The hiring surge is focused on staffing up its 13,000 US restaurants as the company prepares to open 900 new locations over the next two years. McDonald’s made the announcement Monday at a restaurant in Ohio with Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

This year’s survey asks for input on commuting habits, passenger rail, ice and snow removal, planning priorities, electric vehicles and more. The survey will be available through May 30.

The Qatari government said a final decision hadn’t been made. Still, Trump defended the idea — what would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government — as a fiscally smart move for the country.

Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan is joining NBC Sports as a special contributor to its NBA coverage when the 2025-26 season begins.

As part of its commitment to conserve the endangered southern California sea otter, Shedd Aquarium is a partner in a groundbreaking surrogate mom program.

Stakeholders in the construction industry are closely following a lawsuit filed by Chicago Women in Trades, an organization founded in 1981 to help women enter the skilled trades. Other similar groups said they were considering litigation.

Officials are asking for help identifying the body of a person pulled from Lake Michigan along the Indiana Dunes shore over the weekend.

Leo received a standing ovation as he entered the Vatican auditorium for his first meeting with representatives of the general public. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary, elected in a 24-hour conclave last week, called for journalists to use words for peace, to reject war and to give voice to the voiceless.

Sea Rocket, who mated with Imani in 2024, has landed at Montrose Beach. Blaze and Pepper, who raised three chicks last summer, are also back on a Waukegan beach.

Several family members and advocates with loved ones incarcerated in prisons across Illinois told WTTW News that their in-person visits have been canceled by the Illinois Department of Corrections due to short staffing or lockdowns. Those visits are crucial for those inside and their loved ones, serving as a connection to the outside world and relationships.

In his first formal meeting with cardinals, which began with a standing ovation, the new pontiff said he chose his papal name to continue down the path of Pope Leo XIII, who addressed “the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.”

In the breathless day since Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first American pontiff, the memes, doctored images and tongue-in-cheek references have piled up deeper than Chicago’s pizza and more loaded than its hot dog, seemingly irresistible to comics and commoners alike.

Elected on Thursday, Robert Prevost is the first pope from the United States in the history of the Catholic Church. And Prevost’s brother, John, said the Chicago-born missionary cheered for the White Sox.

In a surprise twist, the papal conclave elects a Chicago native as the new pope. And Mayor Brandon Johnson gets a big win on affordable housing.

Chicago was once a swamp. In some places, it still is. But will climate change undo wetland restoration efforts?