features
What Illinois Got Wrong About Legal Weed
A multibillion-dollar industry has left many social equity entrepreneurs struggling to survive. In the six years since Illinois legalized recreational marijuana, dispensaries have blossomed across Chicago’s affluent north side neighborhoods. These stores’ neatly aligned displays of flower, edibles, tinctures, and vapes–along with premium prices–more closely resemble an Apple store than a smoke shop. They are…
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Six years in, has Illinois’ cannabis equity law delivered?
Illinois legalized cannabis with equity at its core in 2020. Six years later, the results are mixed. After nearly 90 years of prohibition, Illinois became the first state to legalize the sale of cannabis through a state legislature in 2019. Touted by the governor’s office as the “most equity-centric” cannabis law in the nation, the…
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King: Recapturing the Revolutionary Spirit
Inside The Loop with Christian Perry: Perspectives on Power, Politics, and Progress in Chicago Former Vice President Kamala Harris accepted an invitation from Mayor Brandon Johnson to be the keynote speaker at Chicago’s 40th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Breakfast. Harris hit a refrain in her speech that resonated deeply with the capacity…
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Employment and labor
IDOC’s controversial health care provider is out. Will people in IDOC finally receive the care they need?
After decades of protest from activists, change is coming to the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) health care system. A June 23rd memo announced that the IDOC is abandoning contract negotiations with Wexford Health Sources, who had won a ten year, $4 billion dollar contract renewal at the end of 2023. Now as IDOC initiates…
Economic Development
Tip and Wage Theft Still Prevalent in Chicago Restaurant Industry Despite New Ordinance
Chicago’s City Council passed a new ordinance intended to guarantee living wages for service industry workers, but experts believe that more strict legislation is needed to safeguard against employer fraud. The Chicago One Fair Wage ordinance, passed in October, will phase out Chicago’s subminimum wages for tipped workers over a five-year period, impacting restaurants in…