Stories by WTTW News

Controversy over a new school on the near South Side, we have a live report. The latest on Hurricane Ian. Northwestern plans a new billion dollar football stadium. And raising awareness around kidney disease.

To many, Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign was a symbol of tradition and stability that linked the present to the past. But on her death, along with expressions of sympathy, many people from former colonies from Ireland to Kenya — and here in America — have pushed back on the glorification of the monarchy and empire.

Northwestern University on Wednesday unveiled plans for a state-of-the-art $800 million stadium, which would replace the almost 100-year-old Ryan Field. 

Floodwaters rose waist-high near Orlando as one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States crossed the peninsula. Ian's tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 415 miles, drenching much of Florida and the southeastern Atlantic coast.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not explain Thursday how she would propose to bridge the city’s projected 2023 budget shortfall, which is now 33% bigger than the gap she detailed nearly two months ago.

Chicago Police Department officers agreed to allow those arrested access to a phone within three hours in order to resolve a lawsuit filed by the Cook County Public Defender’s Office after mass arrests during the protests and unrest triggered by the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020.

His alter ego, Ron Swanson, may have been an anti-government government employee, but in real life, actor Nick Offerman has thrown his support behind a referendum that would increase the property tax levy for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.

The economy shrank in the first half of this year, the government confirmed in a report Thursday, underscoring fears of a broad-based slowdown that could lead to a recession.

Charges are pending against multiple suspects, according to Chicago police, following a crash in the 3100 block of South Kedzie Avenue that left a 55-year-old woman dead.

Skaters, wings, art walks and more fun surprises usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in and around Chicago.

More migrants arrive in Chicago from the border. Why reports say investigators might be closer than ever to solving the 40-year-old Tylenol murders. And carving out a monument to Monty and Rose.

Chicago officials say 81 more migrants arrived in town on a bus from Texas during the day Wednesday. City officials say more than 1,500 total migrants have arrived in recent weeks from Texas with more expected Wednesday evening. 

The Tylenol poisonings case is still unsolved, but new reporting from the Chicago Tribune says investigators might be closer than ever to charges.

Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch makes a spirited defense of the SAFE-T Act and the end of cash bail. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.

Brandon Johnson, 46, has yet to formally announce that he will run for mayor of Chicago — but the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union will ensure that he will have ample resources if he does take on Lightfoot, who has long been at odds with the city’s most politically powerful labor union.

Despite concerns from the public and elected officials, the board at its monthly meeting voted 4-3 in favor of a trio of motions to help Chicago Public Schools acquire land and take additional steps toward building the new school.

The lawsuits filed by people wounded while attending the Highland Park parade and the estates of several victims are the latest bid by victims of mass shootings to hold gun manufacturers accountable, despite broad protections for the industry in federal law.

One day before Ukraine was invaded by Russia earlier this year, the company unknowingly boarded one of the last flights out of Kyiv to Paris, the first stop on a planned tour. The company has not returned home since then.

About 2.5 million people were ordered to evacuate southwest Florida before the storm hit the coast with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. It was heading inland, where it was expected to weaken, at about 9 mph, but residents in central Florida could still experience hurricane-force winds.

President Joe Biden spoke to an auditorium full of public health officials, private companies and Americans who have experienced hunger. They were gathered for the first White House conference on hunger, nutrition and health since 1969.

Illinois was supposed to be the national model when government leaders pledged they’d use the 2020 legalization of marijuana to right the wrongs of the war on drugs that disproportionately harmed Black and Latino communities. Nearly three years later, those poised to benefit say they’re still stymied.

The beloved duo live on in limestone, their instantly recognizable images carved into a block of the rock wall that separates the dunes from an adjacent paved path. They now join the thousands of modern-day “petroglyphs” that date back to at least the 1930s.

The Chicago Police Department has begun the process of encrypting its dispatch channels to avoid disruptions from outside the police system. But some are calling into question the need for the change, and cite potential issues of transparency.

Why CPD wants to encrypt radio communications and what it says about transparency. Equity in the state’s cannabis industry. The mother of slain teen Hadiya Pendleton on new efforts to end gun violence. And paintings from Puerto Rico.

One in 20 tap water samples taken from thousands of Chicagoans found lead levels at or above federal limits, according to a recent analysis by the Guardian. It also found that nine of the top 10 ZIP codes with the largest percentages of high test results were in neighborhoods with majority Black and Latino residents.

Nine years after Hadiya Pendleton’s death, her mother, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, is still fighting to end gun violence. She founded Hadiya’s Promise – a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending gun violence through education.