Stories by Emily Soto

The Chicago International Film Festival kicks off Wednesday and will commemorate its 60th anniversary. But at the time of its founding, director and founder Michael Kutza, couldn’t have imagined what it would become.

Our Spotlight Politics team on Donald Trump's Chicago visit. And a push to merge public transit agencies.  

Roughly 252,000 ballots have been cast Tuesday, Gabe Sterling of the Georgia secretary of state’s office said on X. “Spectacular turnout. We are running out of adjectives for this.” The previous first day record was 136,000 in 2020.

The Harris-Walz plan includes a focus on improving rural health care, such as plans to recruit 10,000 new health care professionals in rural and tribal areas through scholarships, loan forgiveness and new grant programs, as well as economic and agricultural policy priorities. 

Most mainstream economists say Trump’s policy proposals wouldn’t vanquish inflation. They’d make it worse. They warn that his plans to impose huge tariffs on imported goods, deport millions of migrant workers and demand a voice in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies would likely send prices surging.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was pressed on his communication with the Russian president during a wide-ranging — and sometimes contentious — interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago.

The Illinois Senate’s Transportation Committee has been meeting since July to grapple with the thorny issue of funding for the Chicago area’s transit system and whether to replace the CTA, Metra, Pace and Regional Transportation Authority with a single agency that will oversee bus, train and paratransit services. The proposal also calls for $1.5 billion in new funding. 

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

The Harlem Globetrotters may have a New York name, but they’re a Chicago team.  The players and founder Abe Saperstein disrupted the game of basketball and gave it a whole new look when they were founded in the 1920s.  A new book reveals the history and legacy of the storied team. 

A movement of expression with origins in Mexican American and Chicano communities, lowriding is an aspect of Latino history in the U.S. in which people show their pride, honor family and uplift culture. But misrepresentation of the culture in entertainment and media has often associated the lowriding’s “low and slow” motto with gang culture.

The company said Tuesday that about 500 stores will close in the current fiscal year and should immediately support earnings and free cash flow. Walgreens didn’t say where the store closings would take place.

According to Chicago Police Department figures, there were 34 people shot in 29 separate shootings between Friday and Monday evenings. 

Stateville had robust higher educational programs, partnering with five Chicago-area universities. After the transfers, some students have been split from their classmates and are now hundreds of miles away from each other. Those divisions and distances now make it difficult for educators to reach students.

Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS is one of the brightest in years. We've got tips on how to view this visitor from the outer solar system, even in Chicago.

Preckwinkle’s $9.9 billion plan calls for investments in opioid addiction remediation, community violence intervention, firming up how generative artificial intelligence can be used, adding employees at the assessor’s office to help with property valuations and adding solar panels to county properties.  

Voters are casting their ballots for the city's Board of Education — what you should know. And we break down Cook County's nearly $10 billion budget proposal. 

The class, based out of the school’s Evanston campus, traveled to meet with students incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, where the two groups were tasked with collaborating on a documentary.

The board’s monthly agenda review committee meeting, which had been scheduled for Wednesday morning, will not be held as planned, Chicago Public Schools announced over the weekend.

The Chicago area’s public transit system is approaching the precipice of a $730 million fiscal cliff in just over a year’s time. A group of lawmakers and advocates don’t just want to plug the transit agencies’ budget hole — they’re looking to funnel $1.5 billion in additional state funding each year to create a sustainable, world-class public transportation system.

A thought has circulated among several people close to the former president, they told CNN: If Trump wins, Obama might be seen as the aberration in the history of American politics, rather than Trump and his nativist authoritarianism.

Ruth Chepngetich became the first woman to break 2:10 in the marathon. She also won the Chicago Marathon in 2021 and 2022 and finished runner-up last year.

The mayor brings in a new school board while the district faces a budget crunch. And alderpeople jam up City Council, angry over the CPS board and the end of ShotSpotter.

Thursday evening’s concert at Orchestra Hall was another knockout performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and it marked the brief return of conductor Marin Alsop, who clearly adores the CSO. It also was a program comprised of three radically different but splendid pieces of music.

Starting Oct. 14, only partial overnight lane closures are planned on DuSable Lake Shore Drive between LaSalle Drive and Hollywood Avenue. Here’s what motorists can expect.

The West Side hospital’s ex-CEO George Miller was charged in a superseding indictment Friday after he allegedly received more than $750,000 in bribes.

A federal court order requiring the Chicago Police Department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers should be expanded to include traffic stops, but the city’s new police oversight board should be given some power over the hot-button issue, according to a new recommendation.