Summer Haris

Did you go to church or attend a religious service over the weekend? If you’re Catholic, the answer is likely a no. A new Gallup poll shows that just 39 percent of Catholics go to services every week, down from 45 percent a decade earlier.

The Gallup poll has reported that church attendance has been in decline.

Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of congressional leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday to address concerns of user privacy. The hearing lasted for several hours addressing the role Facebook plays as a platform designed to connect users to share content and build communities across the globe The congressional leaders questioned Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s business model that places emphasis on monetization of user’s content at the expense of protecting user privacy in the wake of Cambridge Analytica’s data share leak.

From droughts to wildfires, climate change poses an imminent threat to regions across the country from the Southwest to the West coast. But Chicago seems to enjoy slightly better odds than other cities, and this is largely due to its water resource. Morning Shift sits down with Ted Fishman, author of Shape Of Water, to discuss the opportunities and challenges Chicago faces as it takes steps to rethink how to make its landscape greener.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did much of his civil rights work in southern cities like Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma. But King had a big impact on Chicago as well. He arrived in Chicago in January of 1966 and fought for tenants’ rights and the poor while here in town. Morning Shift reflects on King’s time in Chicago. GUESTS: Linda Lutton, WBEZ reporter Ethan Michaeli, author of The Defender: How The Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America

The Village of Deerfield in Lake County voted to ban some semi-automatic weapons Monday night after a series a public hearings on the proposal. The idea came from the Deerfield Mayor Harriet Rosenthal after the recent mass shooting in Parkland, Florida that took the lives of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Back in 2013, before the state’s new Firearm Concealed Carry Act went into effect, home-rule municipalities like Deerfield had 10 days to make changes their the gun ordinances. At the time, the neighboring suburb of Highland Park banned assault weapons outright, and Deerfield put rules in place that required safe storage and transportation of the weapons. The fact that Deerfield acted during that 10-day period gave the village the ability to amend its ordinance at any time, and Mayor Rosenthal says that time is now. Morning Shift talks to Deerfield Village Manager Kent Street about last night’s meeting of the Deerfield Village Board and how a ban would work.

Black Lives Matter Chicago and other organizations will be given a say in Chicago’s police reform efforts. On March 20, Mayor Rahm Emanuel agreed to let the American Civil Liberties Union, the Chicago Urban League and the Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter take part in discussions in the city’s ongoing police reform. The announcement came after the three groups sued the city last year. Black Lives Matter Chicago co-founder Aislinn Pulley joined Morning Shift to discuss the organization’s police reform goals, the group’s potential influence, and the criticism it faces.

Thousands packed Union Park on Saturday on Chicago’s near west side first to rally, and then to march for an end to gun violence. WBEZ’s Linda Lutton joins Morning Shift to talk about what students were saying.

The poem “A Ghazal For Hadiya” was published this week on The Triibe.com, a site that showcases stories of interest to black millennials in Chicago.

How can we make our marriages and other relationships stronger, longer-lasting and more fulfilling? That question is being investigated at Northwestern University’s Relationships and Motivation Lab, which digs into the science behind how people get along. Social psychologist Eli Finkel is the lab’s director. Morning Shift talks to him about what happens in the so-called RAMLAB and what he’s learned about the key ingredients to a healthy and productive partnership. In addition to running one of the few labs in the country devoted to the scientific study of relationships, Finkel is the author of the book The All-Or-Nothing Marriage: How The Best Marriages Work, which was published in September 2017.

As Illinois voters prepare to cast their ballots for the primaries, Morning Shift discusses the number of steps that Illinois State Board of Elections is taking to ensure voter security.

In less than a month , people across Illinois will cast their votes for everything from Governor to county officials. But not all races are identical across the state, some ballots will have more names for offices you may not have heard of. Aviva Rosman of Ballot Ready hopes to change that with the site’s online voter guide. The mobile friendly site she founded with Alex Niemczewski allows voters to enter information such as address and political affiliation and then each voter will then be able to access information from biographical information to endorsements for all candidates running in races. Morning Shift talks with Rosman about Ballot Ready.

After Graham passed, President Trump praised him as a very special man who would be missed by followers of all religions. Graham was born in North Carolina, but got his start in the Chicago area. He attended Wheaton College and started preaching at a congregation in Western Springs.

How can we make our marriages and other relationships stronger, longer-lasting and more fulfilling? It’s a perfect question for Valentine’s Day and one that’s being investigated at Northwestern University’s Relationships and Motivation Lab, which digs into the science behind how people get along. Morning Shift talks to the lab’s director, social psychologist Eli Finkel about what happens in the so-called RAMLAB and what he’s learned about the key ingredients to a healthy and productive partnership.

A new watchdog report published in the Chicago Tribune on environmental regulation in Illinois finds that the Rauner administration has taken a lax approach to regulating air and water pollution—at least compared to what the state saw under Democrats Pat Quinn, Rod Blagojevich and even Illinois’ last Republican in charge: George Ryan. The revelations come at a time when the Trump administration has slowed down environmental enforcement.

There’s been a growing conversation in this country about maternity and paternity leave, but less discussion about the nine months leading up to it. So, what type of workplace protections are in place in Illinois and elsewhere for women carrying a child? We take calls from listeners about what it was like for them to be pregnant at work.