On Monday, WTTW News launches a new initiative, “A Safer City.” In an effort to help facilitate the complicated but necessary conversation around violence, we aim to explore violence in all its forms with depth and nuance.

Starting a business from scratch takes a lot of work — not to mention capital. A startup initiative from Google is helping Black and Latino entrepreneurs reach their goals.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, a policy that withstood challenges reaching as far back as 1978. Now, higher education institutions wishing to achieve racially diverse student bodies have to find a new way forward.

Already wildfires are consuming three times more of the United States and Canada each year than in the 1980s, and studies predict fire and smoke to worsen.

With an audience approaching about 8,500 people, Maestro Riccardo Muti led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the “Concert for Chicago” in Millennium Park. He ended his 13-year tenure as CSO music director but will continue to conduct some performances.

Erik Varela of the Illinois International Port District said the port brings in steel, iron, concrete and sand. “If the port were to go away or not be invested in, you have to imagine that those commodities are going to go elsewhere, those jobs and those things will go there.”

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is ringing in fiscal year 2024 by celebrating a record-high $1.94 billion in Illinois’ “rainy day” fund and setting her sights on doubling that figure in the next decade.

The synthetic opioid fentanyl remains a danger in Chicago, especially in Black and Latino communities, where the odds of a fentanyl-involved overdose have significantly increased in recent years.

The devastating impact of fentanyl. Upgrading the Illinois International Port District. Some big tech winners. And what to know about the city's new minimum wage.

The impact of the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in college admissions. Traffic stops targeting Black drivers. And the Festival of Life kicks off in Washington Park.

Some workers in Cook County will find a little more in their paychecks starting this month.

Chicago buckles down for this weekend’s NASCAR race. City residents choke down the world’s worst air quality. The president visits Chicago amid a major week of Supreme Court rulings. And Connor Bedard becomes a Hawk.

The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois accuses the Chicago Police Department of making more than 1 million traffic stops between 2016 and 2022 based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans.

Organizers said the four-day festival will be a “grand celebration” to bring community together. The event celebrates African and Caribbean art, cuisine, dance and music.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed House Bill 3882, which will phase out the “Temporary Visitor Driver’s License,” or TVDL, which noncitizens currently use to drive legally in Illinois. The new law takes effect July 1, 2024.