Stories by Nick Blumberg

Nora Leerhsen, who has worked at the CTA for more than 10 years, took over as its leader on Feb. 1.

“By applying the sales tax only to goods and a small number of services, Illinois is missing the ability to tax much of the spending within its borders,” the nonpartisan Civic Federation said in its latest report.

President Donald Trump pardons former Gov. Rod Blagojevich — how local politicians are reacting. And a project aimed at keeping invasive carp out of the Great Lakes is on hold.

“I support President Trump in many ways,” state Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) said, “but I don’t think he understands that this just signals that the corruption in Illinois is just accepted, rather than it has to stop.”

Housing and shelter, utility assistance, access to food and employment and income assistance were the most common needs for residents, according to 211 Metro Chicago program leaders.

No longer will gifts accepted by Chicago’s mayor on behalf of the city be covered by an “unwritten arrangement” dating back to the late 1980s during the administration of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, Board President William Conlon said.

The state of Illinois has pressed pause on a barrier designed to keep invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes, saying it can no longer count on the federal government to honor its funding obligation to the $1.15 billion project.

Each Wednesday, WTTW News producer Josh Terry presents must-see live music shows from indie rock to jazz, country, hip-hop and more.

Eight-hundred people who have filed complaints since May against juvenile detention centers in Illinois alleging they were sexually abused by employees. The Illinois lawsuits are part of a wave of complaints against juvenile detention centers nationwide including in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Hampshire.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for the Chicago area and much of northern Illinois from 9 a.m. Wednesday to 3 a.m. Thursday.

The jury of eight women and four men began deliberations late on Jan. 29. They have now completed 10 days of discussions without yet reaching a verdict.

Sonya Massey was killed July 6 after two Sangamon County sheriff’s deputies responded to her 911 call about a possible prowler at her home. She was shot and killed following a dispute with one of the responding deputies involving a pot of boiling water in her kitchen, body camera footage showed.

The proposed policy “impermissibly allows officers to use race, ethnicity, and other protected characteristics when making decisions on whether to stop, frisk or search people, in violation of federal and state law,” according to the coalition led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

The Trump administration plans to dissolve USAID — a look at the potential impact. And unlocking the secrets of life in some of the most extreme environments on Earth.

The federal government is the second largest employer in Illinois, with 82,000 federal workers in the state.

University of Chicago paleontologist and author Neil Shubin has been on multiple expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica. Those trips have produced groundbreaking discoveries about the evolution of life.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has lost almost all ability to track $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid following the Trump administration’s foreign funding freeze and idling of staffers, a government watchdog warned Monday.

Take a seat in Steppenwolf’s mainstage theater and enter the world of “Fool for Love,” Sam Shepard’s 75-minute play dating from 1983.

Lurie Children’s Hospital will continue to provide hormone therapy and puberty blockers, a hospital spokesperson confirmed, and specifically noted that mental health care will also continue as part of the hospital’s gender care program.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston challenges the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health over efforts to reduce funding that goes to so-called indirect costs — including lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted on charges that included seeking to sell an appointment to then-President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital.

President Donald Trump says he has ordered the U.S. Mint to stop making pennies, which he correctly says cost more than one cent to produce.

Karina Gonzalez and her 15-year-old daughter Daniela were shot and killed on Fourth of July weekend in 2023 at their Chicago home, allegedly by her husband. After more than a year of negotiations, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill in her honor that is designed to remove guns from domestic violence situations.

President Donald Trump will need the Supreme Court, with three justices he appointed, to enable the most aggressive of the many actions he has taken in just the first few weeks of his second White House term. But even a conservative majority with a robust view of presidential power might balk at some of what the president wants to do.

Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) failed to hold a vote on the agreement as scheduled Monday, an indication that the deal does not have enough support to advance to the full City Council.

During the past six years taxpayers have spent at least $472.4 million to resolve police misconduct lawsuits, setting a new record, according to a WTTW News analysis.