Stories by Nick Blumberg

Chicago is a city of firsts — everything from the first Ferris wheel to the first brownie and the world’s very first skyscraper. WTTW News explains.

The Chicago Police Department has fully met just 6% of the consent decree’s requirements, according to the most recent report by the team monitoring CPD’s progress.

Starting Monday, voters in Chicago will have more places to cast their ballots ahead of the Illinois primary election on March 19.

A new bill in the General Assembly would seek to remove the roughly $200,000 cap on payments to exonerees that maxes out at the 14-year mark, replacing it with a payout of $50,000 per year, capped at just over $2 million.

A bill pending in the General Assembly would give back roughly 1,500 acres of park land in DeKalb County to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. That tribe once occupied much of the Great Lakes region but was forcibly removed in the 19th century.

Tammy McCann recently previewed a one-woman show dedicated to the life and work of gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. McCann will soon head to New York to once again pay homage to the queen of gospel.

“Message in a Bottle,” which runs through Sunday at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, is simply a phenomenal production that should not be missed, writes WTTW News theater critic Hedy Weiss.

The spotlight shines brightly these days on Chicago band Brigitte Calls Me Baby. The group just had its national TV debut on “CBS Saturday Morning,” and the influential public radio station WXPN called the band “future rock royalty.”

For the last in our series on invasive species that can be mistaken for natives, here’s one of the trickiest: phragmites, also known as common reed.

Trump is ruled ineligible in Illinois but will stay on the ballot. And all signs point to the Bears drafting a superstar prospect with the first overall pick.

There are still more than 20,000 hospitalizations and more than 2,000 deaths each week due to the coronavirus, according to the CDC. And people 65 and older have the highest hospitalization and death rates.

It’s official, Chicago: February 2024 was the warmest in 153 years of recording keeping.

Most people have some degree of immunity to the coronavirus from past vaccinations or from infections. And many people are not following the five-day isolation guidance anyway, some experts say.

Walgreens will begin dispensing the medication within a week at some locations in several states, including Illinois.

Students at the University of Illinois Chicago are conducting the survey as part of a capstone project, which focuses on getting rider feedback on the UIC Halsted Blue Line station, Roosevelt Red Line station and the Clark/Division Red Line station.

Illinois signed a contract for $640,000 for a report that could help legislators determine the value of the state’s recently defunct private school scholarship program, but a lack of data makes its findings “inconclusive.”

In 2017, poet and author Erika L. Sánchez published her first novel, “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.” Now, Hollywood is calling, with a book-to-film adaptation with award-winning actress America Ferrera on board to make her big-screen directing debut.

Illinois’ insurance code prohibits discrimination, but state Rep. Will Guzzardi said there’s a difference between impact and intent. Even if insurance agents aren’t doing it maliciously, Guzzardi said, algorithms end up perpetuating inequities and punishing people of color and low-income drivers.

Nearly half of surveyed Latinos rely on social media sites like TikTok and WhatsApp for their news and information. This has allowed for the spread of misinformation and disinformation, where fact checking in Spanish is less available.

Do auto insurance rates discriminate? Advice for navigating the spread of misinformation. And a local author is taking her book to the big screen.

The free shop is located inside a Chicago Public Schools Parent University, which offers classes and workshops on topics like financial literacy, career development and more.

In honor of National Invasive Species Awareness Week, we’re posting daily “dupes” — invasives that can easily be confused with native species. Today we’re featuring two tiny freshwater mussels that couldn’t have less in common.

Utilizing footage captured by a drone, flight members swoop through iconic landmarks in seats engineered to feel every dip and dive of the ride, just as if you were on a rollercoaster.

The ruling from Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter, an elected Democrat, concluded that Trump is barred from office under the 14th Amendment because he engaged in the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

U.S. District Court Judge John Kness has yet to set a trial date for Austin, who pleaded not guilty after her June 2021 indictment. The hearing, which lasted less than 15 minutes, was the first time Austin has appeared in a federal courtroom since her indictment.

Eight photographs and one video taken late last year purported to show the conditions of the funeral home depict piles of dirty sheets, a dead rodent rotting in a stairway and water running from pipes in the embalming room.