Stories by Patty Wetli

After one of the driest springs on record, the Chicago area is making up for lost precipitation in June. Waves of thunderstorms and torrential rains will roll through the Chicago region this weekend.

Illinois’ attorney general on his frustrations with the Chicago Police Department. Live from Woodridge as residents clean up from a tornado. Following up on Wednesday’s chaotic City Council meeting.

After a major tornado ripped through west suburban DuPage County, community members are picking up the pieces. For some, it will be a long road: more than 160 homes saw significant damage and about 30 were destroyed.

Researchers in Russia revive creatures frozen in Arctic permafrost for more than 20,000 years. A new vaccine for malaria. The powerful connection between music and memory. And how “laughing gas” is being used to treat severe depression.

Next month, a wave of Chicago-area Catholic church consolidations will take place, merging parishes as part of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s “Renew My Church” initiative. Among them will be five churches in and around Bronzeville.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul renewed his call Thursday for Chicago officials to ban no-knock warrants and put tighter restrictions on officers to prevent mistaken raids like the one that left Anjanette Young handcuffed and pleading for help in February 2019. 

Leaders of the group that launched the push to rename Lake Shore Drive say they will agree to a compromise plan to call the iconic roadway “DuSable Lake Shore Drive,” but Mayor Lightfoot has yet to endorse the proposal.

President Joe Biden announced on Thursday a hard-earned bipartisan agreement on a pared-down infrastructure plan that would make a start on his top legislative priority and validate his efforts to reach across the political aisle. 

A beachfront condo building partially collapsed Thursday outside Miami, killing at least one person and trapping others in the tower that resembled a giant fractured dollhouse, with one side sheared away. Dozens of survivors were pulled out, and rescuers continued to look for more.

Despite a “June or bust” goal set by chief GOP negotiator Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate was expected to leave town for a two-week recess after Thursday’s session without a final compromise on police reform, according to three senators.

Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. now are in people who weren’t vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day — now down to under 300 — could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine.

A study analyzing whether the COVID-19 vaccine prevents infection and spread of the coronavirus among college students has been expanded to include adults ages 18-29, including those who choose not to get vaccinated.

Eugene Burns, 19, allegedly acted as the getaway driver in a 2020 gang-related shooting and later “terrorized” another man and his two family members during a home invasion on the West Side earlier this year.

The delta variant is a version of the coronavirus that has been found in more than 80 countries since it was first detected in India. It got its name from the World Health Organization, which names notable variants after letters of the Greek alphabet. 

Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin faces sentencing Friday in the death of George Floyd, with a judge weighing a prison term experts say could be as much as 30 years. Here’s what to watch for in a hearing that could run as long as two hours.

The Biden administration on Thursday extended the nationwide ban on evictions for a month to help millions of tenants unable to make rent payments during the coronavirus pandemic,  but said this is the last time it plans to do so. 

A year after Cook County officials faced the largest budget deficit in a decade, they find themselves flush with cash, thanks to $1 billion in COVID-19 relief funds and an economy recovering faster than expected from the ravages of the pandemic, according to a budget forecast.

Our Spotlight Politics team on another heated City Council meeting and more. The future of CPS leadership. A spike in opioid deaths. And a vast life expectancy gap for Black Chicagoans.

Opioid-related overdoses in Cook County increased by more than 40% last year. While this spike began in December 2019 — before COVID-19 was widespread — the pandemic accelerated the trend. We discuss the state of the opioid epidemic in the Chicago area.

Artists who used to be on the comics page have now earned a place in museums. A new exhibition makes the case that Chicago has long been a magnet for creative cartooning. We visit “Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now” at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

As Janice Jackson’s tenure with Chicago Public Schools draws to an end, a cavalcade of current and former elected officials sung her praises during what was her final Board of Education meeting as CEO.

Between 2012 and 2017, the life expectancy gap grew from 8.3 years to 9.2 years, according to a recently released report, which found that Black Chicagoans on average live 71.4 years, while their non-Black counterparts live an average of 80.6 years.

A vote to rename 17 miles of Lake Shore Drive for Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, Chicago’s first permanent non-Indigenous settler, was delayed again Wednesday after the Chicago City Council erupted in acrimony over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to serve as the city’s top attorney.

Hailing the changes as a “major, major improvement,” the Chicago Board of Education has approved revisions to the student code of conduct, which advise school administrators against contacting police in non-emergency incidents in an attempt to eradicate the school-to-prison pipeline.

Through mid-June, the city has recorded more than a 30% increase in murders compared to 2019, and a nearly 60% jump over the same period when it came to shootings, according to data released by the Chicago Police Department.

Since its founding in 1973, Chicago Opera Theater has been making audacious choices in its programming and presentation. And in many ways the company displayed its formidable ingenuity and determination throughout the pandemic. Here’s a peek at its all-live season.