Stories by Paul Caine

Last year, Illinois residents wagered $7.1 billion according to the Illinois Gaming Board. Now, just in time for March Madness, Illinois has dropped an in-person registration requirement for sports bettors — making it even easier to gamble using online apps.

The strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza circulating in the U.S., the first since 2016, doesn’t appear to pose a threat to humans, but is highly contagious among birds and often fatal.

If last week’s gas giveaway is any indication, people can expect to be idling in their cars for upwards of an hour or more Thursday as they wait their turn at the pump for Willie Wilson’s $1 million giveaway. 

The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday unanimously approved a calendar for the 2022-23 school year that sees students return to classes on Aug. 22, a full week earlier than they did during the current year.

The Chicago City Council voted 34-13 to settle the lawsuit, the first significant payment approved by city officials to compensate Chicagoans who alleged they were mistreated by Chicago Police officers during the unrest and protests that swept the city in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. 

Jackson appeared for a third day before the Senate Judiciary Committee for tense confirmation hearings, providing a vivid portrait of the nation’s promise, but also its enduring racial challenges.

Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, has died of cancer, her family said Wednesday. She was 84.

Special menus, fancy footwork, wines and spirits, and vegan fare usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in and around Chicago this weekend.

A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs confirmed that Solomon, who regularly DJs at clubs in Miami and New York under the alias “D-sol” will hit the stage at Lollapalooza, which hosted about 400,000 attendees in 2019.

Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications and the Chicago Police Department say they’ve coordinated with Willie Wilson and his staff, and will provide city resources “to mitigate traffic conditions and ensure public safety.”

A senior NATO military official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released — intentionally or not — and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

Mothers and family members who are seeking justice in the killings of their loved ones stood outside the Chicago FBI field office. The rally was organized by the Little Village Community Council as a way to bring attention to unsolved homicides in the city and to ask the FBI for assistance.

There were more than 12 million new weekly cases and just under 33,000 deaths, a 23% decline in mortality, according to the U.N. health agency’s report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday.

Rain Friday and Saturday created less-than-ideal fishing conditions for catching rainbow trout at Rock Creek ahead of a statewide, two-week catch-and-release period for a select few bodies of water that began Saturday.

Details on which bids made the cut for Chicago's casino. Meet a Ukrainian medical student in Chicago who is helping organize aid. And a new documentary on the 1963 Loyola Ramblers 

Rush University medical student Dmytro Mysak left Ukraine with his parents when he was 3 years old, but still has family living there. Now, he is organizing a relief effort for refugees of the war. 

Civilians fleeing Mariupol said the city was under relentless bombardment, with block after block of destroyed buildings and corpses in the streets. But the Kremlin’s ground offensive in other parts of the country advanced slowly or not at all, knocked back by lethal Ukrainian hit-and-run attacks.

Oscar Levant was a virtuosic pianist, conflicted champion of George Gershwin, conductor, film actor, author, proudly uncensored comic and self-confessed victim of mental illness. Actor Sean Hayes is so riveting, and so real, in his portrayal that you might begin to wonder if Levant has been fully reincarnated.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot does not expect to pick one of the three finalists and ask the Chicago City Council to ratify her decision until early summer, a significant delay since the fall, officials said.

Canadian Pacific covers much of the U.S. Midwest and is a large shipper of potash and fertilizer for agriculture. It also carries grain from the U.S. to its northern neighbor for domestic use and exports. The railroad serves the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and other states.

There is more than a touch of genius on display in the American Blues Theater’s production of “Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight.” The conceptual magic of the work is enhanced by a tour de force performance. 

The world premiere play “King James” spotlights the work of two Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble members who loved basketball long before they loved theater.

The Chicago Board of Education will vote this week on that proposed calendar, which includes a start date of Aug. 22, 2022. That’s a week earlier than this year’s start date of Aug. 30 and well before the typical post-Labor Day start time for the district.

The centerpiece of Mayor Lori Lightfoot's efforts to crack down on crime after violence soared in 2021, the measure will remain in limbo for at least another month.

Details on City Hall’s new electronic voting system. Plus, the Senate begins historic hearings for President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. And electronic monitoring is used to track your location – but what happens when it’s wrong?

In the county’s electronic monitoring program administered by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office, defendants wear an ankle monitor equipped with GPS and cellular tower tracking technology. Some say the readings are not always accurate, leading to incorrect reports of violations.