The economy shrank in the first half of this year, the government confirmed in a report Thursday, underscoring fears of a broad-based slowdown that could lead to a recession.

Illinois was supposed to be the national model when government leaders pledged they’d use the 2020 legalization of marijuana to right the wrongs of the war on drugs that disproportionately harmed Black and Latino communities. Nearly three years later, those poised to benefit say they’re still stymied.

The volatile trading comes a day after a broad sell-off sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average into a bear market, joining other major U.S. indexes.

Northern Indiana Public Service Company is retiring the 130-acre Michigan City Generating Station, which has been burning coal for electricity for nearly a century. The company is also cleaning up decades of coal ash byproduct. But advocates say plans to leave some coal ash on the site puts groundwater and Lake Michigan in danger of contamination. 

There’s good news for those apartment hunting in downtown Chicago as record-high prices begin to cool off. And airline passengers will have more power and goodwill under a new federal proposal that would force fees to be disclosed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1%, becoming the last of the major U.S. stock indexes to fall into what’s known as a bear market. The S&P 500 closed 1% lower and the Nasdaq dropped 0.6%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%, closing at its lowest level since late 2020. The S&P 500 fell 1.7%, close to its 2022 low set in mid-June, while the Nasdaq slid 1.8%. The selling capped another rough week on Wall Street, leaving the major indexes with their fifth weekly loss in six weeks.

Many city employees and people of Polish descent call the community of Dunning home, as do veterans, who at long last are beginning to move into Chicago’s newest veterans’ home. Back in the late 19th century, Dunning was thought of as a scary place. “Parents used to threaten their children that if you didn’t behave, if you didn’t eat breakfast, they’d send you to Dunning,” said history buff and longtime area resident Dan Pogorzelski of the Northwest Chicago Historical Society.

Chicago's City Council approved a pilot program that will allow restaurants and grocery stores to make deliveries via "personal delivery devices (PDDs)," aka, robots.

Employees at a Starbucks in west suburban Elmhurst say they’ve filed for union representation, joining hundreds of other coffee shops around the country and in the Chicago area.

The Chicago Fire’s plan is set to transform the vacant Near West Side property into practice soccer fields and a training and administrative building. The empty land was part of the massive CHA complex known as the Addams-Brooks-Loomis-Abbott homes. 

The Illinois Lottery said the prize for the July 29 drawing, which was the nation’s third-largest lottery prize, was claimed by two individuals who had agreed to split the prize if they won. They opted to take a lump sum payment of $780.5 million, lottery officials said Wednesday.

The developer behind the Lincoln Yards mega-project has plans for a large apartment building close by. A software company based in Finland is looking to hire more people in Chicago. And, the building owners of Tavern on Rush are eyeing an overhaul.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 1.3 million job openings in the accommodations and food industry, which makes up 11% of the total openings across all occupations nationwide. The shortage has caused a strain on current restaurant workers, shortened business hours, and even led to the closing of many restaurants.

This month, the Shriver Center released a report based on interviews with low-wage workers across Illinois. It found people like home health aides, rideshare workers and warehouse workers struggle with not just low wages but a lack of benefits, insufficient safety protections and job security.

The leaders of events management platform Eventnoire and revenue management tool for the vacation rental industry Buoy Pricing were awarded $100,000 each from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.