Stories by Nick Blumberg

The Chicago Fire’s plan is set to transform the vacant Near West Side property into practice soccer fields and a training and administrative building. The empty land was part of the massive CHA complex known as the Addams-Brooks-Loomis-Abbott homes. 

Federal prosecutors charged state Sen. Emil Jones III, D-Chicago, with three felonies in relation to allegations he took a bribe from a red-light camera firm.. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.

In January, Illinois will eliminate cash bail —  money paid to release someone from jail, as a guarantee that they will return for trial. But the change won’t go into effect if a trio of state’s attorneys have their way as they seek to have the law, dubbed by drafters as the SAFE-T Act, declared null and void.

In all, the payments approved Wednesday are equivalent to 30% of the city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.

History lessons may recall that the U.S. helped liberate Nazi concentration camps after defeating Germany in World War II, but the entire story is far more complicated.

Despite the ingenuity the circus brought at one time, that’s since changed. That’s why the Museum of Science and Industry is saying goodbye to its collection in an upcoming auction. 

The new law is modeled on the city’s rules designed to protect immigrants from prohibiting members of the Chicago Police Department from cooperating with federal law enforcement agencies.

A measure was introduced to City Council to rename the Henry B. Clarke House as the Henry B. and Caroline Clarke/Bishop Louis Henry and Margaret Ford House. The change will better reflect all of the home’s most influential owners, city officials said.

Scaled to opera house grandeur, the production involves a total of 100 performers including a cast of strong actors, an ensemble of sensational dancers, a large chorus and the full Lyric Opera Orchestra.

The fire department tweeted the explosion occurred at West End and North Central avenues sometime Tuesday morning. At least eight people have been hospitalized, with three in "serious to critical" condition.

Victoria Moreno, 34, was ordered held without bail Wednesday following her arrest on charges of aggravated battery and attempted murder, though prosecutors said additional charges may be filed later if the victim succumbs to his injuries.

The Illinois Lottery said the prize for the July 29 drawing, which was the nation’s third-largest lottery prize, was claimed by two individuals who had agreed to split the prize if they won. They opted to take a lump sum payment of $780.5 million, lottery officials said Wednesday.

Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, filed in state court in New York, is the culmination of the Democrat’s three-year civil investigation of Trump and the Trump Organization.

A building explosion rocks the West Side. Why finding workers to staff November’s election is proving difficult. Meet the plaintiff behind the massive Sterigenics court settlement. And a sweet treat on 26th Street.

“We have a serious shortage of judges and poll workers,” Cook County Clerk Yarbrough said. “The clerk’s office manages elections in suburban Cook County and we’ve seen our number of election judges shrink significantly in recent years. Over the last eight years, we’ve seen a reduction of about 40%.”

The company’s Willowbrook facility was closed in 2019, months after an EPA report discovered people living within 1.5 miles of the plant were 10 times more likely to develop cancer due to a gas called ethylene oxide that was used at the facility.

A recent study from the CDC finds that in a sample of nearly 2,000 people who had monkeypox, 38% also had HIV infection and 41% had an STI in the preceding year. Those rates are much higher than the rates of HIV and STIs in the general population.

In addition to its ideal cast, it is the seamless and often breathtaking dance sequences that set this production of “Hello, Dolly!” at Marriott Theatre apart. 

The independent arbiter tasked with inspecting documents seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home said Tuesday he intends to push briskly though the review process and appeared skeptical of the Trump team’s reluctance to say whether it believed the records had been declassified.

With the most intense period of campaigning only just beginning, Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms.

The charges against state Sen. Emil Jones III were made public by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois through an information, a court document that is typically filed in cases where the defendant has indicated they plan to plead guilty.

The civilian oversight agency tasked with investigating police misconduct published video Tuesday showing the July shooting in Pilsen that led to a Chicago police sergeant and an officer being arrested on felony charges last week.

Despite promises, a federally-funded program has removed just 154 lead service lines from Chicago homes as of Monday, according to data provided to WTTW News by the Department of Water Management.

Local relief efforts begin as Puerto Rico is hit with a devastating hurricane. The push to ban certain books in school libraries gains steam. And why some attorneys say the mayor’s office is withholding public records.

As Puerto Rico is battling the devastation caused by Hurricane Fiona, Chicago-area residents of Puerto Rican descent say the storm calls attention to past wrongs and opportunities for change.

The wave of attempted book banning and restrictions continues to intensify, the American Library Association reported Friday. Numbers for 2022 already approach last year’s totals, which were the highest in decades.