Stories by Heather Cherone

The City Council’s Finance Committee unanimously endorsed the plan from R2 Co. and the Campari Group to transform the 14-story office building at 79 W. Monroe St. into an apartment building with 117 units, including 41 units set aside for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans.

A local nonprofit hosts Austin Farm-to-Table Trolley Tours where neighbors visit community gardens, learn about health and wellness and see a cooking demonstration with a professional chef. The predominantly Black neighborhood of 96,000 is considered a food desert.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has released the most comprehensive narrative to date of the 2020 election conspiracy case against Donald Trump, outlining what special counsel Jack Smith describes as the former president’s “private criminal conduct.”

“This is still very much a frustration I have,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “I’ve been in conversations with the superintendent, with our budget director to come up with better systems.”

Chicago-based health care workers who provided humanitarian aid in Gaza gathered Wednesday to raise awareness around the ongoing crisis in Palestine and the deaths of civilians.

The FBI is seeking any information about a man dubbed the “bare-chested bandit” who is believed to be responsible for a trio of bank robberies in the Loop in recent weeks.

Around 43 million Americans have student loan debt, amounting to $1.5 trillion. If you have student loans, here’s what you need to know.

The Welcome Corps, which launched last year, pairs groups of Americans with newly arrived refugees. So far, the resettlement program has connected 3,500 sponsors with 1,800 refugees, and many more want to help: 100,000 people have applied to become sponsors.

Only a fraction of the Great Lakes’ bottom has been mapped, and those low-resolution charts were completed decades ago, according to the Great Lakes Observing System, a nonprofit that manages data from a network of lake observers and makes it easily accessible.

Robert Crimo III, who remains in custody at the Lake County Jail, once again refused to attend a status hearing in his case Wednesday, months before he is set to stand trial on seven counts of first-degree murder and dozens of other charges.

District Judge John Blakey on Wednesday denied a defense motion seeking to toss out a handful of charges, including bribery counts, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling narrowed the federal bribery statute — known as “section 666” — in a ruling earlier this year.

Each Wednesday, Via Chicago presents five must-see shows from indie rock to jazz, country, hip-hop and more. 

What to expect as Tim Walz and J.D. Vance face off tonight on the debate stage. And Chicago’s mayor delays his budget address as the city faces a billion-dollar deficit.

Although the mailers did not identify who paid for them, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 helped bankroll the campaign, Local 150 officials told WTTW News.

Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in the lone vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, bringing together undercards who have spent two months going after each other.

Letter carriers and other unionized postal employees rallied in Chicago on Tuesday as part of a national call to action in 90 cities.

Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday, the latest in a series of escalating attacks in a yearslong conflict between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatens to push the Middle East closer toward a regionwide war.

John Amos played James Evans Sr. on “Good Times,” which featured one of television’s first Black two-parent families. Produced by Norman Lear and co-created by actor Mike Evans, who co-starred on “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons,” it ran from 1974-79 on CBS.

Local officials celebrated the completion of the Illinois Beach State Park Shoreline Stabilization Project, which will protect the state’s only remaining natural shoreline from the devastating effects of erosion.

With Helene’s death toll nearing 150, searchers fanned out across the region, using helicopters to get past washed-out bridges and hiking through wilderness to reach isolated homes.

Chicago has a pair of newly minted geniuses. Multimedia artist Ebony G. Patterson and fiction writer Ling Ma are among 22 scientists, artists and scholars who have been awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who remains under home hospice care, turned 100 on Tuesday. Here are some notable markers for Carter, the nation and the world over his long life.

Readers of the lifestyle travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler voted Chicago as the best big city in the U.S. for the eighth year in a row, as part of the magazine’s annual readers’ choice awards. Chicago has been named best big city in the U.S. every year since 2017.

The Fermi Forward Discovery Group will replace the Fermi Research Alliance early next year at the accelerator and detector laboratory in suburban Batavia. The announcement comes following criticism about safety and financial stewardship by the particle physics lab.

One person is dead and two others were injured following a traffic crash overnight in McKinley Park after Chicago police attempted to investigate two people they believed to be armed.

The ballooning cost of police overtime — we’ll tell you just how much it’s costing. And Illinois’ latest efforts to stop organized retail theft.