Stories by WTTW News

Police body camera footage is released in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Dexter Reed. We hear from Reed’s family and the head of the police oversight agency.

Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten wrote in a letter to Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling that her agency has “grave concerns about the officers’ ability to assess what is a necessary, reasonable, and proportional use of deadly force.”

Expo Chicago is back for its eleventh anniversary this week and organizers are celebrating with a slew of programs, initiatives and digital events to engage the public both at Navy Pier and throughout the city. 

The price of spot gold reached $2,364 per ounce Tuesday after hitting record highs for seven straight sessions and trading at $2,336 per ounce Monday. Year on year, gold is up 16.5%.

Under the decision, a long-dormant law that predates Arizona’s statehood would take effect. It provides no exceptions for rape or incest, but allows abortions if a mother’s life is in danger. Enforcement can take effect in 14 days.

Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling was the second time in as many days that the state’s mid-level appeals court refused to postpone the trial, set to begin next week, further narrowing any plausible path to the delay that Trump’s legal team has repeatedly sought.

Instead of trashing those vital eclipse glasses, recycle them at any one of dozens of Chicago locations.

Crowds gather across the country for the celestial show of the year. And how to have conversations across political divides.

Nearly 2,000 people gathered at Triton College in west suburban River Grove to view the solar eclipse Monday afternoon.

Joe Walsh, former Republican congressman for Illinois, and Fred Guttenberg, a gun safety advocate whose daughter Jaime Guttenberg was murdered in the Parkland school shooting in 2018, have come together for their ‘Two Dads Defending Democracy' tour.

As the Bears and White Sox are on the hunt for taxpayer cash to fund new stadiums, Quinn says it’s once again time to ask the voters what they think.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Adler Planetarium in downtown Chicago for a viewing party. People brought telescopes, cameras and the necessary protective eyeglasses.

It promised to be North America’s biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path and the lure of more than four minutes of midday darkness in Texas and other choice spots. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting. 

It is not clear when Mayor Brandon Johnson will make his pick from among 15 people nominated by members of Chicago’s police district council members and send those seven names to the City Council for confirmation to serve four-year terms.

Anthony Robinson, 31, is set to be released from custody Monday after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office agreed to vacate his conviction in the 2013 killing of Kelvin Jemison and dismissed all charges against him.

President Joe Biden said Monday that college graduates would see “life-changing” relief from his new plan to ease debt burdens for more than 30 million borrowers, the latest attempt by the Democratic president to make good on a campaign promise that could buoy his standing with young voters.

Yarbrough was elected as clerk in 2018 and previously served as a state representative and Cook County’s recorder of deeds.

A total solar eclipse is set to move across the United States Monday afternoon with the path of totality sweeping from Texas up to Maine. Watch as it unfolds with NASA scientists. 

According to the Chicago Police Department, 23 people were shot between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

A federal judge is set to decide whether to force changes to CPD’s proposed mass arrest policy as the city prepares for the Democratic National Convention from Aug. 19-24.

“Chicago owns the most outfalls that discharge into the river system, and controlling what comes out of them is essential to reach our shared vision for a fishable-swimmable river that is accessible to everyone,” said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River.

In a 6-0 decision, the court found the residency restriction “does not infringe upon a child sex offender’s fundamental rights” and that there was a “rational basis” for the state to restrict where a person convicted of such a crime can live.

Gary, Indiana, was among dozens of U.S. cities to sue major gun-makers and sellers in reaction to the out-of-control homicide rates and violent crime of the 1990s.

Mayor Brandon Johnson confidently reflects on one year in office. And Illinois Republicans want big changes to the state’s Prisoner Review Board after a convict is released and allegedly commits murder.

“Purpose,” the new world premiere play from Branden Jacobs-Jenkins now running at Steppenwolf, is also a very specific story about a family rooted in Black American politics, featuring a Civil Rights activist, pastors and a congressman. 

The Illinois Department of Transportation learned a lot from the traffic jam “hangover” that followed 2017’s solar eclipse: mainly to warn motorists to expect gridlock.