Stories by WTTW News

Sterling Bay is set to unveil its plans for the North Side megaproject. Danny Ecker has the details on that story and more.

In 2014, Chicago saw homicides hit a historic low at 426. The city has exceeded that number every year since and is on pace to again this calendar year by more than 80%, according to U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch.

As searches continued for those still missing, efforts also turned to repairing the power grid, sheltering those whose homes were destroyed and delivering drinking water and other supplies.

Alderpeople are poised to pay $2.2 million on Wednesday to settle three lawsuits claiming Chicago police officers used excessive force in 2014, before officers were required to wear cameras and record their interactions with Chicagoans.

OSHA inspectors, who have been at the site since Saturday, will look into whether workplace safety rules were followed and will have six months to complete the investigation, said spokesperson Scott Allen.

Earlier in the pandemic, the program began by focusing on contact tracing. But it has since expanded to meet other needs – like scheduling vaccine appointments and working the city’s COVID-19 hotline. 

Have you ever wondered what Santa Claus’ childhood was like? Or why he’s so driven to take off from the North Pole for an arduous worldwide trip each Christmas Eve? The answers to those questions can be found in the 90-minute opera “Becoming Santa Claus.” 

A full-court press from the owners of the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks on Monday helped push the measure backed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot over the goal line.

The NBA postponed the Chicago Bulls’ next two games on Monday, with 10 of the team’s players in the league’s health and safety protocols.

A rare Chicago showing of provocative paintings by an overlooked African American artist at the Chicago Cultural Center.

If the thought of drinking a caramel brownie iced coffee or peppermint mocha latte sounds like a punishment, you might be a coffee snob or, according to a new study, a preference for bitter cups of plain black joe just might be in your DNA.

A federal docket entry on Monday showed that a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday for Derek Chauvin to change his current not-guilty plea in the case. These types of notices indicate a defendant is planning to plead guilty. 

The nation’s COVID-19 death toll stands at around 800,000 as the anniversary of the U.S. vaccine rollout arrives. A year ago, it stood at 300,000. 

On Monday, members of City Council's finance committee unanimously endorsed a recommendation to pay $2.9 million to Anjanette Young to resolve the lawsuit she brought after police officers handcuffed her while she was naked and ignored her pleas for help during a botched raid in February 2019.

After an extraordinary second quarter in which the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears exchanged body blows, the NFL’s oldest rivalry returned to normal, with Aaron Rodgers once again delivering a knockout punch.

Members of the Chicago City Council have until Friday to respond to 10 questions posed by federal officials probing whether aldermanic prerogative has created a hyper-segregated city rife with racism and gentrification.

The company has not said how many people were in the building not far from St. Louis when the tornado hit at 8:35 p.m. Friday — part of a swarm of twisters across the Midwest and the South that leveled entire communities. Authorities said they didn’t have a full count of employees because it was during a shift change and there were several part-time employees.

Rescuers in an increasingly bleak search picked through the tornado-splintered ruins of homes and businesses Sunday, including a candle factory that was bustling with night-shift employees when it was flattened, as Kentucky’s governor warned the state’s death toll from the outbreak could top 100.

Tornadoes and severe weather caused catastrophic damage across multiple states late Friday, killing at least six people overnight as a storm system tore through a candle factory in Kentucky, an Amazon facility in Illinois and a nursing home in Arkansas. The Kentucky governor said he feared dozens more could be dead.

Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were tried on murder charges about a month after Emmett Till was killed, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. 

We've introduced you to a couple of local artists receiving cash grants from the Chicago-based nonprofit 3 Arts to help pursue their careers. This week, we're featuring another winner: Cat Mahari, a street dancer and visual artist who identifies as autistic.

The majority of Latinos entering higher education are the first in their families to attend college. This means they don't always have access to mentors or role models in their community to help usher them into professional careers. 

Chicago will invest a billion dollars into the creation and preservation of 24 development projects, as a result of federal pandemic recovery money and the Mayor’s 2022 budget. The move not only aims to bring more affordable housing to the city but also looks to support developments led by people of color.

In Chicago, predominantly Latino communities often bear the environmental burden of heavy industry, and residents of those communities say they have a hard time making their concerns heard.

Combatting depression around the holidays. Celebrating Minnie Miñoso. Helping Latino college grads find their dream jobs. And a bakery fires up its oven after almost 30 years.

Minnie Miñoso, “the Cuban Comet” broke the color line for the White Sox when he joined the team in 1951. He was selected for induction by the Golden Days Era committee on Sunday, and University of Illinois professor Adrian Burgos Jr says, it’s an honor that was long overdue.