The Rundown | Chicago News WBEZ Chicago

A popular state tax credit claimed by more than 11 million Illinoisans is poised to get more generous. Illinois lawmakers passed a bill to regulate carbon capture and storage in Illinois. Community activists hosted a festival of peace meant to uplift gun violence victims and survivor families.

The University of Chicago is withholding the degrees of four students who were scheduled to graduate Saturday. A new exhibit entitled “Georgia O’Keeffe: My New Yorks” opens this weekend at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Bears will have to wait until at least November to further press Illinois lawmakers for help on a new stadium.

When the four members of Third Coast Percussion were studying classical music at Northwestern University, they didn’t have much of a blueprint for building careers in a percussion ensemble. Twenty years later, they’re working with renowned composers and racking up Grammy nominations.
“We’ve never been the stereotypical classical musicians,” said founding ensemble member Robert Dillon. And you can see it in their performances, where they blow into tubes and play flower pots.
In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Dillon and David Skidmore about 20 years of Third Coast Percussion.

CTA President Dorval Carter defends himself to the Chicago city council amid persistent safety and reliability complaints. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is making good on a campaign promise to expand public mental health services. A new Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit opens this weekend at the Chicago Art Institute, highlighting some lesser-known works from the artist.

A new report from the Chicago Inspector General warns the Police Department may not be ready to handle large protests at the Democratic National Convention. Embattled CTA President Dorval Carter says he has faced racism and physical threats from the public as the Chicago city council has zeroed in on his job performance. More than a third of hospitalist staff with Ascension Illinois plan to quit the health system.

Mister Kelly’s was the hottest of spots in Chicago nightlife back in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, hosting singers like Barbra Streisand, Della Reese, Ella Fitzgerald and comedians like Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers, Lily Tomlin, and many, many more.

The nightclub is the focus of an exhibit running through July 20 at a former neighbor of Mister Kelly’s, the Newberry Library.

“In the ‘50s and ‘60s – and of course I'm not talking from personal experience – but the Newberry neighborhood, also known as the near north side or the Gold Coast, was considered to be the Las Vegas of the Midwest,” said Newberry librarian Alison Hinderliter, who curated the exhibit.

The Rundown podcast host Erin Allen is joined by Hinderliter and David Marienthal – who produced a documentary on Mister Kelly’s and who is also the son of the nightclub’s former owner – for a conversation about the club’s star-studded history.
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