You’ve done your research. Made your choices. Cast your ballot. What happens next? WTTW News explains the ballot counting and storing procedure used in Chicago. 

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona doubled down on the administration’s commitment to providing student debt relief in an op-ed published Saturday, and encouraged those eligible to continue applying through the live online application.

Approximately 62% of applicants have jobs, and nearly half have sought medical attention at a hospital’s emergency room in the past year, officials said. An initial lottery will identify 10,000 applicants to verify the information contained in their applications.

In many ways, the story of Mayor Harold Washington’s rise to City Hall is distinctly Chicagoan. But the makers of the documentary “Punch 9 for Harold Washington,” say his election had reverberations far beyond the city’s borders.

“There’s no one thing,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday when questioned about his top priority. “There’s multiple, multiple, multiple issues, and they’re all important. ... We ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. You know, that old expression.”

Despite a growth in population size, the Latino community is underrepresented in politics, with less than 2% of Latinos in elected positions nationwide. 

Gubernatorial candidates punch hard in a final debate. Bailey scores big deposit from conservative billionaire and we dig into other big races. In sports, the Bulls tip off the season as the Bears try to stave off collapse.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay while it considers a motion from six Republican-led states to block the loan cancellation program. The stay ordered the Biden administration not to act on the program while it considers the appeal. The order came just days after people began applying for loan forgiveness.

During the Chicago Police Department’s annual budget hearing, under intense questioning from members of the Chicago City Council, Brown said he had “zero tolerance” for police officers who are members of hate groups or associate with members of hate groups.

Paul La Schiazza, 65, entered the plea through his attorneys during a brief hearing Friday morning, one week after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy and other crimes.

Changes are coming to the SAFE-T Act, the new law that, among many other things, does away with cash bail starting in the new year. It's become a political flashpoint in the race for governor and took center stage at the last debate.

Truss became the third Conservative prime minister to be toppled in as many years, extending the instability that has shaken Britain since it broke off from the European Union and leaving its leadership in limbo as the country faces a cost-of-living crisis and looming recession.

Human rights groups say more than 100 people have been killed in Iran since the death of a 22-year-old woman who was in the custody of police. Iranian Americans in Chicago have a message they want everyone to hear: “Stand with Iranian women.”

Black Americans have historically been the most reliable voting block for the Democratic Party for decades. But in her book, “Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future,” Chicago native and Harvard research director Brandi Collins-Dexter says the picture is much more nuanced.

Thanks to a “little-known loophole,” hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate investors have “siphoned” approximately $280 million from schools, parks, libraries, fire departments and other government agencies between September 2015 and September 2022 in Cook County. 

The final debate in the race for governor turns out to be short on substance but high on name-calling. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.