An Evanston mother and daughter held hostage by Hamas are released. And immigration protests turn chaotic as a Chicago alderwoman gets physically assaulted.

WTTW News theater critic Hedy Weiss recommends an evening spent with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, guest conductor James Gaffigan and the extraordinary pianist Conrad Tao.

A new study that aims to explore Midwest state boundaries and identity was a result of over 11,000 responses across 22 states.

The Republicans have no realistic or workable plan to unite the fractured GOP majority, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since hard-liners ousted Kevin McCarthy at the start of the month.

Art Recovery International, a company focused on locating and recovering stolen and looted art, tracked down the painting after a person in Chicago reached out claiming to possess a “stolen or looted painting” that their uncle brought back to the U.S. after serving in World War II.

The Chicago organization is joined by chapters in Detroit and Wisconsin in dropping “Audubon” and adopting the more inclusive, collaborative “Alliance.”

Here’s what it means for Chicago to be a sanctuary city and how that status has fueled the debate over Chicago’s newest arrivals.

An alderwoman is battered at a protest over a planned migrant camp. A local museum looks to acquire a vacant fire station. And an award-winning composer workshops with Northwestern music students.

If approved by the Chicago City Council, the National Museum of Mexican Art will acquire the building at 2358 S. Whipple St. It would be used by Yollocalli Arts Reach, an initiative of the museum aimed at providing arts and culture programming to teens and young adults.

Tania León is an Afro-Cuban Latina composer who has made her mark by following the rhythm of her own beat. León’s pieces carry both her Caribbean influences and the sounds of her travels.

Brighton Park community members rallied Thursday against Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to build a “winterized base camp” for migrants on a vacant, privately owned lot in the area.

The recent shift toward e-cigarettes that can’t be refilled has created a new environmental dilemma. The devices, which contain nicotine, lithium and other metals, cannot be reused or recycled. Under federal environmental law, they also aren’t supposed to go in the trash.

The prolonged stalemate risks keeping the House intractably shut down for the foreseeable future after the unprecedented ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker. 

The Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) announced the cutoff date on Thursday, making good on a spring promise to limit membership in order to keep costs in check. Activists who want the program expanded rather than curtailed said that the move was expected but nonetheless disappointing.

“Any violent act against an elected official in our city is unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest terms," Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement.