Stories by Brandis Friedman

Chicago, Cook County and several surrounding counties have all recently been designated as being at “medium risk” of their residents contracting COVID-19. 

While members of the Lightfoot administration touted the proposal from Bally’s as the most lucrative proposal the city recieved and said the casino would be an “iconic” addition to Chicago's riverfront, nearly all members of a special City Council committee formed to consider the plan greeted those claims with skepticism.

To avert the first ward map referendum since 1992, 41 alderpeople must agree on a map no later than May 19, the deadline for the June 28 primary election ballot to be finalized.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has vowed to ensure Chicago remains a safe haven for women seeking an abortion or other reproductive health care.

The world may be in a terrible state of upheaval at the moment, but two different concerts performed during the past week — played brilliantly by the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — were a potent reminder that music is an astonishingly powerful emotional balm.

Murders and shootings remain down slightly in 2022. But after highlighting several recent arrests in cases involving shootings, robberies, carjackings or homicides, Superintendent David Brown said many of the suspects charged are repeat offenders.

Submissions are being accepted through July 1 for the 2022 awards, which will be judged in-person again after going virtual in 2020 and 2021. The contest is open to all Chicago residents; entry is free.

A grim Mother’s Day for moms of missing or murdered daughters, as they search for answers. The head of the Chicago Community Trust is heading to Spelman. And Black Americans in the Victorian era.

In 2021, 521,705 people were reported missing, according to the National Crime Information Center. Of that number, 89,020 were Black women and girls. That means despite making up about 7% of the U.S. population, Black women and girls were 17% of missing person cases last year.

The first Black woman to lead the Chicago Community Trust, Dr. Helene Gayle, will leave her role in June to serve as president of Spelman College in Atlanta. 

The birth and growth of gospel music in Chicago is the subject of the latest episode of WTTW’s documentary series, “Chicago Stories.”

A bombshell Supreme Court leak signals an overturn of Roe v. Wade. What it could mean for Illinois. Plus, meet two City College valedictorians. And a preview of an upcoming lunar eclipse.

A celestial show is coming to Chicago next weekend - on the evening of Sunday, May 15, a lunar eclipse will grace the night skies. Chicago astronomer Joe Guzman says it's a great reason to spend an evening moongazing.

In Illinois, Gov. J. B. Pritzker says no matter how the Supreme Court eventually rules, abortion is still safe and legal in the state. But that’s not the case everywhere in the Midwest.

Seventeen hundred students from the City Colleges of Chicago walked across the stage at the Wintrust Arena in the first in-person commencement ceremony for the colleges since the pandemic began.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated housing insecurity, substance abuse, human trafficking, and domestic violence, often leaving women struggling with those issues with virtually no resources to move forward. But the pandemic also sparked an idea for local woman Maria Castro. She found a way to get everyday necessities — plus a touch of inspiration — to women in need.

For much of the past couple of decades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declined to reveal the conditions of dams in the National Inventory of Dams — which it maintains — citing security concerns stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The approach builds off the blueprint in Evanston, a Chicago suburb that became the first in the nation to begin paying reparations last year with a program providing Black residents grants for mortgage payments and home repairs, in acknowledgement of the historic discrimination Black people endured when trying to buy homes.

Things are reverting to the way they were as federal money for COVID care of the uninsured dries up, creating a potential barrier to timely access. But the virus is not contained, even if it’s better controlled. And safety-net hospitals and clinics are seeing sharply higher costs for salaries and other basic operating expenses. 

The Mayor rolls the dice on a casino proposal, will alderpeople buy-in? The abortion bombshell rocks politics. Boeing takes off from Chicago. And the Bears complete the first draft under their new GM.

The Shedd Aquarium recently welcomed a group of lumpsuckers, a fish that’s weird in so many ways, it’s hard to know where to start.

Workers at more than 250 Starbucks locations around the U.S. have filed to join a union, and about 50 have voted in favor of unionization. Organizers and their supporters have accused Starbucks of aggressive “union-busting” tactics, including cutting hours, disciplining, and firing pro-union employees. 

Illinois’ population closely represents the nation as a whole, whether measured by race, age, income or education, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Chicago), the chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, wrote to Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, adding that Illinois not only includes Chicago, but also rural areas devoted to agriculture dotted by small towns.

Residents of seven northeast Illinois counties — McHenry, Lake, Cook, Kendall, DuPage, Will and Grundy — face a medium level of COVID-19 risk, according to the CDC. Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said Chicagoans should consider the CDC’s medium level of risk warning as “a yellow light of caution.”

The cards are on the table with the Mayor’s pick for the city’s only casino. How the state handled a COVID-19 outbreak at a veterans home. Plus the state’s DCFS director

Located two miles north of downtown, and about a mile from the lake, Old Town a neighborhood that has undergone a lot of change in the past decade. Residents have fought to preserve historic buildings in the area.