The Power Of Teen Activism; New Legionnaires Cases; Violence In Movies; Gov. Candidate Jeanne Ives

On The 21st: Teen girls around the country are leading the charge for change in their communities. Now more than ever, publications like Teen Vogue and Rookie Mag are adapting to this new wave of "girls media." Plus, we get the latest on more legionnaires cases at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy. Also, we hear from Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Phillips about why he's tired of gun violence in movies. And, we continue our series of gubernatorial candidate interviews with Jeanne Ives. 

We’ve all been thinking and talking about the tragic massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida where 17 students were killed in a mass shooting last week. But, it was the words of a teenager that went viral, tapping into what many are feeling.

Emma joins fellow classmates 15 year old Christine Yared, who wrote an op-ed about gun control for the New York Times and spoke on Morning Edition today and Delaney Tarr, who also wrote an op-ed for Teen Vogue released yesterday - all outspoken, all passionate - and all teenage girls.

It makes sense, then, that the world of teen magazines should be changing. Teen Vogue, in particular, is leading the way. 

In 2016, the magazine gained national attention when it published an article titled “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America.” Since then, there has been a lot of discussion about the increasingly political nature of teen publications.

We were joined by Salma El-Naggar, a sophomore at University High School in Urbana. Also joining me on the phone was Lena Singer. Lena is a former managing editor for Rookie Mag, an online magazine for teenage girls created by fashion blogger and Oak Park native Tavi Gevinson. Lena is now a Chicago-based writer for outlets like Crain’s and Chicago Magazine. 
 

Plus - 

Last week Illinois state health officials announced three more new cases of Legionnaires’ disease at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy. This is the 4th outbreak in less than 4 years. The illness has been linked to the deaths of 13 people at the state-run facility since 2015. Today members of Governor Rauner’s administration are testifying in another hearing before lawmakers about their handling of the outbreaks. Senator Tammy Duckworth is also visiting the home. 

Dave McKinney has been following this story for WBEZ in Chicago, and he joined us on the line.

And - 

Last week on The 21st we talked about anticipation for the movie Black Panther. After the 3-day weekend, box office reports have Marvel’s first film directed by an African-American bringing in almost $230 million in North America - breaking a lot of records in the process.
Whether or not you rushed out to see it, you can sense that this movie is impacting the industry in big ways when it comes to race and gender.

But, what about when it comes to violence? Certainly after last week in particular, when the country is mourning the lives of those killed by a gunman in Parkland, Florida, it’s hard not to think about the action we’re seeing on screen. 

It’s something Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Phillips has been thinking about for a long time. His recent headline read: “I'm fed up with guns in the movies. Again.”

He’s joined us on the line from Chicago. 

Then - 

We’re continuing our series of interviews with the candidates running for governor. Governor Bruce Rauner is running for a second term. He’s facing a challenger in the Republican primary, and six Democrats are also hoping to win in the general election this fall. The primary is on March 20.

We’ve recorded conversations with seven of the eight candidates in the running. And we’ll be airing these at the same time -- on every show until next Tuesday. We reached out to Governor Rauner’s office several times but they did not respond to our request for an interview.

In this segment we hear from Jeanne Ives. She’s a state representative from Illinois’ 42nd House district, which includes Wheaton, where she’s lived for 26 years. She’s been in office for three terms, and also served on Wheaton’s City Council. A graduate of Westpoint, she also served in the Army.

She’s challenging Governor Bruce Rauner for the Republican nomination.

A note from our show yesterday- During our interview with J.B. Pritzker, we asked him about a debate that had been planned for March 5 in Springfield, organized by WCIA. 

It would have been the only televised Democratic primary debate outside of Chicago. 

J.B. Pritzker said during yesterday’s interview that they weren’t joining the WCIA debate because organizers reached out to them late. Yesterday evening, his campaign reached out to us to that he misspoke about that timing.

But - the Pritzker campaign would not comment as to why he will not attend that debate. Two of his challengers - Daniel Biss and Chris Kennedy - had collected more than 3,000 signatures from people wanting the debate to go on. But regardless - yesterday - WCIA said the station was canceling that debate because Pritzker would not attend.