The Rundown Podcast - Show Tile
Stay in the loop with the Windy City’s biggest news. Angela Cheng / WBEZ Chicago
The Rundown Podcast - Show Tile
Stay in the loop with the Windy City’s biggest news. Angela Cheng / WBEZ Chicago

An upcoming meeting will show potential plans for Pilsen’s largest vacant lot. Citizen scientists are keeping tabs on chloride levels in Illinois rivers and streams. The state is offering a new, injectable treatment for HIV, starting in January.

The Rundown Podcast - Show Tile
Stay in the loop with the Windy City’s biggest news. Angela Cheng / WBEZ Chicago
The Rundown Podcast - Show Tile
Stay in the loop with the Windy City’s biggest news. Angela Cheng / WBEZ Chicago

An upcoming meeting will show potential plans for Pilsen’s largest vacant lot. Citizen scientists are keeping tabs on chloride levels in Illinois rivers and streams. The state is offering a new, injectable treatment for HIV, starting in January.

Erin Allen: Good morning. It's Tuesday. I'm Erin Allen and this is The Rundown. 

So you seen that big vacant lot in Pilsen, right? The one on 18th and Peoria, right up the street from Simone's. It's about six acres the largest vacant lot in the neighborhood. And city officials and developers have been battling over what to do with it, especially in light of so much gentrification in the area. But coming up later this month, neighbors will finally find out what the plan is, according to Block Club Chicago. A presentation and Open House about the future of the lot is planned for December 15 at Jungman Elementary. Residents will hear about three affordable housing development scenarios and they'll be able to ask questions. There will also be an option for neighbors to attend virtually on Zoom, you can find out more information at chicago.gov. 

The Illinois public health department will begin offering new HIV treatment in January. My colleague Mawa Iqbal has more.

Mawa Iqbal: Cabenuva will be the first long term injectable HIV medication offered by the department. Jeffrey Maras who runs the department's HIV AIDS services program calls this drug a game changer. Patients can get a monthly injection instead of having to remember to take a pill every day. People enrolled in the state's Ryan White program can qualify for partial or full coverage of Cabenuva.

Erin Allen: That was my colleague Mawa Iqbal. 

And a story for all you environmental engineering nerds, a University of Illinois study is suggesting a hypothetical structure that could capture oceanic water vapor and turn it into fresh water. Researchers evaluated 14 different water stressed sites across the world and found that converting ocean moisture to fresh water would meet water demands in each. The structure itself will be roughly the size of a cruise ship and anchored offshore. Praveen Kumar lead the U of I study, he says many places have reached the brink of a water crisis and his research can help. Kumar says next steps will likely include building prototypes and exploring how the structure might be built. 

The owner of the Chicago Red Stars says he's selling his stake in a team following an investigation that found emotional abuse and sexual misconduct were systemic in the National Women's Soccer League. Arnim Whisler's decision comes two months after the team's Board of Directors voted to remove him as chair and banned him for participating in team operations. Players also called on him to sell the team. Whisler said in a statement he made the decision to sell after 15 years with quote, a heavy heart. Former Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, and the law firm of King and Spalding released results in early October of an investigation that detailed the series of abuses and misconduct that impacted multiple teams in the league. 

I don't know about you, but for me, road salt is one of the most annoying/helpful things about winter. Okay, so I don't end up slipping and fall in any streets. But my shoes get messed up not to mention the roads themselves being damaged. Hello summer construction? And now we know salt from the roads can end up contaminating rivers and streams too. My colleague Indira Khera spoke to a local group and enlisting citizen scientists to monitor the problem. 

Indira Khera: Road salt can raise chloride concentrations to levels that are dangerous for aquatic life. The winter chloride Watchers program trains anyone to use test kits to record chloride levels and watch over ecosystems. Danielle Haake directs the Illinois River watch, they run the program.

Danelle Haake: This is a really easy way to bring all of the work that people in science do into something that anyone can do in their daily life. Science doesn't have to be threatening or big.

Erin Allen: Haake says data can reveal how chloride impacts water and she hopes it might be used in future watershed planning.

Before we get to weather, a few quick hits. Narcan is now free and available at all Chicago Public Libraries. The city's public health department says more Chicagoans die every year from opioid related overdoses than from homicides and traffic crashes combined. Narcan is a nasal spray that can prevent a fatal overdose. And all in all, yesterday more than 100 objections to candidates for mayor, aldermen and police district council were filed. Candidates will have to defend their candidacy to the Chicago Board of Elections starting next week. And an encore, if you really wanted to see Michelle Obama last night at the Chicago theater but couldn't she's back tonight. She'll be talking about her new book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times. And you can get tickets at MichelleObamaBooks.com. 

As for weather, high in the mid 40s today low in the low 40s, tonight cloudy the entire time. And that's it for The Rundown today. I'm Erin Allen, I'll talk to you tomorrow morning.


WBEZ transcripts are generated by an automatic speech recognition service. We do our best to edit for misspellings and typos, but mistakes do come through.