WGN Radio 720 - Chicago's Very Own

The musical journey of entertainment legend Johnny Mathis and the Great American Songbook

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 07:27 PM PDT

The great Johnny Mathis joins WGN Radio's Dave Plier to talk about his summer tour, his influences, and his passion for great music.

Rock & Roll pioneer Chubby Checker: Still Twisting 70 years later at The Arcada Theatre

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 08:29 PM PDT

Rock & roll pioneer Chubby Checker joins WGN Radio's Dave Plier about his 60 years in music. The origins of his name, 'The Twist,' and his upcoming appearance at Ron Onesti's Arcada Theatre on Sunday June 12th. For tickets, visit arcadalive.com.

Wendy Snyder and Dave Plier discuss Rock & Roll Hall of Fame snubs

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 07:44 PM PDT

Wendy Snyder joins Dave Plier before she fills in for Bob Sirott on Thursday June 16th and Friday June 17th from 6-10am. Dave and Wendy talk about a recent article highlighting life-long snubs at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Comedian Pat McGann’s big show at The Raue Center this Sunday

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 08:05 PM PDT

Comedian Pat McGann joins Dave to talk about his big show coming to the Raue Center on Sunday, Summer vacations and more! For tickets, visit https://events.rauecenter.org/event/pat-mcgann-saturday-june-11-2022-800-pm/.

Lauren Magiera: Bears’ Justin Fields hits a home run at Wrigley, first summer jobs

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 07:57 PM PDT

Lauren Magiera joins WGN Radio's Dave Plier to talk this week in sports, first jobs, summer jobs and more!

Are you eating illegal seafood?

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 07:34 PM PDT

Teresa Ish tells WGN's Steve Alexander that the health of our planet depends on the health of our oceans, and the illegal catching of fish is threatening ocean health. Ish, the Ocean Initiative lead for the Walton Family Foundation, says consumers can help by buying carefully -- asking fish markets and restaurants where their seafood is sourced.

Darren Bailey: Chicago is not the great city that it should be

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 01:17 PM PDT

State Senator and GOP candidate for Illinois governor Darren Bailey joins John Williams to talk about his plan to reduce crime, if he still considers Chicago to be a 'hellhole," and a new poll that shows him with a commanding lead over chief rival Richard Irvin ahead of the January 28th primary.

George Will on Jan. 6 hearings: 'The object of the hearing is public education'

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 02:10 PM PDT

George Will, senior political contributor at NewsNation, joins Lisa Dent on Chicago's Afternoon News to recap the first prime-time hearing by the The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol and where it stands in American history.

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Ukraine-Russia crisis update: Troops continue to surround Severodonetsk

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 05:49 AM PDT

Journalist and editor of 'Ukrainian Freedom News' Joseph Lindsley joined Bob Sirott from Ukraine to deliver the latest news on the Ukraine-Russia crisis, including an update on where the troops are in Severodonetsk and Russia's history of control in Ukraine. You can find more updates on Joseph's website ukrainianfreedomnews.com. To donate to Joseph and his team's efforts to distribute supplies throughout Ukraine, click here.

Gloria Estefan to star in remake of 'Father of the Bride'

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 09:06 AM PDT

Marianne Murciano, Bob Sirott's wife and founder of Savvy-Planet, joins Bob every Friday morning following the 8:30am newscast. This week she brought a special guest along with her: singer and actress (and high school classmate!) Gloria Estefan. Gloria talked about the new movie she's starring in, 'Father of the Bride,' and discussed the representation of Latinos in movies and the first bilingual version of her Broadway musical: 'On Your Feet'.

Share your own savvy tip: hello@savvy-planet.com. Follow Marianne on Twitter (@marimur), Instagram (@havanagirl) and on Facebook (SirottAndMurciano).

Can coffee help you live longer?

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 09:26 AM PDT

Two recent studies show drinking 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day can reduce heart disease and lengthen your life. WGN's Steve Alexander taps into WGN legend Lyle Dean for part of that information, which is good news for coffee roasters like Tony Dreyfuss, who co-founded Metropolis Coffee with his father, Jeff. Business is good as Chicago City Council just OK'd a second coffee shop location in O'Hare's Terminal 5 for Metropolis. And Metropolis continues to do good by partnering with Aspire, a non-profit focused on helping children and adults with disabilities live as independently as possible to start an Aspire-branded coffee business.

Wintrust Business Lunch 6/10/22: Stocks tumble, inflation rises, and festival season begins

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 12:54 PM PDT

Segment 1: John Bever, Financial Advisor, Phase 3 Advisory Services, joins John to talk about how the market is reacting to the news that inflation hit a 40-year high. Is a recession unavoidable at this time? What do investors need to know?

Segment 2: Hank Zemola, CEO, Special Events Management, tells John about the business side of festivals. How festivals are bouncing back from the pandemic and what a festival means for small businesses in the area.

Segment 3: Elbert Walters III, Executive Director, Powering Chicago, talks to John about the current initiatives to ensure EV charging access and equity as the state of Illinois looks to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2030.

Should you pull from a HELOC to pay off credit card debt?

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 12:00 PM PDT

Featured on WGN Radio's Home Sweet Home Chicago on 05/28/2022: Business Banking Officer - VP - BMO Harris Bank at BMO Harris Bank's Joshua Hermann joins the program to explain the best way to dip into your HELOC. Should you keep a rainy day fund or bolster your credit score? To learn more about what Joshua and BMO Harris Bank can do for you go to bmoharris.com or give them a call at 1-847-967-4644.

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Capitol riot panel blames Trump for 1/6 'attempted coup'

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 02:35 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump, saying the assault was not spontaneous but an "attempted coup" and a direct result of the defeated president's effort to overturn the 2020 election.

With a never-before-seen 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege and startling testimony from Trump's most inner circle, the 1/6 committee provided gripping detail Thursday night in contending that Trump's repeated lies about election fraud and his public effort to stop Joe Biden's victory led to the attack and imperiled American democracy

"Democracy remains in danger," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the panel, during the hearing, timed for prime time to reach as many Americans as possible.

"Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government," Thompson said. "The violence was no accident."

The hearings may not change Americans' views on the Capitol attack, but the panel's investigation is intended to stand as its public record. Before this fall's midterm elections, and with Trump considering another White House run, the committee's final report aims to account for the most violent attack on the Capitol since 1814, and to ensure such an attack never happens again.

Testimony on Thursday showed how Trump desperately clung to his own false claims of election fraud, beckoning supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress would certify the results, despite those around him insisting Biden had won the election.

In a previously unseen video clip, the panel played a remark from former Attorney General Bill Barr, who testified that he told Trump the claims of a rigged election were "bull——."

In another clip, the former president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, testified to the committee that she respected Barr's view that there was no election fraud. "I accepted what he said."

Others showed leaders of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys preparing to storm the Capitol to stand up for Trump. One rioter after another told the committee they came to the Capitol because Trump asked them to.

"President Trump summoned a violent mob," said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel's vice chair who took the lead for much of the hearing. "When a president fails to take the steps necessary to preserve our union — or worse, causes a constitutional crisis — we're in a moment of maximum danger for our republic."

There was a gasp in the hearing room when Cheney read an account that said when Trump was told the Capitol mob was chanting for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged for refusing to block the election results. Trump responded that maybe they were right, that he "deserves it."

At another point it was disclosed that Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a leader of efforts to object to the election results, had sought a pardon from Trump, which would protect him from prosecution.

When asked about the White House lawyers threatening to resign over what was happening in the administration, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner scoffed they were "whining."

Police officers who had fought off the mob consoled one another as they sat in the committee room reliving the violence they faced on Jan. 6. Officer Harry Dunn teared up as bodycam footage showed rioters bludgeoning his colleagues with flagpoles and baseball bats.

In wrenching testimony U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards told the panel that she slipped in other people's blood as rioters pushed past her into the Capitol. She suffered brain injuries in the melee.

"It was carnage. It was chaos," she said.

The riot left more than 100 police officers injured, many beaten and bloodied, as the crowd of pro-Trump rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged into the Capitol. At least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police.

Biden, in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, said many viewers were "going to be seeing for the first time a lot of the detail that occurred."

Trump, unapologetic, dismissed the investigation anew — and even declared on social media that Jan. 6 "represented the greatest movement in the history of our country."

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee tweeted: "All. Old. News."

Emotions are still raw at the Capitol, and security was tight. Law enforcement officials are reporting a spike in violent threats against members of Congress.

Against this backdrop, the committee was speaking to a divided America. Most TV networks carried the hearing live, but Fox News Channel did not.

The committee chairman, civil rights leader Thompson, opened the hearing with the sweep of American history. saying he heard in those denying the stark reality of Jan. 6 his own experience growing up in a time and place "where people justified the action of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching."

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, outlined what the committee has learned about the events leading up to that brisk January day when Trump sent his supporters to Congress to "fight like hell" for his presidency.

Among those testifying was documentary maker Nick Quested, who filmed the Proud Boys storming the Capitol — along with a pivotal meeting between the group's then-chairman Henry "Enrique" Tarrio and another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, the night before in nearby parking garage. Quested said the Proud Boys later went to get tacos.

Court documents show that members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were discussing as early as November a need to fight to keep Trump in office. Leaders both groups and some members have since been indicted on rare sedition charges over the military-style attack.

In the weeks ahead, the panel is expected to detail Trump's public campaign to "Stop the Steal" and the private pressure he put on the Justice Department to reverse his election loss — despite dozens of failed court cases attesting there was no fraud on a scale that could have tipped the results in his favor.

The panel faced obstacles from its start. Republicans blocked the formation of an independent body that could have investigated the Jan. 6 assault the way the 9/11 Commission probed the 2001 terror attack.

Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ushered the creation of the 1/6 panel through Congress and rejected Republican-appointed lawmakers who had voted on Jan. 6 against certifying the election results, eventually naming seven Democrats and two Republicans.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has been caught up in the probe and has defied the committee's subpoena for an interview, called the panel a "scam."

In the audience were several lawmakers who were trapped together in the House gallery during the attack.

"We want to remind people, we were there, we saw what happened," said Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. "We know how close we came to the first non-peaceful transition of power in this country."

The Justice Department has arrested and charged more than 800 people for the violence that day, the biggest dragnet in its history.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Michael Balsamo and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.

___

For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.

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Watch: Jan. 6 committee shows montage of Capitol attack

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 08:13 PM PDT

Editor's note: This footage contains scenes and images that some viewers might find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

(NewsNation) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol showed a montage Thursday of videos and images captured during the Capitol attack.

Thursday marked the first of a series of hearings laying out the committee's initial findings in a highly anticipated look at the evidence the panel has gathered over its 11-month investigation.

The first panel is expected to set the tone for the rest of the subsequent hearing. The committee will sort through the information it has collected into different hearing topics, from domestic extremism to security failures to what former President Donald Trump was doing in the White House that day as hundreds of his supporters pushed past police and forced their way into the Capitol.

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Wintrust Business Minute: McDonald's tries speeding up drive-thru experience

Posted: 10 Jun 2022 10:05 AM PDT

Steve Grzanich has the business news of the day with the Wintrust Business Minute.

Chicago-based McDonald's is trying to speed up the drive-thru experience, particularly wait times in line. And to get that done, the company is cutting some healthy food from the menu. Nutritious menu options like grilled-chicken sandwiches, salads and fruit and yogurt parfaits are gone and likely won't return anytime soon.

Also, several private equity firms are interested in buying Chicago's Grubhub. Bloomberg says the interested parties include Apollo Global Management. Listen for more below: