Stories by Erica Gunderson

The state is partnering with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to mail new books to Illinois children each month. The Dollywood Foundation pays for the books, while state and education partners provide the shipping costs.

Fiesta Back of the Yards is back in full force with food, music and carnival rides on 47th Street.

Trump arraigned on historic 37-count federal indictment, and turns it into a political fundraising opportunity. City Council grills NASCAR officials as street closures pile up. And another bombshell political corruption conviction.

Breaking into the music industry is not an easy task, but a local family is working to help guide artists. Brighton Park residents Jorge Ledezma and Lupe Martinez created the record label No Sé Discos in 2021. From the vocals to the instrumental, each artist has a niche.

According to the National Weather Service, conditions continue to deteriorate across Northeast Illinois, with the Chicago metro area experiencing the most significant rainfall deficits. 

Drew Gronewold, an expert in hydrological modeling at the University of Michigan, presented his annual update on Great Lakes’ water levels. Lake Michigan is holding steady, but for how long?

Chicago Police Sgt. Michael Vitellaro, who was stripped of his police powers after being charged, still faces discipline as a result of a probe of the incident by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which was completed in March.

The board in a 5-3 vote Thursday moved to terminate Sgt. Alex Wolinski, finding that he committed multiple rule violations and a “failure of leadership … so serious as to be incompatible with continued service.”

Daniel Ellsberg, the history-making whistleblower who by leaking the Pentagon Papers revealed longtime government doubts and deceit about the Vietnam War and inspired acts of retaliation by President Richard Nixon that helped lead to his resignation, has died.

Ten years ago, the Chicago Board of Education and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided to close nearly 50 public schools, mainly on the South and West sides of the city. Some buildings remain vacant; others are being transformed into community assets.

Lake County Judge George Strickland said during a status hearing Friday that he intends the trial of Robert Crimo Jr. to begin sometime in late October or early November.

In a rare 3-3 decision, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a 2019 district court ruling that blocked the law. The latest ruling comes roughly a year after the same body — and the U.S. Supreme Court — determined that women do not have a fundamental constitutional right to abortion.

The boy went missing in the water near the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk Beach in Indiana. This marks the seventh drowning in Lake Michigan in 2023.

Mack, who lived with her mother in suburban Oak Park, served seven years of her 10-year Indonesian sentence. She was then deported in 2021 and U.S. agents arrested her immediately after she landed at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Could the Bears build a new stadium somewhere in Chicago? The impact of shuttered schools on communities 10 years later. And the Chicago researcher digging into domestic terrorism.

The Chicago Bears have been stymied thus far in plans to win tax breaks to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights. That’s opened the door to other communities to try and lure the team, but Chicago might still be in the game. Could the city come up with a late comeback and lure the Bears to stay?

Englewood had six elementary schools close in 2013 — the most in any neighborhood that year. But in the years since that upheaval, residents have found ways to help the community.

More than two and a half years after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a new study estimates some 12 million Americans would support violence to restore former President Donald Trump to power.

A Warhol exhibit, Juneteenth festivities and a charity race usher in the weekend. Here are five things to do in and around Chicago.

Former Ald. Ed Burke will start receiving pension payments of $8,027 per month in August, and they will continue for the rest of his life, according to records obtained by WTTW News from the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago.

It is not clear exactly when Bally’s will be able to open a temporary casino in the century-old Shriner’s temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave., with its distinctive domed ceilings and stained-glass windows. A Chicago landmark since 2001, the temple was most recently home to a Bloomingdale’s furniture store.

“This is an important moment for our district, not only because of the change in mayoral leadership; but because, with the election of ten board members in November 2024, the Chicago Board of Education will begin its transition from fully appointed to fully elected,” the advocates wrote in the June 14 letter.

The entire state of Minnesota and most of Wisconsin were under air quality alerts Wednesday as a gray haze from wildfire smoke shifted south, according to the National Weather Service.

Experts cited several possible reasons for the increases, including higher rates of depression, limited availability of mental health services and the number of guns in U.S. homes.

Glenda Jackson, a two-time Academy Award-winning performer who had a second career in politics as a British lawmaker before an acclaimed late-life return to stage and screen, has died at age 87.

The increases, MCA’s first since 2017, were approved Wednesday by the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners and will affect residents and non-residents alike, though the latter is getting hit harder.