Stories by Blair Paddock

Construction often means disruption. That’s certainly been true in Edgewater and Uptown as the CTA’s been working to rebuild century-old tracks and stations. And with that project kicking off just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the challenges have been felt even more acutely.

Great Britain will crank its pomp and pageantry machine up to 11 this weekend for the coronation of King Charles III. Here’s how Chicagoans can join the festivities, including reliving the city’s memorable brush with royalty.

An arts festival, walking tour and May the Fourth weekend events usher in the weekend. Here are five things to do in and around Chicago.

Despite the decline, about 1 out of every 13 deaths in the U.S. in 2022 was associated COVID-19. The virus killed nearly 245,000 people in 2022, CDC data shows.

It’s a significant milestone for the Justice Department, which has now secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the leaders of two major extremist groups prosecutors say were intent on keeping Democratic President Joe Biden out of the White House at all costs. The charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Steven Woletz, 46, has been charged with one count of threatening a public official, a Class 3 felony, after he allegedly left a voicemail in which he threatened to kill the governor.

The two teen boys were charged Thursday with felony counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking and robbery of a victim 60 years or older.

Every time you flush, the waste disappears in a swirly whirl, never to be seen again. It’s magic! Actually, it’s science and engineering. WTTW News Explains. 

A brief exchange was all it took for convicted sexual predator and faith leader to be granted permission to live within feet of a school — something not normally permitted under Illinois’ sex offender laws.

A juror speaks out about the verdict in the ComEd bribery trial. A new interim police superintendent. Debating the practice of human composting. And celebrating Mexico this week.

The Mexican Consulate in Chicago is partnering with the government of Jalisco to offer Mexican and Jalisco-inspired dishes, traditional dances and music, children’s workshops and much more.

Waller will be the third person to lead the Chicago Police Department in less than six months and will immediately be charged with managing the department during the Memorial Day weekend, which typically results an increase in crime and violence.

“This is very clear: We do not want to stand for this sort of corruption,” juror Amanda Schnitker Sayers said during an appearance on “Chicago Tonight.”

Most people are either buried or cremated when they die, but there is another practice that’s gaining steam. It’s called natural organic reduction or “human composting.” Illinois is poised to become the seventh state to approve the practice.

United said 3,800 of its new jobs this year will be in Chicago, where the company is headquartered and runs a big operation at O’Hare International Airport. 

The Fed's rate increases since March 2022 have more than doubled mortgage rates, elevated the costs of auto loans, credit card borrowing and business loans and heightened the risk of a recession.

More than 70 vehicles, including dozens of commercial vehicles and passenger cars, were involved in crashes late Monday morning along a 2-mile stretch of Interstate 55 in Montgomery County, 75 miles north of St. Louis.

Johnson, who will replace Lightfoot in less than two weeks, said he would consult with the South Shore community before making any final decisions on how to address a renewed surge of immigrants being sent to the city from Texas and other states along the southern border.

The release of the graphic video comes after Clay’s family members reportedly filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department, claiming the shooting was “unprovoked and unwarranted.”

Nearly 70,000 people in the U.S. died of drug overdoses that involved fentanyl in 2021, almost a four-fold increase over five years. By 2021, about two-thirds of all overdose deaths involved the potent synthetic opioid, according to the report.

When jurors Tuesday convicted a quad of Illinois power players on corruption charges, former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan wasn’t among them. Madigan wasn’t on trial. But he was at the heart of the case, with a juror telling journalists that Madigan “really did cause all this to happen.”

Live reaction to the “ComEd Four” verdict. Plans to turn an old South Shore school into a shelter for migrants. A look at the neighborhood around Pontiac Prison. And saying goodbye to Lincoln Park Zoo’s oldest inhabitant.

City officials are calling this a humanitarian crisis, with stretched resources and few housing options, now that more than 8,000 migrants have arrived.

Lincoln Park Zoo said farewell today to a 300-year-old bur oak, but the tree will live on in multiple ways.

Ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist Mike McClain, retired ComEd executive John Hooker and ex-City Club of Chicago president and former ComEd consultant Jay Doherty were each found guilty of bribery conspiracy, bribery and willfully falsifying the company’s books.

The town is also home to Pontiac Correctional Center, one of only three maximum security Illinois state prisons. Just outside the prison’s doors is a neighborhood of single-family homes and a playground.