Stories by Heather Cherone

Even as the financial toll of decades of police misconduct is likely to grow in the coming months, Chicago exhausted its annual budget of $82.2 million months ago and had spent nearly triple that amount by July 31, according to WTTW News’ analysis.

“We do not want to see tanks in our streets,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents.”

Chicago braces for a wave of immigration agents and National Guard troops. And the Chicago Board of Education backs a budget Mayor Brandon Johnson opposed.

The operation in the country’s third-largest city is expected to last about 30 days and could start as early as Sept. 5, a Department of Homeland Security official told The Associated Press on Friday.

Chicago has more lead service lines than any other city in the U.S. with more than 400,000 lead water service lines are still active in the city. Local officials are not moving fast enough to address the cascading disparities and environmental injustices, community advocates say.

“Chicagoans deserve the truth about the fiscal conditions of our city,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “Our economy does remain resilient, but fiscal discipline is certainly required in this moment.”

 Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst has decided not to seek reelection to a third term, two people familiar with the decision say, and is poised to make an announcement next week.

Anthony Driver, Jr. is one of at least seven candidates who are running to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who has represented Illinois’ 7th Congressional District since 1997.

President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, New York, Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, to fight what he says is runaway crime. Yet data shows most violent crime in those places and around the country has declined in recent years.

It's the final weekend of the summer to enjoy swimming at Chicago's outdoor pools and lakefront beaches, which will close after Labor Day on Monday.

The Chicago Board of Education on Thursday voted to approve the settlement with the school’s former interim principal John Thuet and assistant principal Michelle Brumfield.

The board voted 12-7, with one abstention, late Thursday following a contentious debate between board members who were split on how best to fund city schools while keeping costly cuts out of the classroom.

Chicago’s school board members face a crucial budget vote. And President Donald Trump threatens to yank funding from states that have eliminated cash bail.

Illinois in 2023 became the first state to fully eliminate the use of cash bail with the Pretrial Fairness Act. Proponents said the law is intended to address equity issues. The president claims such policies allow “dangerous individuals to immediately return to the streets and further endanger law-abiding Americans.”

As NASA’s Artemis mission prepares to return humans to the moon and establish a permanent lunar base, three University of Illinois Chicago students are playing their own small part to make that happen.

Community leaders, supporters and family members held a memorial Thursday at the burial place of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, at Burr Oak Cemetery in south suburban Alsip to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Till’s murder.

The petition was filed on the same day two children were killed and 17 other individuals were injured in a mass shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis. As of Thursday, authorities had not yet publicly identified the specific weapons used in that shooting, only to say one of them was a rifle.

Top officials who resigned their positions at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the ouster of the agency’s director were escorted out of the building Thursday morning.

The busiest day for O’Hare and Midway airports is expected to be Friday, with O’Hare seeing nearly 285,000 passengers and Midway seeing nearly 58,000 passengers, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation

President Donald Trump and his aides have repeatedly slammed Chicago over policies that limit cooperation between local authorities and federal immigration enforcement.

If Trump federalizes the National Guard or sends additional ICE agents to Chicago, all Chicago Police officers will be required to wear their uniforms and will not be dispatched to immigration enforcement operations, Supt. Larry Snelling said Thursday.

 The ongoing National Guard mission in Washington, D.C., as part of President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in the city, is costing roughly $1 million a day, experts estimated to CNN.

Townsend, an American who is ranked No. 1 in doubles, said Ostapenko, a Latvian, who won the 2017 French Open, told her she has “no class” and “no education.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is doubling down on his message to President Donald Trump that the nation’s third-largest city doesn’t need or want military intervention to fight crime.

From the semi-obvious to the semi-obscure, a roundup of Chicago-area arts recommendations awaits.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter — armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol — approached the side of the church and shot through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School.