From carnivorous plants to blood-sucking sea creatures, nature serves up plenty of frights, lots of them found right here in Illinois.

A $200 million bill to taxpayers — how the Chicago Police Department plans on cutting overtime spending. Illinois passed a law allowing the release of dying and severely disabled prisoners but most requests are denied. And WTTW News Explains on Chicago nicknames.

Monday’s meeting of the McPier board was dominated by discussion of the mass death of 1,000 birds in a single day, killed after colliding with McCormick Place. Bird conservationists want a solution in place by spring migration.

For the last two years, Illinois has had a law that allows people who are in prison and are dying of a terminal illness or are physically disabled the opportunity to petition for compassionate release. However, few of the releases are granted. 

Nearly 600 part-time faculty members at Columbia College walked off the job Monday. The faculty union and administration have been contract bargaining since May.

The proposal is at the core of the labor agenda for Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, who was elected with the unanimous support of Chicago’s progressive labor organizations.

Maybe it’s because the city’s actual name comes from a smelly wild onion, or maybe it’s because other cities like to drag our city through the mud, but Chicago has had a whole lot of nicknames over the years. We break down where they came from. 

Joseph Czuba is charged in the fatal stabbing of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and the wounding of Hanaan Shahin on Oct. 14. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.

Attorneys for Robert Crimo Jr., who is set to go to trial next week on seven counts of reckless conduct, had sought to call his son — alleged parade shooter Robert Crimo III — to testify in his defense.

Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward) said he was "highly disappointed" by the decision by the mayor's office to open a migrant shelter in his ward, but acknowledged he could not stop the proposal.

General Motors and the United Auto Workers union have reached a tentative contract agreement that could end a six-week-old strike against Detroit automakers, two people briefed on the deal said Monday.

No one was killed, but two people were listed in critical condition and the other 13 victims were hospitalized in fair or good condition following the shooting that took place at around 1 a.m. Sunday in the 1200 block of South Pulaski Road.

“With colder weather upon us, we are at an increasingly critical point in this humanitarian endeavor,” Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office said in a statement.

Even though the Chicago Police Department has exceeded its overtime budget in each of the past five years, the City Council is once again poised to set aside just $100 million to cover the department’s overtime bill in the 2024 budget.

Decades after officials banned lead in gasoline for new cars and stopped the sale of lead paint there are still an estimated 500,000 U.S. children with levels of lead in their blood that are considered high, and experts say lead in drinking water is an important source.