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The $50.6 billion spending plan (SB250) passed the Illinois Senate late Thursday night, with only the support of Democrats who drafted it.

Beach season will run through Sept. 4. The city’s pools are expected to open by June 23.

The Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to build a 25-foot-tall “toxic tower” on Lake Michigan has hit a speed bump.

The mayor and police unveil the city’s weekend safety plans. The latest from Springfield as the budget deadline approaches. And how Chicagoans are celebrating AAPI Heritage Month.

May marks Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month. Across Chicago, members of those communities have made the city their home while keeping their cultural traditions alive.

“The Gospel at Colonus” is based on “Oedipus at Colonus,” Sophocles’ 2,500-year-old play about an aging king who seeks redemption after a life of sin. The revival just opened at Court Theatre in Hyde Park.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that narrows the Clean Water Act’s authority to regulate certain wetlands has met with disappointment, frustration and head-scratching among Great Lakes environmentalists.

The mayor was joined by several community leaders and city department leaders at 63rd Street Beach Thursday afternoon to outline Chicago’s public safety plan ahead of what has historically been a violent weekend.

Legislators and environmental activists alike say they were caught off guard by fast-tracked proposals that would pave the way for a private entity to own a piece of an expanded I-55. 

A music festival, wreath ceremony and giant sculptures usher in the weekend. Here are five things to do in and around Chicago.

The audit documented a lack of accountability that undermines efforts to rebuild trust in the Chicago Police Department, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

Chicago has recorded less than half an inch of rain in May, leading to what climate experts call a flash drought.

The White House and House Republicans are working to reach a budget compromise before June 1, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the country could run out of cash to pay the nation’s bills. A debt default would be potentially devastating for the U.S. and global economy.

A more than $50 billion dollar budget agreement Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the leaders of the legislature trumpeted on Wednesday afternoon isn’t a done deal yet.

Mayor Johnson’s first City Council meeting — how’d it go? Hours ticking away in Springfield with budget talks heating up. Visiting with the former head of CPS. And where you can make your own rug.

Janice Jackson serves as CEO of Hope Chicago, a two-generation scholarship program that aims to remove financial barriers for thousands of CPS students and their parents by allowing them to attend college debt-free.

At Freestyle Ceramics and Tufting, anyone can make their own rug. Each session begins with a practice tutorial to ensure every tufter feels comfortable with the tufting gun.

Approximately 784 men, women and children are living on floors in Chicago police stations across the city as of Tuesday, officials said.

The vote represents a reversal from March 30, when nearly two-thirds of the Chicago City Council voted to approve a declaration of independence — five days before Mayor Brandon Johnson defeated former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in the runoff.

Tina Turner was an unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ‘70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

Speaking before the Chicago Board of Education at its monthly meeting Wednesday, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter said the changes he’s seen in terms of district cooperation are “unprecedented.”

The 44-year-old Republican revealed his decision in a Federal Election Commission filing before an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

Forest Preserve District officials presented a proposal to increase fines and to add a provision that would allow the district to collect restitution from people caught trashing the preserves.

When Mayor Brandon Johnson picks up the mayor’s gavel for the first time, he will have been in office for just 10 days — and if he had a brief honeymoon, Wednesday’s meeting of the City Council will signal its end.

Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward) hosted a community meeting Tuesday to discuss the city’s plan to use parts of Wright College as a respite center — a temporary location where 400 asylum seekers will have a place to rest, take a shower and receive a hot meal as the city works to find shelter for them.

Illinois attorney general reveals sex abuse ran deeper in Catholic Church than originally thought. One on one with Sen. Dick Durbin. And live from the latest location that might house migrants.