Stories by Blair Paddock

It’s said the South Side Irish Parade started with about a dozen children marching around West Morgan Park with shamrocks and Irish flags. Now, organizers say it’s the largest community-based St. Patrick’s Day parade outside of Dublin.

College basketball’s most famous fan, Sister Jean, is finally telling her own story. At 103 years old, the Loyola University Chicago matriarch is releasing the memoir “Wake Up with Purpose! What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years.”

Some South Shore residents have been without heat and hot water. Organizers said the situation highlights concerns over possible displacement and rising housing costs caused by the coming Obama Presidential Center, just blocks away.

For the past several years, the Chicago Police Department has solved an average of 50% of the city’s homicides per year. But that number, known as a clearance rate, is even lower for Black victims.

A South Side community is getting up to $15 million to ensure it continues to tell the story of the Great Migration in the early 1900s. The Bronzeville-Black Metropolis National Heritage Area stretches from the South Loop to Woodlawn and is home to natural, historic and cultural resources.

Awaiting the white smoke in the never-ending U.S. House speaker sweepstakes. Illinois House members pass an assault weapons ban in the middle of the night. And the Bears' season mercifully comes to an end.

Advocacy groups around the city have banded together in an effort to shift that shame by trying to address the root causes of gender-based violence. The Survivor Power Institute, made up of 10 organization across Chicago, launched their pilot in November.

The approval of TIF money to fund the southern expansion of the Red Line could have a big impact on the historic public housing community of Altgeld Gardens.

Poverty and violence are part of the West Side community area’s story. But community members say there’s much more to it, and residents are making new traditions. 

Inflation, gas prices, retail — we take a look at the top business stories of the year and look into our crystal ball for 2023.

The so-called “Workers’ Rights Amendment” aims to codify in the state constitution the right to form a union and collectively bargain over a host of issues. It would effectively prohibit any future anti-union legislation, like right-to-work laws.