Stories by WTTW News

Breaking down what’s behind the mass exodus from City Hall in a special Voices crossover. Local relief efforts for Puerto Rico. And meet a duo of singing sisters from the South Side.  

For aspiring alderpeople, the next city election presents plenty of opportunity. With a large portion of the City Council set to turn over in 2023, political organizations are lining up candidates to duke it out and stake their claim in Chicago’s wards to help determine the city’s future.

The changing face of Chicago’s City Council is the topic of a special crossover with Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices. And examining structural inequities with Black artists and scholars.

Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa, who turns 78 on Oct. 4, had “additional testing and medical procedures over the past week,” the team said Saturday, and doctors have directed the Hall of Famer to stay away from managing for the rest of the season.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker calls for two Democratic lawmakers to step down amid personal controversies, a New Lincoln park alderperson is sworn in, the White Sox implode in a must-win series and the Bears seek to bounce back from Green Bay loss.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%, closing at its lowest level since late 2020. The S&P 500 fell 1.7%, close to its 2022 low set in mid-June, while the Nasdaq slid 1.8%. The selling capped another rough week on Wall Street, leaving the major indexes with their fifth weekly loss in six weeks.

Hundreds of millions of birds are currently on the move every night across North America as they wing their way south during fall migration. Chicago is under a high alert Sunday, with a massive number of birds expected to pass overhead.

If you needed to be reminded of the glorious sound Maestro Riccardo Muti has nurtured during his 13-year tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Thursday evening’s concert, marking the start of the 2022-23 season, served as a perfect example.

The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot — just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.

State Sen. Emil Jones III, D-Chicago, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he took a $5,000 bribe from a firm that installed red-light cameras throughout the state and lied to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

The Chicago Fire Department confirmed Friday that one male victim, who had suffered “extensive" burns in the blast, died from his injuries.

Officials are reporting that nine of the endangered bees were found during a recent survey of Lake County forest preserves.

The robots are coming … to deliver food. Plus, how the latest Fed rate hikes could impact home prices, neighbors complain about damage to Douglass Park after Riot Fest and Maestro Ricardo Muti’s exit interview.

Many city employees and people of Polish descent call the community of Dunning home, as do veterans, who at long last are beginning to move into Chicago’s newest veterans’ home. Back in the late 19th century, Dunning was thought of as a scary place. “Parents used to threaten their children that if you didn’t behave, if you didn’t eat breakfast, they’d send you to Dunning,” said history buff and longtime area resident Dan Pogorzelski of the Northwest Chicago Historical Society.

The latest damage comes after the park has been used for three massive Chicago festivals this summer: Summer Smash in June, Heatwave in July and Riot Fest this past weekend. Riot Fest alone brings some 40,000 attendees to the park each day.

Chicago's City Council approved a pilot program that will allow restaurants and grocery stores to make deliveries via "personal delivery devices (PDDs)," aka, robots.

This weekend marks the beginning of the end of Maestro Riccardo Muti’s tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. WTTW News visited Symphony Center to hear him lead the orchestra in a rousing rehearsal of works by Tchaikovsky.

The Federal Reserve’s latest rate hike means higher potential costs for things like credit card payments, bank loans and mortgages. It will also have an impact on the real estate market.

The two-day architecture festival, set for Oct. 15-16, is back to in-person tours, with new sites and new communities — hello, Chatham and Hermosa — making their debut. Time to start mapping out a plan of attack.

Chicago and Cook County last faced a low risk of COVID-19 on May 5. The region has bounced between a medium risk and a high risk all summer.

Cooper was shot in the back, and the bullet ripped through his body, severely damaging his aorta, liver, esophagus and spinal cord before exiting through his chest. He was taken first to Highland Park Hospital where he underwent a life-saving surgery, then spent in-patient stays at Comer Children’s Hospital and Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago.

“The Garbologists” is an engaging, sharply written, and cleverly titled two-character play by Lindsay Joelle now receiving its first professional production by Northlight Theatre. The production follows two garbage collectors who have a competitive tension and developing connection. 

More than 60% of power customers in Puerto Rico remained without energy on Thursday, and a third of customers were without water — and local officials admitted they could not say when service would be fully restored.

A grand jury returned indictments on Wednesday against former Waukegan police Officer Dante Salinas in the Oct. 20, 2020, shooting that killed a 19-year-old local man, Marcellis Stinnette, and wounded his girlfriend.

Instead of growing to meet the demand, the number of farmers converting to organic is actually dropping. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture committed up to $300 million to recruit and help more farmers make the switch.

Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon issued a preliminary injunction against the ban that took effect one week ago. The injunction was sought by abortion clinic operators who argued in a lawsuit that the state constitution protects access to the medical procedure.