Stories by nick blumberg

Christina Shutt will be the fifth executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the first person of color to hold the title.

The last 14 months have been incredibly difficult for Chicago’s usually booming hospitality industry. Though many hotels are still grappling with lower occupancy rates and many employees are still laid off, a recent uptick in travel means things are starting to look up.

For extra help with its massive $2.1 billion modernization project, the CTA hired a joint venture made up of three firms, including a locally owned company that started in a South Side attic. Rashod Johnson tells us about his company and his love of civil engineering.

The project’s many delays – some due to unexpected maintenance, some to funding availability – became a source of both frustration and humor for trail users and observers, who joked about the flyover taking longer than engineering marvels like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sears Tower. 

The long-awaited, sometimes-maligned structure carrying the lakefront trail over Grand Avenue, Illinois Street and the Chicago River has missed its latest target to wrap up in April. But the Chicago Department of Transportation says it’s “very close” to completion.

Chicago has more lead service pipes than any other U.S. city. Last year the city announced a plan to slowly replace those lines, an effort which has yet to get underway. Now, state lawmakers want to tackle the toxic problem—and they want Congress to foot the bill.

People who have stayed away from public transit because of the coronavirus pandemic say they expect to return to buses and trains, but the shift toward working from home is likely to change when, why and how often people ride, according to a just-released survey.

A bill that would create a 21-member elected board to oversee Chicago Public Schools advanced Wednesday in Springfield, but some lawmakers who supported the bill said they’re not yet fully sold on it. CPS parents tell us how they think the school board should be structured.

COVID-19 surges and vaccine eligibility expands. The vice president hits town. Strained relations between Mayor Lightfoot and Gov. Pritzker. And CTU may delay a return to class for high schoolers.

A group of Amazon employees walked out of the mega-retailer’s Gage Park distribution center Wednesday morning, calling on the company to stop understaffing the facility and to provide accommodations for people working a 10.5-hour overnight “megacycle” shift.

The Illinois Predatory Lending Prevention Act was recently signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The legislation had support from organizations around the state, but critics say the law could shut down the payday lending industry in Illinois, leading to a host of bigger problems.