Stories by WTTW News

The holiday shopping season is here — we visit some small businesses you can add to your next trip. And how local Native Americans are celebrating their heritage.

Chicago is home to one of the largest urban Native American populations in the United States. More than 65,000 Native Americans live in the greater metropolitan area, representing about 175 different tribes.

Brighten your Black Friday – and Saturday and Sunday – by taking part in a communal experience in the arts. Here are five picks. 

Researchers aren’t sure whether dinosaurs’ rise over the course of 30 million years happened because of luck, skill, climate or some combination. But they came away knowing this: “It was not a sudden thing,” said study co-author Martin Qvarnström from Uppsala University.

Some shoppers may remember lining up to score Black Friday deals and discounts on Thanksgiving evening. However, this changed in 2020, when many stores opted to stay closed to limit crowding during the pandemic and spread out the holiday shopping season.

“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and Administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

It’s an annual tradition even non-birders have come to enjoy as huge flocks of sandhill cranes head from their northern breeding grounds to their winter home in Florida.

Each Wednesday, WTTW News producer Josh Terry presents must-see live music shows from indie rock to jazz, country, hip-hop and more.

Conditions for a potential winter storm never materialized, which should make for largely pleasant travel conditions this Thanksgiving.

Misconduct allegations against one of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s former top staffers. And what’s on the menu this holiday season — the co-hosts of “America’s Test Kitchen” on that and their new cookbook.

With more than 600 episodes and 2 million weekly viewers, “America’s Test Kitchen” has become a household staple. The show has been on public television since 2001 with the aim of putting home cooks at ease by focusing on their needs.

Former Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward) marks the most substantial witness in the government’s case against former House Speaker Michael Madigan. Solis began his testimony last week, and he is expected to be on the witness stand for several days.

“Letters Beyond Form: Chicago Types” is a modestly scaled but ambitious exhibition currently occupying the Design Museum of Chicago on Randolph Street across from the Chicago Cultural Center.

Employees from 13 different state agencies are involved in the fraud and have illegally taken these federal public funds, according to the OEIG, which is charged with investigating allegations of misconduct within state government. As of April, more than 60% of those implicated to date worked for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which operates mental health hospitals and developmental centers across the state.

In a federal courtroom on Monday, Solis testified that his call back to the speaker two minutes later opened a whole new avenue of focus for the feds’ still-unfolding corruption investigation, and added Madigan to the list of people he would surreptitiously record and lure into the FBI’s trap.

Israel’s security Cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement late Tuesday after it was presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his office said. U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, called the agreement “good news” and said his administration would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Nearly 1.5 million travelers are expected to pass through O’Hare — an 11% increase in passenger traffic compared to last year, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. Sunday is expected to be the busiest travel day for the city’s airports.

Officials suspect the plant — hydrilla — which is banned in Illinois may have been dumped from an individual's aquarium.

Hundreds gather to remember slain CPD Officer Enrique Martinez. Many after-school programs say they’re at risk of losing funding. And meet some of the members of Chicago’s first elected school board.

Trump's choices don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV.

With transit advocates hopeful they’ll see shovels in the ground next year to kick off the long-awaited Red Line Extension, the Chicago Transit Authority is racing to finalize the $1.9 billion in federal funding needed to complete the 5.6-mile project before the Biden administration leaves office.

A legislative committee and the Illinois Department of Agriculture agreed recently to delay finalizing new regulations governing hemp production amid an outcry of protests from small, independent producers.

After another CPD officer “unreasonably and without a lawful purpose” struck a protester, the deputy chief “improperly grabbed the same protestor while they were on the ground and sprayed them directly in the face with Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) spray,” according to a report from the city’s watchdog.

The Justice Department believes President-elect Donald Trump can no longer be tried in accordance with longstanding policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said he will ask the Chicago City Council to restore 162 now-vacant positions to the Chicago Police Department charged with implementing the court order known as the consent decree. Johnson reversed course after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the team monitoring the city’s compliance with the consent decree warned the cuts would make it impossible for the city to comply with the requirements. 

For the son of a president-elect, Trump has already had an outsized impact on the next White House. He lobbied hard for the former president to choose his good friend, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, to be his running mate.