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Aug. 29, 2014

Jazz it up

There’s more festival fun to be had in Chicago over the upcoming three-day weekend.

Chicago’s 36th Annual Jazz Festival began on Thursday and runs through Sunday. Check out the full schedule of acts at JazzinChicago.org.

If jazz is not your thing, the Taste of Polonia Festival at the Copernicus Center will take place in Jefferson Park from Friday through Monday. The Remix Chicago festival is being held on the 2300 block of Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square on Saturday and Sunday.

For more information on Chicago Street fests head over to CityofChicago.org.

From trash to treasure

In an attempt to bring efficiency to Chicago’s blue-cart recycling program, the Department of Streets and Sanitation is offering a $50 prize to city residents who demonstrate recycling savvy.

Northwest Side communities last year became the final neighborhoods in the city to receive blue-cart recycling bins, but recycling has not caught on evenly throughout the city, according to Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Charles Williams.

The department plans to launch a program next month under which residents who properly sort recycling from garbage could be selected to receive a $50 Jewel-Osco gift card, DNAinfo Chicago reported. Department “prize patrols” will randomly tour city streets checking to make sure recycling is properly sorted in the bins.

"Folks think, 'We have the cart, and it's over and done.' It's not,” Williams said. “Now is the hard part. The hard part is getting the resident to join in and actually participate, and not just participate, but participate correctly."

Suburbs with class

Two North Shore communities were recently recognized in Movoto Real Estate’s list of the county’s 50 best suburbs for education.

Evanston was named No. 7 on the list and Skokie came in at No. 12, according to NBC Chicago. The list was compiled using data on more than 100 American suburbs on factors like funding per student, high school graduation rate and student-teacher ratio.

City Colleges in the spotlight

PBS Newshour in a recent segment highlighted the efforts of City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman to improve the community college system’s graduation rate.

Hyman, who grew up in the Chicago Housing Authority system and attended CCC herself, has implemented the Reinvention program during her tenure. The program has helped to double CCC graduation rate.

“What many of our students need more than anything else is hope,” Hyman said. “Without [hope] it doesn’t matter what type of education we’re providing [students]. They will never think that they can make it out of their circumstances.”

A belated happy anniversary

Chicago-based Northern Trust celebrated its 125th anniversary earlier this month.

Byron Laflin founded the company on Aug. 12, 1989 and first operated it out of a one-room office in the Rookery Building. Since then, the wealth management firm has morphed into an international institution. Northern Trust had $106 billion in assets as of June 30 and more than 15,000 workers spread across the globe in cities that include New York City, Luxembourg and Abu Dhabi.

Check out a commemoratory video from Northern Trust at 125.NorthernTrust.com.

-Tom Butala