Stories by WTTW News

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.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin joined “Chicago Tonight” to talk about ethics reforms at the high court, the growing migrant crisis and the possibility that the federal government could default on the national debt.

Argonne National Laboratory has been at the cutting edge of molecular scale research for almost three decades. At the heart of that research is the Advanced Photon Source, a huge particle accelerator. 

The results of that investigation, published by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, represents what he called the first comprehensive accounting of child sex abuse by members of the Catholic clergy in Illinois.

Officials with the Chicago Department of Public Health have documented 29 cases of the virus that can cause intensely painful lesions between April 22 and Tuesday, after recording just five cases between Jan. 1 and April 15, according to city data.

The U.S. surgeon general is calling for tech companies and lawmakers to take “immediate action” to protect kids’ and adolescents’ mental health on social media.

The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, according to the global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes, or as UPS puts it, the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.

Zachary Porter, 20, of Lake Bluff, Illinois, was submerged Sunday evening as the tide came in, and his body was recovered Monday morning, Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel told The Associated Press. A member of Porter’s group called 911 when they couldn’t get him out, but it was too late, authorities said.

Passing a budget is arguably the single must-happen task for lawmakers and it was supposed to have been done by Friday, but that self-imposed deadline came and went without any budget action.

Assessing the fallout 10 years to the day CPS voted to close 50 schools. The future of artificial intelligence. When might state lawmakers finally have a budget? And a trash man who’s a community treasure.

An apparent AI-generated photo went viral on social media Monday showing a fake explosion near the Pentagon. Officials confirmed that the image and accompanying reports were fake. Critics pointed to the as an example of the problems that come along with the promise of artificial intelligence technology. 

The Chicago Police Department said Monday it was searching for approximately 18 males who are believed to have attempted to break into the office.

Former Ald. CarrieAustin is now receiving more than $9,500 per month in pension payments for the rest of her life, according to records obtained by WTTW News from the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago. If Austin is convicted, she could lose her pension, since her conduct occurred as part of her official duties as an alderperson.

The Senate’s only Black Republican, Scott kicked off the campaign in his hometown of North Charleston, on the campus of Charleston Southern University, his alma mater and a private school affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. 

On Monday, WTTW News reporter Joanna Hernandez moderated the latest edition of our “Latino Voices” community conversations and discussed with community leaders what being a sanctuary city to immigrants really means.