The last shutdown was in President Donald Trump’s first term when he demanded that Congress give him money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall. Trump retreated after 35 days — the longest shutdown ever — amid intensifying airport delays and missed paydays for federal workers.

Ground was ceremonially broken Tuesday on the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, a development officials say will bring an economic boom to South Chicago. Neighbors would like to get those benefits in writing.

This fall, free take-home meals at Malcolm X College, Kennedy-King College and Olive-Harvey College will be available for students and their family members.

Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly hit back-to-back homers, helping the Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres 3-1 on Tuesday in Game 1 of their NL Wild Card Series.

Illinois cannot yet file suit against the federal government for an apparent plan to send federal troops to Chicago, Attorney General Kwame Raoul said, but if boots hit the ground, President Donald Trump “should expect a legal challenge.”

Harrison Ford is one of the most famous people on the planet. David Willard has spent a career and his retirement cataloguing dead birds. Both will be recognized as conservation superstars during October’s Half-Earth Day event at the Field Museum.

Nearly 400,000 Social Security and SSI recipients receive their benefits through paper checks.

President Donald Trump revealed that he wants to use American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday in declaring an end to “woke” culture before an unusual gathering of hundreds of top U.S. military officials.

An exclusive vinyl edition of Taylor Swift's new album, "The Life of a Showgirl," will be available at a handful of Illinois' Target stores during a midnight release Friday, including one location in Chicago.

DePaul, a Catholic school in Chicago, prohibits distribution of any kind of birth control on its campus. To get around that, a student group runs a covert contraceptive delivery network.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court made a move that makes it easier for federal immigration agents to use ethnicity as a factor in deportations.

Are military troops bound for Illinois? And how a court ruling on racial profiling could impact local policing.

Chicago taxpayers paid $295 million between 2019 and 2024 to resolve lawsuits naming officers whose alleged misconduct led more than once to payouts, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News. In all, the city spent $491.7 million to resolve lawsuits alleging 1,643 Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct.

“CPD has failed to rein in its culture of brutality and abuse,” according to the coalition of police reform groups that forced the city to agree to federal court oversight. “The department is moving in the wrong direction.”

The invasive spotted lanternfly appears to be making inroads in Chicago. So far, there have been more reports of the bug in September 2025 alone than there were in all of 2024.