Stories by Heather Cherone

“The Emanuel administration had immense disdain for public education, particularly for Black, Brown and poor children, and he was vocal about it,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “And now he is prancing around this country, asking people to reconsider him. It is not just frustrating. It is beyond offensive.”

The top producer at “60 Minutes” said Tuesday that he is quitting the show, saying that it has become clear that he would no longer be able to run it as he has in the past.

The new LP “Johnny Iguana – At Delmark” includes standards such as Junior Wells’ “Messin’ With the Kid” and unexpected tunes like Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” and AC/DC’s “Riff Raff” — all instrumental and all on piano.

Monarchs left Mexico in late March and have now crossed into Illinois, according to reports.

Nearly half of U.S. teens say social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age — and almost the same proportion say they’re cutting back on social media use, according to a Pew Research Center report.

TGI Fridays didn’t directly comment to CNN about the closures but said in a statement that the company is “now led by franchisees, with a franchisee advisory board empowering and shaping brand-wide decisions.”

The latest turmoil threatens to engulf the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed out top advisers and faces fresh controversy over sharing sensitive information about airstrikes in Yemen outside of classified channels.

Eighty years after the Holocaust, more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive but 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years — meaning time is running out to hear the voices of the last generation who suffered through one of the worst atrocities in history.

Pope Francis will be laid to rest Saturday after lying in state for three days in St. Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff.

Roger Snyder, who worked at the Department of Energy for decades, will leave the Fermi Site Office in May, WTTW News has confirmed. The site manager works closely with the director of the national lab as part of the federal government.

Remembering the life of Pope Francis. And why some advocates are speaking out against the Trump administration’s approach to autism research.

In a speech last week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed kids with autism will “never pay taxes, hold a job,” play sports or participate in the arts.

“We’re certainly going to mourn the loss of a truly wonderful leader, someone who was a great example, who lived their faith in word and action,” Auxiliary Bishop Lawrence Sullivan said. “But it’s also a time to really be grateful for his phenomenal leadership.”

The visitor center reopened Monday after closing for repairs in November 2023 following damage from a fire.

Harvard University announced Monday that it has filed suit to halt a federal freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus activism on campus.

The FTC said Uber also made it extremely difficult for subscribers to cancel Uber One. The agency said Uber requires customers to take at least 12 different actions on at least seven screens to cancel the service.

The S&P 500 sank 2.4% in another wipeout. That yanked the index that’s at the center of many 401(k) accounts 16% below its record set two months ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 971 points, or 2.5%, while losses for Tesla and Nvidia helped drag the Nasdaq composite down 2.6%.

Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among children and teens in the U.S. Emergency medical service encounters for firearm injury spiked in 2021 and remain higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first meteor shower of the year is here, with the Lyrids peaking late tonight into the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday.

The settlement comes after a complaint filed in Chicago’s federal court alleged Walgreens pharmacists filled illegal prescriptions for excessive quantities of opioids and prescriptions for a particularly dangerous combination of drugs.

Anyone trying to handicap the outcome should remember that Jorge Mario Bergoglio was considered too old to be elected pope in 2013 at age 76, and that Karol Wojtyla wasn’t on any front-runner lists going into the 1978 conclave that elected him Pope John Paul II.

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday sounded the alarm about the financial crisis facing the city, warning that Chicago “will have to do more with less” as President Donald Trump threatens to upend its finances and officials confront the results of decades of financial mismanagement.

Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, has released a statement on the death of Pope Francis.

Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change, died Monday. He was 88.

The Chicago Park District said the best viewing will likely run through April 27.

Imani hatched at Montrose Beach in 2021. He has faithfully returned every year since, and last year he finally made a love connection.