Stories by Patty Wetli

Stink bugs — officially, brown marmorated stink bugs — aren’t fans of the cooler fall temperatures and have started heading indoors to over-winter. Don’t freak out, experts said.

Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and possession of a handgun after a minor collision on Thursday.

This weekend, Runway Latinx is bringing a fusion of fashion designers together to close out Chicago Fashion Week.

Last week, the Acero charter network announced it would close seven campuses by the end of the school year — impacting more than 2,000 students and 270 teachers. The charter school network cites declining enrollment, rising personnel and facility costs, and a $40 million deficit. But parents and teachers are fighting back, calling for Chicago Public Schools to absorb the closing schools. 

The Great Lakes are likely to see more precipitation this winter, according to a newly released seasonal outlook from the Climate Prediction Center.

Parents weigh in as seven charter schools are set to close at the end of the school year. And what's behind an uptick in HIV cases among young, gay Latino men.

Latinos account for the largest share of new HIV diagnoses and infections among men who have sex with men — more than any other ethnic and racial demographic, according to an analysis from KFF News-Associated Press. There are over 22,000 people living with HIV in Chicago and the city saw 700 new HIV diagnoses in 2022.

The Secretary of State’s office is deploying 15 kiosks located in Chicago, the suburbs and downstate in Mariano’s, Jewel-Osco, Kroger and Meijer grocery stores. The kiosks will print vehicle registration stickers for customers immediately on site. Customers seeking a driver’s license or state ID card renewal will receive a temporary document at the kiosk to use while their new card is mailed to them.

Joffrey Ballet’s U.S. premiere of “Atonement” tells the impassioned story of a lie that alters the course of love and history. Cathy Marston, the acclaimed British choreographer behind “Atonement,” is best known for narrative ballets.

Two bison calves were born at Midewin in recent weeks, coming as quite a surprise considering that female bison typically give birth between April and June.

The milestone comes over one year since an Illinois law went into effect requiring public schools to provide a plant-based lunch for students who have, or whose parents have, requested a plant-based lunch option in advance. The plant-based school lunches meet the same federal nutrition standards as non-plant based lunch options.

One additional juror was seated Thursday at the Dirksen Federal Building, where Madigan and his longtime confidant Michael McClain stand accused of racketeering, bribery and wire fraud.

The Chicago area’s transit agencies are facing a $730 million fiscal cliff in 2026 when federal COVID relief money runs out, money that’s filling the gap in operating budgets from still-sluggish ridership numbers. Some legislators and advocates back the idea of doing away with RTA, CTA, Metra and Pace in favor of a new regional mega-agency, the Metropolitan Mobility Authority.

The board’s monthly meeting, which had been scheduled for Oct. 24, is no longer set to be held and a makeup date has not yet been announced.

The South Side community experiences a large amount of flooding made greater than its counterparts on the North Side because of a lack of preventative infrastructure, which can cause significant damage to homes and businesses.

The battle over Chicago Public Schools — CEO Pedro Martinez joins us to respond to critics. And a City Council meeting sees alderpeople fired up over CPS and ShotSpotter.

Northeastern Illinois University has certainly seen its fair share of turmoil in recent years, including a narrowly averted strike and the departure of the former university president following a vote of no-confidence by faculty. Now, Katrina Bell-Jordan is officially taking the reins of leadership at NEIU .

Despite its breezy title, “Becky Nurse of Salem” is a full-blown tempest of irony and righteous anger. It ponders the witch as both a powerful being and an object of scorn. Here, witches can be genuine or kooky – sometimes all in the same witch.

A new 311 noise complaint category specifically aimed at catching private haulers flouting the law is live – and the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation can use those complaints to demand data from companies to prove whether they made unlawful pickups.

No current or former members of the Chicago Board of Education attended Wednesday's marathon session of the City Council’s Education Committee, even after some City Council members threatened to hit them with subpoenas to require them to appear.

Eleven jurors were picked through the first three days of the selection process last week, but so far no new members have been chosen through two days of questioning this week.

“A generation-long persistence in structurally imbalanced budgets, coupled with high pension and debt burdens, mean the city will face enormous budget shortfalls in the coming years,” wrote Joseph Ferguson, the head of the nonpartisan budget watchdog group and the city’s former inspector general.

The school district on Wednesday released its 20th-day enrollment figures — which serve as the office CPS tally for the academic year — showing there are currently 325,305 students enrolled.

The planting of a non-native milkweed and the practice of captive-rearing monarch caterpillars have been identified as two possible sources of monarchs failure to survive their fall migration.  

Authorities are searching for an exotic, wild caracal cat on the loose in suburban Hoffman Estates, with officials warning residents to give the animal wide berth if they come across it.

FlixBus, the company that owns Greyhound, said in statement Tuesday that it’s “finalizing a month-to-month lease extension” and that its “operations will continue without disruption.”