{"id":502427,"date":"2026-01-08T23:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/502427\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:30:11","slug":"training-high-schoolers-to-be-election-judges-the-rundown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/502427\/","title":{"rendered":"Training high schoolers to be election judges: The Rundown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good afternoon! It\u2019s Thursday, and get ready to pay up if you\u2019re looking for tickets<\/a> to the Packers-Bears game this weekend: The cheapest option goes for $400. Here\u2019s what else you need to know today.<\/p>\n

1. High schoolers are training to be election judges in the March primary<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The Cook County Clerk\u2019s Office and Chicago Bears this week launched Defenders of DA\u2019Mocracy, a program to train 150 high school juniors and seniors to serve as election judges during their schools\u2019 early voting day on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n

As my WBEZ colleague Somer Van Benton reports, students from 24 participating schools will learn how to check in voters, handle ballots and manage voting equipment.<\/p>\n

The program aims to \u201ctransform students from passive observers into active participants in the electoral process,\u201d said Frank Herrera, the clerk\u2019s office deputy of communications. The program not only provides student judges a chance to run their school polls; it also intends to give eligible students the opportunity to register and vote.<\/p>\n

Illinois has allowed high school students to serve as election judges since the early 2000s. But this program is the first of its kind in Cook County to train students to operate primary early voting sites on their own campuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be run by the high school students, for the high school students,\u201d Deputy Clerk of Elections Edmund Michalowski said. [WBEZ<\/a>]<\/p>\n

2. A \u2018death doula\u2019 provides comfort and support to the terminally ill on their final journey<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Tiffany Johnson works with the dying to navigate the last months and weeks of life, my colleague Stefano Esposito reports for the Chicago Sun-Times. She also helps healthy people prepare for the inevitable, from putting together a videotaped message for those left behind to deciding who should be in the room at the very end.<\/p>\n

Johnson has recently found herself talking publicly about her work and advocating for Illinois\u2019 so-called right-to-die legislation.<\/p>\n

The law allows someone 18 or older to request a fatal medication; to be eligible, the person must have been diagnosed (by two physicians) with an illness expected to lead to death within six months. Many religious leaders and disability rights activists see it as legalized physician-assisted suicide and oppose the measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why I get so frustrated,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cPeople say, \u2018assisted suicide.\u2019 It\u2019s not suicide. \u2026 Folks already understand that their lives are shorter than they want them to be. These are not individuals who want to die. Their health has changed to the degree that they no longer have a prolonged future ahead. And they want to have some sense of autonomy about how those last days look.\u201d [Chicago Sun-Times<\/a>]<\/p>\n

3. The city awarded $33 million to dozens of businesses and organizations<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Grant winners were chosen through competitive application rounds through the city\u2019s Department of Planning and Development Community Development Grant and Neighborhood Opportunity Fund programs, totaling $90 million in public-private neighborhood investments.<\/p>\n

The West Garfield Park-based Institute for Nonviolence received $4.8 million to create a new $9.5 million headquarters for the nonprofit that focuses on gun violence prevention.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the owners of Los Candiles Restaurant in Little Village will receive nearly $96,000 to expand and hire new employees. Business declined as immigration enforcement agents targeted the neighborhood. [WBEZ<\/a>]<\/p>\n

4. Mayda Alexandra del Valle has been named Chicago\u2019s next poet laureate<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Born and raised on the South Side, the renowned poet and educator is an interdisciplinary artist with a rich cultural history of the city, my colleague Mike Davis writes for WBEZ.<\/p>\n

Del Valle, 47, will serve a two-year term as poet laureate and receive $70,000 as commission for new works. The poet laureate also serves as an ambassador for Chicago\u2019s literary and creative communities and creates initiatives for youth, students and community members across the city.<\/p>\n

Her previous work includes the poetry collections \u201cA South Side Girl\u2019s Guide to Love and Sex\u201d and \u201cThe University of Hip-Hop.\u201d In 2016, she won the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize from Northwestern University Press. [WBEZ<\/a>]<\/p>\n

5. Hear prominent Chicagoans read Carl Sandburg\u2019s iconic 1914 poem, \u2018Chicago\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The work, which coined the phrase \u201cCity of Big Shoulders,\u201d has inspired proud political speeches, launched a comic series and even decorated buildings. It has been analyzed in classrooms and has surely served as a rousing nightcap at many an Uptown poetry slam.<\/p>\n

But the poem recently gained fresh relevance when a judge read it aloud in a court ruling addressing use of force by federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n

As the year begins anew, with a rush of civic pride going into this weekend\u2019s Bears playoffs, WBEZ\u2019s arts desk asked some well-known Chicagoans to recite it. We caught on tape broadcaster Bill Kurtis, Mayor Brandon Johnson, emcee Sir Michael Rocks of the Cool Kids, \u201cThe House on Mango Street\u201d author Sandra Cisneros, Congressman Danny Davis, Bears tight end Colston Loveland and WBEZ host Mary Dixon.<\/p>\n

You can hear it in the link. [WBEZ<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what else is happening<\/b><\/p>\n