(WTTW News)
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The next mayor will face a number of education hurdles, including the transition to an elected school board, a new teachers union contract, securing school funding and the end of a moratorium on school closures.

Members of the Chicago City Council meet on Wednesday, May 26, 2021. (WTTW News)

The proposal – which has not yet been debated in public – could get a final vote on Thursday as part of supporters’ push for a quick vote before the runoff between Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson set for April 4.

(Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
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The only violence people wanted to hear about was the harm being done to their health due to decades of pollution from surrounding industries.

Mayoral candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas made their case to voters at a packed forum held in Pilsen, and the words “crime” and “police” didn't come up once.

Two people cross LaSalle Street. (Provided: City of Chicago)

The three proposals would invest $550 million in the Loop to build 1,059 apartments in what is now mostly empty office space, including 317 units set aside for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans as part of an effort to reduce segregation in Chicago in return for $188 million in city subsidies, officials said.

Evanston's city council approved a cash option to its Housing Restorative Program. (Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP/Getty Images / File via CNN)

On Monday night, the Evanston City Council approved a cash option to its Housing Restorative Program. Now, the program includes direct cash benefits for those who qualify.

(WTTW News)
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The independent expenditure funded by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, paid for $258,000 in cable television advertisements on March 16 and $359,000 in digital advertising on March 15, records show. 

(WTTW News)
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Buses that never show up and unreliable train travel times. Filling a CTA staffing shortfall. And a push for better bike safety. Those are just a few of the transit topics on the minds of voters

Chicago mayoral candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas. (Provided)
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Much of the focus has been on the mayoral candidates’ public safety plans, but whoever emerges victorious on April 4 will also inherit environmental and climate-related challenges.

Inmates at the Cook County, Ill., jail vote in a local election at the jail's Division 11 Chapel on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast)
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Detainees awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences retain the right to vote, but face barriers to exercising it in many parts of the U.S. Cook County Jail, with more than 5,500 inmates and detainees, is one of the largest jails in the nation.

Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, poses for a portrait inside an exam room at Planned Parenthood Friday, March 10, 2023, in Fairview Heights, Ill. (AP Photo / Jeff Roberson)
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Hundreds of women travel each week to the southern tip of Illinois to secure an abortion, something that is no longer available to millions living in a 1,800 mile stretch of 11 Southern states that have mostly banned pregnancy terminations.

Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson will compete in the mayoral runoff. (WTTW)

The race for Chicago mayor enters its final stretch. Political speechwriter, debate strategist and senior lecturer at Northwestern University Jason DeSanto breaks down the latest developments in a tightening race.

Paul Vallas fields questions from the news media on Feb. 7, 2023, after the WTTW News mayoral forum. (Liz Markel / WTTW)

Efforts by the leaders of large cities across the country to bring back officers amid a nationwide staffing crunch have fallen short, and experts on policing told WTTW News there is no evidence that Chicago will prove to be any different.

(WTTW News)

Inside Madigan’s inner operations. Early voting opens in the mayor’s race. And so many cars on the Kennedy.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel appears on "Chicago Tonight" on March 23, 2023. (WTTW News)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is now more than a year old with little sign of any resolution in the near future. Meanwhile, the U.S. has supplied billions of dollars’ worth of military aid and supplies to help push the invading Russians back. Many wonder how much more might it take.

(WTTW News)

Federal regulators just approved a merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, with Chicago as part of the route linking Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

A pile of challenged books appear at the Utah Pride Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer, File)
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More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the American Library Association began keeping data 20 years ago.