The first-of-its-kind audit by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg of the city’s workers compensation system found “major improvement” in the system that paid $73.5 million to resolve approximately 3,700 claims in 2022.

The race to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin is heating up. U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss the changes coming to Illinois politics and her candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

Democrat Pritzker, who has been one of the more vocal critics of Trump’s second administration, signed the order last week, saying he wanted to protect “dignity, privacy, and the freedom to live without fear of surveillance or discrimination.”

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Pope Leo XIV spoke off-the-cuff in English in the Sistine Chapel to the cardinals who elected him to follow in the footsteps of Pope Francis, who put a commitment to social justice at the core of his papacy. He acknowledged the great responsibility they had placed on him before delivering a brief but dense homily on the need to joyfully spread Christianity.

The Chicago Transit Board took no action on the potential appointment of a new agency president at a hastily scheduled special board meeting Thursday afternoon, despite widespread concern the meeting would see directors consider Mayor Brandon Johnson’s reported pick for the role.

Cardinal Robert Prevost was born in Chicago, grew up in south suburban Dolton and served as prior of a local Augustinian order. He will now be known as Pope Leo XIV.

White smoke poured from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and the great bells of St. Peter’s Basilica tolled Thursday after cardinals elected the 267th pope to lead the Catholic Church on the second day of their conclave.

The deal that former Ald. Danny Solis made to work as a government informant ensured he would avoid a trial and keep his city pension, which paid him nearly $109,000 last year.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union when things quickly devolved. Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me."

That massive growth funneled $5.84 billion into the special districts designed to spur redevelopment and eradicate blight, according to five years of reports on TIF districts published by the Cook County Clerk’s Office examined by WTTW News.

Tax-increment financing wasn’t invented in Chicago, but former Mayor Richard M. Daley perfected it as he worked to transform Mud City into a gleaming metropolis.

Casey Means has no government experience and dropped out of her surgical residency program, saying she became disillusioned with traditional medicine. She founded a health tech company and makes money from dietary supplements, creams, teas and other products sponsored on her social media accounts.