Stories by nick blumberg

Late last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a deal to sell the love-it-or-hate it state building downtown to the Prime Group for $70 million. The development firm plans to overhaul the Helmut Jahn-designed structure rather than demolish it and start anew, as others had proposed.

The Obama Presidential Center announced Thursday that a number of its spaces will be named for historic human and civil rights figures. But as that center marches closer toward its opening date, one neighboring community has concerns about the center’s impact on longtime residents.

As 2021 draws to a close, the 2022 election is already well underway and Chicago’s election in early 2023 is looming on the horizon. On a special holiday edition of “The Week in Review,” a look at what offices are on the ballot, who’s running, and the key issues at stake.

In 2017, federal and state leaders heralded a massive new factory in southern Wisconsin to be built by Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn. The facility was supposed to create thousands of jobs and spur economic development, but a new book argues those promises have come up short.

A new report says we collectively understand women’s health far less than men’s health. That’s because just a fraction of research funds to study things like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and autoimmune disease go toward studying women -- even though they disproportionately face those diseases.

Women have lost nearly 3 million jobs since February 2020. A look at the barriers facing low-income, working mothers.

A University of Illinois Chicago lab and its partners have been tracking the virus that causes coronavirus in wastewater and sharing the data with local public health agencies. 

Local leaders are working to redevelop a massive city site into a mixed-use, community-driven project. They’ve gotten millions in seed money from the state — and are hoping for city support, too.

The exposition kicks off Friday. Past editions have been based at the Chicago Cultural Center, but now, its focus shifts to neighborhoods across Chicago — and to finding creative opportunities to meet those communities’ needs.

City Council colleagues of Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th Ward) are calling for him to be punished after text messages show him using offensive language and seeking to withhold city services from a constituent. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.

Des Plaines is a diverse suburb just north of O’Hare Airport. It has a high vaccination rate but is still facing an uptick in COVID-19 cases. It’s also looking forward to the reopening of a historic theater, and the expansion of one of its major employers.