Erin Allen: Good morning. It's Tuesday I'm Erin Allen and this is The Rundown. Immigrant advocates have been asking for more language support at Chicago polling places for a while now. Last fall, some groups said the city’s Board of Elections didn’t provide enough bilingual poll workers or ballots in languages like Tagalog, Hindi and Korean. Well this election, they’re doing something about it. My colleague Esther Yoon-Ji Kang is reporting that the Board has added nearly 40 new “limited english proficiency” precincts. In these polling places, voters can get bilingual assistance during the municipal election next week. Also, every Chicago polling place will have a touchscreen voting machine and audio ballot in 12 languages. And voters can bring an interpreter to help them cast a ballot. The Chicago Board of Elections says it is still recruiting bilingual election judges for voting day though.

And after a step forward, we unfortunately have a step back. A new report from Chicago election officials is showing that nearly two thirds of the city’s polling places aren’t fully accessible to voters with disabilities. The Board is rating 900 polling stations around the city by their level of compliance with ADA standards. The locations are rated either high, medium or low, with the ones in full compliance being rated high. Bebe Novich is a senior attorney with Equip for Equality, the organization leading the survey efforts.

Bebe Novich: If you see that your polling place is high accessibility, you’re going to feel okay about it. But if it’s medium, you want to look into it more to figure out what makes it not high accessibility and can I still use that.

Erin Allen: You can find out the rating of your polling place at the board of election commissioners website. And FYI, maybe on the bright side there is a federal settlement agreement requiring Chicago to make all voting sites fully accessible by November 2024.

If you’re a smoker and you’ve been trying to quit but can’t. Well, first of all I get it. Between everything costing so much and all the fallout from this pandemic... I mean, stress. But some folks at Northwestern University might have something for you. My colleague Araceli Gomez-Aldana is reporting that researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine have developed a “smart necklace” meant to eventually help people stop smoking and avoid relapsing. The necklace is called SmokeMon. It uses heat sensors to detect when a traditional cigarette is being lit, how many puffs are taken and how much is inhaled. Nabil Alshurafa of Northwestern says all that information is called ‘smoking topography.’

Nabil Alshurafa: Now we can begin to really understand a little bit more what happens when people slip and begin to test timely intervention. In the moment, in real time.

Erin Allen: He says the device is like a pendant about the size of an air-pods case. And they use a 3D printer to make it, so it can be customized. He says this technology can help develop smoking cessation programs.

If you’re Black and you grew up in Chicago, it’s possible your people came up here via The Great Migration. More than half a million Black Southern Americans got here that way. And during black history month, the South Side Community Art Center is exploring the movement of African diaspora peoples. It’s an exhibit called "The Promised Land." Lola Ayisha Ogbara  curated the show. She was on WBEZ's daily talk show Reset explaining how the exhibit uses photography to reclaim Black experiences.

Lola Ayisha Ogbara: Historically, we've been documented scientifically to kind of prove social, economic, oppressions. I want this show to kind of become a resistance to that.

Erin Allen: "The Promised Land" features work from 11 artists with ties to the North and South and it runs through March 25th. 

And now it's time for a few quick hits. Florida Governor Ron Desantis was in Elmhurst, Illinois yesterday, a western suburb, to give a speech supporting law enforcement. The event was promoted by the fraternal order of police lodge 7, the largest union for Chicago cops. But hundreds of people showed up to protest. Desantis is a republican, and he signed the so-called “Don’t say Gay” bill. Desantis has also been floated as a potential presidential candidate in 2024. And Governor JB Pritzker says he’s looking forward to signing new and expansive paid leave legislation. It would require nearly all Illinois employers to give workers paid time off, based on hours they worked. The legislation would take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. And this news sounds good for employees, but some small businesses feel they might suffer. You can read more about some of this nuance at WBEZ website.

As for weather, it’s just as sunny and a little colder than it was yesterday. High in the mid 40s today, but windy, too. Tonight, partly cloudy and it’s going down to the upper 20s.

And that's it for The Rundown today. Thank you for listening. You can go ahead and send this episode to your homey or your co worker look out for your people. Keep everybody up to date. I'm Erin Allen, and I'll talk to you tomorrow morning.

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