Stories by Associated Press

Reliance on school buses has been waning for years as districts struggle to find drivers and more students attend schools far outside their neighborhoods.

Submissions are due by Jan. 4 or whenever entries hit 20,000, whichever comes first.

With one in five Chicagoans facing food insecurity, residents are working to feed their own with grassroots efforts led by community nonprofits.

The spending plan still calls for a host of other taxes and fees to rise by an additional $165.5 million, including increases in the taxes levied on software licenses, cloud services and other digital goods as well as subscriptions to streaming and cable television services.

Federal agencies are facing intense pressure to give the public more details on unexplained drone sightings in the New York City metropolitan area that have been going on for weeks over residential neighborhoods as well as restricted sites and critical infrastructure.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said it is investigating an “off-duty officer involved incident” after a 26-year-old man was struck during an exchange of gunfire in the 1000 block of South Mayfield Avenue.

A federal appeals court left in place a mid-January deadline in a federal law requiring TikTok to be sold or face a ban in the United States, rejecting a request made by the company to halt enforcement until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge of the statute.

Why the mayor called off a budget vote. Pritzker pushes back on mass deportations. And calls for a crackdown on unregulated hemp.

The Cubs are sending third baseman Isaac Paredes, right-hander Hayden Wesneski and Cam Smith, one of their top infield prospects, to the Astros for Tucker, who is eligible for free agency after the 2025 season.

The mayor’s decision to delay the budget vote is an acknowledgment that the spending plan that would hike property taxes by $68.5 million and increase a host of other taxes and fees by an additional $165.5 million does not have enough votes to pass the Chicago City Council.

Cloud cover and moonlight are likely to spoil meteor watching Friday night, when the annual Geminids shower reaches its peak.

The investment could reach tens of millions of dollars, IBM President and CEO Arvind Krishna said, and comes with an initial commitment of 50 permanent jobs that he expects will be paired with fellowships, internships and partnerships with other local firms.

“What we’ve heard from the families is that we should not close these schools,” CPS Chief Portfolio Officer Alfonso Carmona told the Chicago Board of Education during its Thursday meeting.

“This has been a dream of ours for many years,” CEO Courtney Sakai said following a ribbon-cutting ceremony for JASC’s new building. “We’ve always envisioned a community destination where we could serve all and expand our programs.”

Calls for city officials to step aside and cooperate with federal mass deportations. And a state-of-the-art exhibit makes a dazzling debut at the Shedd Aquarium.

Tom Homan — President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming so-called border czar — said it’s time for Chicago to come to the table when it comes to mass deportations or “get the hell out of the way.”

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said the district enacted a “comprehensive response” to protect its students, families and staff when President-elect Donald Trump’s first term began in 2017, and CPS officials are planning to take similar steps before Trump’s inauguration next month.

Rita Crundwell infamously charted a new chapter in Illinois’ storied corruption saga by committing what the FBI believes to be the largest theft of public funds in U.S. history. She’s among the 1,500 “non-violent offenders” whose sentence was commuted Thursday by President Joe Biden, in the nation’s largest single-day act of clemency.

Sean Harden — who previously worked as Chicago Public Schools’ deputy CEO of community affairs and as an executive assistant to former Mayor Richard M. Daley — took his oath of office and was sworn in as the board’s seventh member Thursday.

While banks have cut back on overdraft fees in the past decade, the nation’s biggest banks still take in roughly $8 billion in the charges every year, according to data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and bank public records. Currently, there is no cap on the overdraft fees that banks can legally charge.

No state is immune from the negative effects of an economic downturn, but Illinois is more prepared today than it was for the Great Recession of 2007-2009 or the COVID-19 recession of 2020, according to a new report from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Project for Middle Class Renewal.

After you’ve experienced Joffrey Ballet’s Chicago-style “The Nutcracker” and the Goodman Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol” multiple times… what to do? Here are five solid ideas — some reverent and timely, some not so much.

The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released.

Approximately 76,375 people in Chicago experienced homelessness during 2022, according to a new report from the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness, which relies on the most recent available data.

If the verdict is upheld, it would nearly equal city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.

Witnesses told police that James McIntyre, 33, of Chicago, shook Mace’s hand in an “exaggerated, aggressive” manner after approaching the South Carolina Republican in the Rayburn House Office Building on Tuesday evening, according to a police affidavit.