A wildfire tore through the heart of the Hawaiian island of Maui in total darkness Wednesday, reducing much of a historic town to ash and forcing people to jump into the ocean to flee the flames. At least six people died and dozens were wounded.

What’s driving a record number of opioid overdose deaths in Cook County. Allowing non-citizens to become police officers. And a former Madigan aide goes on trial.

A new state law will soon allow non-citizens who are both legally eligible to work in the U.S. and authorized to possess firearms under federal law to become police officers and deputy sheriffs.

“When the defendant answered those questions, the defendant lied,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said, “not just once, but again and again and again to prevent the grand jury from finding out what Madigan had done and what Madigan had done through him.”

There were 103 overdose deaths attributable to fentanyl in Cook County in 2015. That number shot up to a record 1,825 in 2022, according to statistics from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. That accounts for more than 90% of all opioid-related deaths in the county.

A state-run mental health center in Springfield is being renamed to honor the woman who publicized its former namesake’s abusive methods.

The electronically stored patient data involved in the breach includes names, dates of birth, addresses, and social security numbers that an unauthorized third-party gained access to earlier this year.

The box office hit “Oppenheimer” has prompted DePaul University nuclear ethics professor Yuki Miyamoto to shed light on the stories of people whose lives were directly and negatively intertwined with the film’s depicted events.

The results underscore the new political reality, one that’s been repeatedly demonstrated in both blue and red states: Since the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last year, abortion rights are a major, driving force.

The company currently lists nine Chicago location on its website, including a number in the West Loop and Near West Side, according to the WeWork website.

Many of the country’s worst rail crossings are located in diverse suburbs south and southwest of Chicago. Some will be helped by big construction projects while others get creative finding potential solutions.

A Portage Park man charged in the fatal shooting of a 9-year-old girl. Why thousands of Illinoisans are being kicked off Medicaid. And remembering Chicago native and film legend William Friedkin.

For the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicaid recipients are being asked to provide proof of their eligibility.

The United States is now at a record 15 different weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced. It’s the most mega-disasters through the first seven months of the year since the agency tracked such things starting in 1980.

Michael Goodman, 43, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting that left Serabi Medina dead outside her home on the city’s Northwest Side.