Stories by WTTW News

What did Mayor Brandon Johnson do on his first full day in office? Illinois leads the nation in exonerations. The latest on a bevy of issues in Springfield. And the debate over mental health clinics.

With Mayor Brandon Johnson vowing to reopen the city’s shuttered mental health clinics, some advocates are looking at the administration to reinvigorate and reimagine the city’s approach to providing mental health services.

After seven people were shot and killed during Highland Park’s Independence Day parade last summer, Illinois took a major and controversial step toward limiting which guns can be used and sold in state. The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked to weigh the law’s constitutionality.

Right on cue, the much hyped “pneumonia front” hit Chicago shortly after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, sending the official temperature at O’Hare International Airport plummeting from 81 degrees to 66 degrees in short order.

Crucial debt ceiling negotiations are still far from success, but a deal is possible by the end of the week, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said after a brief meeting Tuesday with President Joe Biden and other congressional leaders.

Cook County recorded 124 overturned convictions in 2022, all but two of those were tied to misconduct by two former Chicago police officers, according to the report.

Uber has been pushing back hard against the common carrier proposal: emails and push notifications to customers, a reported six-figure ad buy on popular radio stations, web banners on news sites covering the General Assembly and plenty of lobbying.

Kayla was 9 years old when she was abducted by her non-custodial mother, Heather Unbehaun, from South Elgin, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said. Then Saturday evening, Kayla was spotted at a shop in Asheville by someone who recognized her from an episode of Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries” series.

The Foo Fighters, The Cure and Death Cab for Cutie are among the headliners announced Tuesday by Riot Fest. Whether they’ll take the stage is still up in the air.

Chicago police Officer Aréanah Preston, 24, had just finished her shift and was returning home while still in uniform at around 1:45 a.m. on May 6 when she was killed outside her home in the 8100 block of South Blackstone Avenue.

Chicago police announced criminal charges Tuesday against an 18-year-old man who was allegedly involved in the non-fatal shooting of Dakotah Earley last May. The teen was 17 when the shooting occurred, police said. 

Nearly nine out of 10 adults in the U.S. say that the benefits of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines outweigh the risks – a share that’s remained unchanged since before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Illinois legislators have through Friday to accomplish their most important task: passing a budget.

Chicago’s 57th mayor takes the oath of office. A look at Brandon Johnson’s priorities in Spotlight Politics. And a live report from Springfield as the legislative session nears an end.

Capping an improbable rise and carrying the hopes of a political movement determined to remake Chicago as a more equitable place to live, Brandon Johnson was sworn into office Monday as Chicago’s 57th mayor.

The report Monday from special counsel John Durham represents the long-awaited culmination of an investigation that Trump and allies had claimed would expose massive wrongdoing by law enforcement and intelligence officials. Instead, Durham’s investigation delivered underwhelming results.

But US authorities saw a 50% drop in the number of migrant encounters along the border over the previous two days compared to earlier in the week — before Title 42 ended. The situation at the border is “very fluid,” a senior Homeland Security official told reporters Monday.

Since the pandemic struck three years ago, the average new vehicle has rocketed 24% to nearly $48,000 as of April, according to Edmunds.com. Typical loan rates on new-car purchases have ballooned to 7%, a consequence of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive streak of interest rate hikes to fight inflation.

During his time as U.S. Attorney, Lausch oversaw numerous high-profile investigations in Chicago, among them, the indictments of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan on racketeering and bribery charges and longtime Chicago Ald. Ed. Burke.

According to Chicago Police Department data, 26 people were shot in 23 separate incidents between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson had just 41 days to put together his administration and lay the foundation to start delivering on his ambitious agenda — the shortest mayoral transition in Chicago history.

The policy allowed authorities to quickly expel migrants at U.S. borders in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. More than 2.8 million migrants were expelled, according to Customs and Border protection data. But the policy has also created more confusion and misinformation among the people who are seeking asylum in the U.S.

Every Tuesday afternoon at the Thurgood Marshall Branch of the Chicago Public Library, retiree Jerry Bowen signs “hello” to the sign language class he’s taught remotely for three years.

Kameron Huckleby is on the road home after incarceration, and he’s on the road to helping others do the same as a re-entry navigator in training with the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership.

Francisco Perez gives “La Ultima Palabra” on why he says creating a smoother landing for people leaving incarceration is good business for everyone.

What young Chicagoans hope to see from their new mayor. Resources for people returning from incarceration. And learning sign language at a local library.