Stories by Marc Vitali

It’s a Chicago music story for the ages. In 1983, four friends aged 11 to 15 years old formed a punk band and played the Cubby Bear and a few other shows before amicably breaking up — basically the oldest kid wanted to tour, but the youngest was told that he had to finish 6th grade.

Harris hopes to capitalize on Polish Americans’ historic animosity toward Russia and on Trump’s hesitancy to back Ukraine during last week’s debate. The Democratic vice president’s team organized a national call with Polish American supporters on Wednesday to encourage local networks to hold their own events and spread the campaign’s message.

There were about 101,000 overdose deaths in the year ending in April, CDC estimates. There are still far more lives being lost now than before the pandemic – in 2019, there were about 72,000 fatal overdoses – but the latest data shows that deaths dropped a marked 10% in one year and are the lowest they’ve been since the spring of 2021.

Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined the zoo’s newborn pygmy hippo would become an internet megastar within weeks.

Sold out arenas became the norm. Soaring television ratings helped expand the fan base. Clark, Reese, the presumptive league MVP A’ja Wilson and others continually chased record-breaking statistics. And routine conversations and social media posts spurred sometimes heated debates about everything from basketball to culture.

The Smithsonian is hosting the event series in collaboration with Chicago’s Center for Native Futures, the National Museum of Mexican Art, the National Public Housing Museum and the South Side Community Art Center. Events are set to take place Sept. 20-28. All events are free and open to the public.

Illinois became the first state to eliminate cash bail exactly one year ago Wednesday. Supporters said the law is intended to address equity issues, while opponents feared a spike in crime. New research paints a preliminary picture.

Alderpeople sound off on ShotSpotter just days before it’s set to turn off. And Illinois eliminated cash bail a year ago — a look at how it’s working.

Calling the measure illegal, Mayor Brandon Johnson said he would veto it.

Two friends have combined their love of fashion by incorporating film and the runway to take people on a journey back to see Black fashion on Chicago’s South Side decades ago. The “Chicago Style” film and fashion show runs from 3-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday that “nothing has changed” from his previous stance that public funding for sports stadiums is not something he, or the public, has much of an appetite for. But he did signal the teams’ bids for state help building new football, baseball and soccer stadiums, respectively, would be better off if they all got on a level playing field.

Opponents of a new Chicago Bears stadium called on elected officials to stop the transfer of public subsidies to billionaires. 

The revised governmental ethics ordinance prevents what Board of Ethics Chair Steve Berlin called the “erasure of 13 years of reform.”

Illinois lawmakers in 2023 passed the ban on so-called assault weapons following a mass shooting the prior year at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park that left seven people dead and dozens more injured.

The rate cut, the Fed’s first in more than four years, reflects its new focus on bolstering the job market, which has shown clear signs of slowing. Coming just weeks before the presidential election, the Fed’s move also has the potential to scramble the economic landscape just as Americans prepare to vote.

During the past eight years, city officials have paid at least $11.2 million to hire private attorneys to defend former Sgt. Ronald Watts and the officers he supervised, despite his criminal conviction and the hundreds of people he helped convict who have been exonerated.

Efforts to save a controversial law enforcement tool. And local reaction from the Haitian community on Donald Trump’s false claims.

Last week’s presidential debate introduced one of the most memed moments of this election cycle when former President Donald Trump asserted the debunked claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are stealing and eating people’s pets. There’ve since been at least 30 bomb threats reported across the Ohio town.

Illinois lawmakers passed the ban in 2023 following a mass shooting the prior year at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park that left seven people dead and dozens more injured.

The White Sox have played in Bridgeport for more than a century, but owner Jerry Reinsdorf and developer Related Midwest proposed building a new stadium in the South Loop as an anchor to a 62-acre site dubbed The 78.

Metra, Pace and the Chicago Transit Authority collectively expect to be $730 million short come 2026 and are seeking a lift from state government.

The Senate vote was Democrats’ latest attempt to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women’s health issues and highlight policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially as Trump has called himself a “ leader on IVF.”

It’s up to a jury to decide whether Paul La Schiazza, who retired from AT&T in 2019, intended that contract as a bribe to then House Speaker Michael Madigan in order to ensure the passage of AT&T’s prized legislation, as the feds have alleged. 

Chicago architect John Ronan, who leads the local design firm John Ronan Architects, was chosen earlier this year to design the memorial in Washington, D.C.

In early 2019, Smollett made what turned out to be a false police report alleging that he’d been violently attacked by two men in downtown Chicago. The men allegedly punched him and yelled homophobic slurs, put a noose around his neck and told Smollett, “This is MAGA country,” a reference to then-President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

The documents were available through an unsecured cloud storage platform. They included Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and voter registration history.