The grants from the Department of Agriculture are part of a three-year-old program aimed at making it easier for local farmers to process and distribute food locally. In total, 61 organizations received grants, 16 of them in Cook County and the other 45 distributed among 34 other counties.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office has reached a settlement agreement with the Northern Illinois Gas Company to cut the natural gas utility’s requested rate increase by approximately $140 million.

The report, “Hunkering Down: The Hidden Economic Cost of Federal Immigration Enforcement in Cook County, IL,” was released by UIC’s Great Cities Institute. The report also found an estimated $107 million was lost in local sales tax revenue.

Chicago’s airports are projected to see more passengers than last year, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. For those hitting the road, car traffic is expected to peak Thursday and Friday, according to AAA.

The growth was driven by around 115 million domestic and international tourists.

A proposed $200 million transformation would convert the former commercial shopping site into a warehouse and distribution facility; there would be a new CTA bus terminal, reconstructed streets and sidewalks and a publicly accessible plaza.

A Chicago-based team is working to get the so-called O’Hare Flyer off the ground in the next five years. The proposed express train would run from downtown Chicago to Terminal 2 at O’Hare International Airport in just 15 minutes.

Tuesday will mark two weeks since a derecho swept through Illinois and northwest Indiana, with winds damaging homes, uprooting trees and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands.

The Daily Herald News Guild has filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, according to a news release. The union would represent 20 eligible staff members at the newspaper, according to the organizing committee.

The median sale price for homes in Chicago hit $425,000 in July, according to data from Illinois Realtors. That’s a 13.3% increase from last year. Across the state, the median price of $338,000 represented a 6% increase in a year.

Customers could receive the drone deliveries in as fast as 30 minutes, Amazon said in a news release. The drones can carry packages up to 5 pounds.

ABC on Tuesday took the rare step of suing the Federal Communications Commission on First Amendment grounds, saying the agency’s demand for early review of its broadcast licenses posed an “existential threat” to the network.

While the neighborhood around the Original Rainbow Cone has changed, one thing has remained the same — those five iconic flavors: chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House, pistachio and orange sherbet.

A Powerball ticket sold at a gas station in western Illinois was the sole winner of the $1 billion jackpot, ending a three-month drought without a top-prize victor.

John Ballantine served as a trustee at Window to the World Communications, the parent organization of WTTW and WFMT, for 34 years and served as a vice chair during his tenure.

The upgraded station is part of a broader CTA initiative to make all rail stations fully accessible by 2038. Upgrades to the Austin Green Line station include a new elevator and escalator, reconstructed stairs, a new ramp, an extended platform and a monitor that displays real-time elevator status information.