Stories by Eunice Alpasan

After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, an initial 80,000 Afghans were evacuated to the U.S. in 2021 following America’s botched withdrawal from the country. More than 2,300 Afghan evacuees have since resettled in Illinois, according the Illinois Department of Human Services.

The Chicago nonprofit helps patients access advanced care or specialized treatment often only found in major cities at a limited number of hospitals or academic medical centers. A 25th anniversary celebration is planned for Monday.

Joe Walsh, former Republican congressman for Illinois, and Fred Guttenberg, a gun safety advocate whose daughter Jaime Guttenberg was murdered in the Parkland school shooting in 2018, have come together for their ‘Two Dads Defending Democracy' tour.

Get to the airport early and do your research ahead of time about what you can pack, TSA officials said.

Klaus Mäkelä has been called “perhaps the fastest-rising conductor of his generation” by The New York Times. He will be the 11th music director in the ensemble’s 133-year history.

“The City is Up for Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis” by Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look into Lightfoot's tumultuous tenure in office.

More than 2,200 Chicago Park District workers, represented by the union SEIU Local 73, have been in contract negotiations for nine months, the union said.

“We see a lot with our clients, this cycle of domestic violence, and unfortunately, a cycle of systems failing victims,” said Ashley Olson, associate director of Ascend Justice. 

The Democratic race between retired judge Eileen O’Neill Burke and former prosecutor Clayton Harris for Cook County state’s attorney remains too close to call.

Select voting locations will have assigned bilingual poll workers and paper ballots in Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog and Polish, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. Additionally, every precinct polling place in the city will have a touchscreen voting machine and audio ballot in 12 languages.

The special anniversary celebration will take place July 18-21, in addition to the annual film and music events programming offered at Millennium Park.

"The role of the journalist has never been more important, and the ideals of a free press never more consequential than it is today," architect John Ronan said.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and several other state agencies are holding a job fair Thursday at the UIC Jane Addams College of Social Work.

There’s no more iconic Chicago St. Patrick’s Day tradition than dyeing the Chicago River green.

The construction is part of the second phase of a three-year, $150 million project to rehab the I-90/I-94 Kennedy Expressway from the I-94 Edens Expressway junction to Ohio Street.

For a third year in a row, complaints regarding home repair and remodeling top the list of written consumer complaints filed to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

Health officials said they are working to identify and notify people who may have been exposed to measles, including at the facilities where the resident sought medical care.

Some teenagers in Illinois who are too young to vote for this year's primary and general election are already preparing for their first chance to vote in other future elections.

Starting Monday, voters in Chicago will have more places to cast their ballots ahead of the Illinois primary election on March 19.

Students at the University of Illinois Chicago are conducting the survey as part of a capstone project, which focuses on getting rider feedback on the UIC Halsted Blue Line station, Roosevelt Red Line station and the Clark/Division Red Line station.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC, is facing a $1 billion budget shortfall, and Congress has until March to secure funding. Illinois would need about $24 million in additional funding for the 2024 fiscal year to serve its eligible population.

Local health officials are working to notify people who may have been exposed to measles after a northwest Indiana resident sought medical care last week in Chicago while contagious with the infection.

National Nurses United represents 2,800 nurses at UChicago Medicine. A strike authorization vote is part of standard procedure, where represented nurses give the union the authority to call a strike. 

The Chicago Board of Elections offices on the sixth floor of 69 W. Washington St. and its Loop Supersite at 191 N. Clark St. will reopen for early voting on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

With early voting kicking off at two downtown locations, election officials are calling on voters to make a plan to vote early. Early voting in all 50 wards will begin March 4. The Illinois primary election is March 19.

“Aging is not a uniform phenomenon that happens equally,” said Jay Olshansky, professor of public health at the University of Illinois Chicago.