Stories by WTTW News

Chicago is again facing the stark reality of a fatal police shooting of a young person. Every news organization must decide how to best handle such sensitive material as it reports a story. Here’s how we’ve handled in on “Chicago Tonight” and online.

Huge swaths of the Midwest were drained to make way for agriculture. UIC’s Kimberly Van Meter is harnessing NASA imagery to hunt for the region’s lost wetlands, the first step toward strategic restoration.

A trio of Chicago colleges have already announced they will require students be vaccinated for COVID-19 ahead of the fall semester. On Wednesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said such a requirement for all college-bound students is “under discussion.”

With most traditional theater spaces off-limits and Zoom an increasingly annoying way to have to watch anything, two Chicago opera companies have demonstrated in radically different ways that “all the world is a stage” — or can be turned into one.

Boeing Co. reported a wider than expected first-quarter loss on Wednesday and took another charge on its program to build two new Air Force One presidential planes after firing a contractor it hired to help perform the work.

Chicago went from tank-top to sweatshirt weather in a matter of minutes on Tuesday in one of the wildest temperature swings the city has ever seen.

With roughly a month before they plan to complete the weighty task of drawing new maps that will determine the lines of political power for the next decade, Illinois Democrats say they have not determined what data they’ll use. We speak with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle about that and more.

Arts 77, a new citywide arts recovery and reopening plan named with a nod to Chicago’s 77 community areas, will work to support local artists and organizations, a sector “decimated by the global pandemic,” according to an official.

Over the past year, news coverage about traumatic topics like the pandemic and fatal police shootings have caused many to feel burnt out. Is there a balance between staying informed and not feeling overwhelmed by distressing stories?

The clock is nearing midnight for the Chicago Tribune and efforts to prevent a takeover from controversial hedge fund Alden Global Capital. WTTW News has learned there are still active talks behind the scenes to come up with a bid that could derail Alden’s plan.

Chicago has more lead service pipes than any other U.S. city. Last year the city announced a plan to slowly replace those lines, an effort which has yet to get underway. Now, state lawmakers want to tackle the toxic problem—and they want Congress to foot the bill.

More and more colleges and universities are making vaccination for COVID-19 a requirement in the fall. Other businesses are more circumspect. But during a global pandemic, should vaccines be mandatory? And what are your rights if you refuse a vaccine?

Can your employer or school mandate you get the COVID-19 vaccine? State lawmakers battle over the budget. Replacing Illinois’ lead service lines. And millions of dollars for public art.

U.S. health officials say fully vaccinated Americans don’t need to wear masks outdoors anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers, and those who are unvaccinated can go without a face covering outside in some cases, too.

Americans will have more time to get the Real ID that they will need to board a flight or enter federal facilities.

Chicagoans who are vaccinated against COVID-19 could get a “Vax Pass” allowing them to attend summer events and concerts like Lollapalooza, Chicago’s top doctor said Tuesday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will no longer be authorized to carry out routine arrests at courthouses, a practice that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said discouraged people from attending court hearings and cooperating with law enforcement.

Eight weeks after federal and state officials opened a COVID-19 mass vaccination site at the United Center, it will close to first-dose walk-in appointments on May 11, Chicago’s top doctor announced Tuesday.

New guidelines announced Tuesday mean doctors and other health workers will no longer need extra hours of training to prescribe buprenorphine, a gold standard medicine that helps with cravings.

More than 60 community-based organizations and 23 federally qualified health centers are involved in a new program to assist residents who become infected with COVID-19 and to educate people about the vaccines.

Brandis Friedman and a panel of guests discuss the Derek Chauvin verdict, including what it means for racial justice and policing in Chicago and the U.S. Watch it now.

Six public meetings, including one held entirely in Spanish, have been scheduled for the first week in May before CPS officially releases its fiscal year 2022 capital plan later in the summer.

Opponents of the Obama Presidential Center’s location in Jackson Park lost a bid to have their case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The nonprofit Protect Our Parks called the decision disappointing but not surprising. 

A look at the 13 states that will gain or lose political power — and federal money — through the apportionment process because of changes in population over the past decade.

Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be as many as 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to World War II has long been suspected.

After a year that has laid bare persistent inequities in everything from health care outcomes to criminal justice, leaders of philanthropic organizations are reassessing how, and to whom, they are lending their support.