Stories by Associated Press

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Bob Uecker was a beloved member of the baseball community and a pillar of the sport in Wisconsin.

A Chilean flamingo died Jan. 8 and a harbor seal died Jan. 9, with testing confirming highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) as the cause, Lincoln Park Zoo officials said.

City Council votes on an effort to weaken protections for undocumented immigrants. Why Black Illinoisans are experiencing homelessness at a high rate. And a push to wipe medical debt from credit reports.

The report from the University of Illinois Chicago showed a number of structural issues contributing to this disparity — a lack of affordable housing and sufficient income chief among them.

While advocates argue the change will provide great financial relief to millions struggling with high health care costs, critics contend it could harm financial systems and incentivize delinquency.

After days of increasing alarm among advocates for immigrant rights, the showdown over whether to amend Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance, was anti-climactic.

Outgoing Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter capped his nearly 10-year run leading the massive agency at a board meeting Wednesday, saying he’d be “forever grateful for this opportunity to serve our customers (and) the people of the city of Chicago.”

Allie, one of Brookfield Zoo’s bottlenose dolphins, is expecting a calf in late spring/early summer.

The Transportation Department said its investigation found that Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights — one between Chicago Midway International Airport and Oakland, California, and another between Baltimore, Maryland, and Cleveland, Ohio.

The City Council voted 49-1 to create a working group to come up with ways Chicago can change its traffic ticketing system so Black, Latino and low-income residents are no longer disproportionately hit with fines.

The move comes nearly 35 years after the dye known as Red 3 was barred from cosmetics because of potential cancer risk.

As a new General Assembly begins, it remains unclear how lawmakers and the governor plan to plug the projected deficit. Republicans’ main concern is Democrats will resort to tax increases to boost revenue and avoid spending cuts.

In all, the settlements approved Wednesday account for nearly half of the city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.

Many longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction after a brutal conflict that has destabilized the broader Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg's probe found the department members offered the deputy chief inappropriate “professional courtesy.”

“This moment is no doubt historic," elected member Ellen Rosenfeld said, "not just for me but for all of us, because this body reflects the voices and values of the majority of the people of our district.”

The proposal comes as the Chicago region’s transit agencies are facing down an estimated $750 million fiscal cliff next year when COVID-19 relief money runs out — and amid conversations in Springfield about tying increased transit funding to major changes to the existing public transit structure.

The immediate challenges facing the new school board members are enormous: They must ink a new deal with the teachers union, pick a new leader and confront the threat posed by President-elect Donald Trump’s promises to deport thousands of undocumented Chicagoans.

Chicago Public Schools chief Pedro Martinez joins us in his first sit-down interview since being fired. And former House Speaker Michael Madigan wraps up his testimony.

Just days before Christmas, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez was terminated in a unanimous vote by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handpicked Board of Education.

Tuesday marked Madigan’s fourth day on the witness stand and his second facing cross-examination by government prosecutors.

Mayor Brandon Johnson slammed S&P’s decision to downgrade the city’s credit rating, saying it was based on inaccurate information.

José “Cha Cha” Jiménez in the 1960s founded the Young Lords as a street gang to counter the growing hostility toward the Puerto Rican community in Lincoln Park, at the time one of the most impoverished neighborhoods of Chicago.

The certification is a validation that the forest preserve district is providing an appropriate home and care for its ambassador animals, officials said. Some animal rights activists disagree.

Under the new bill, Illinois would increase the age for mandatory behind-the-wheel driving tests from 79 to 87. The proposal also creates a mechanism for relatives to report family members of any age they believe are unsafe drivers.

David W. Grainger, a longtime supporter of WTTW who led W.W. Grainger Inc. for almost three decades and ran a family foundation dedicated to making a “positive difference,” died Jan. 9 at age 97.