZ profiles the new Chicago chapter.

A Chicago firm has been selected for the world’s tallest building that hasn’t been built yet. The design from Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture would put a building about 3,280 feet tall in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. That works out to be a Willis Tower on top of a Trump Tower with some room to spare.

Sun-Times Media Holdings will begin layoffs next month. It will cut more than 450 jobs in Chicago.

Four of the state’s Catholic dioceses are suing the Department of Family Services to avoid being forced to provide adoption or foster placements to same sex couples. The American Civil Liberties Union has intervened in the lawsuit on behalf of wards of the state. The ACLU argues Catholic Charities placement policy goes against the best interest of the children. Catholic Charities believes if the state severs ties with them, they will lose case workers and relationships with foster parents.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has signed a bill for increased penalties for convicted felons caught carrying guns. Felons face up to 10 years in prison, with those on parole could get even more. Quinn says this will help make neighborhoods safer.

Rob Wildeboar breaks down the process Canadians have to go through to own a handgun in the third installment of “Under the Gun.”

Be warned: the president is in town tonight and traffic is going to be a nightmare.

Cubs won again last night (winning streak!) while the Sox were shut out by the Yankees. Both the Cubs and the Sox are in play tonight against the Pirates and Yankees respectively. The Chicago Fire will go head-to-head with the Philadelphia Union tonight.

It’s going to be a cool one – highs near 82 today and 70s tonight. All clear skies and no rain. Perfect day. 

It’s all the news that’s fit to podcast. Click above to listen, click here to subscribe.