Stories by Emily Soto

With the Chicago area’s transit agencies facing a $730 million fiscal cliff, state lawmakers have been working on a plan to preserve and improve public transportation.

“I’m not going to cut, and take away, layoff, fire, privatize so that other people can benefit, and the people of Chicago can lose,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “Not under my watch.”

The students behind efforts to name the Calvatia gigantea the state mushroom of Illinois had an opportunity to learn more about the “giant puffball” at the Field Museum.

Illinois surpassed $2 billion in tax revenue last year from all types of gambling and the state lottery — a record bolstered by continued growth in video gambling, sports betting and the opening of several new casinos.

The conversation was the final installment of a three-part series, “Ending Gun Violence in Chicago: Connecting Policy, Practice and Community,” hosted by philanthropic group The Joyce Foundation in collaboration with WTTW and City Club of Chicago.

Attorneys for the former Illinois House speaker and his longtime confidant met with prosecutors Tuesday afternoon to iron out any final wrinkles before the trial gets into swing.

“We’re finally addressing an issue that should have been addressed a long time ago,” President Joe Biden said in announcing a new EPA rule that speeds up the deadline for lead service line replacement.

Each Wednesday, Via Chicago presents five must-see shows from indie rock to jazz, country, hip-hop and more. 

“We have to recognize there’s a limit” and perhaps reassess assumptions about when people should retire and how much money they’ll need to live out their lives, said S. Jay Olshansky, a University of Illinois-Chicago researcher.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and top prosecutors from more than a dozen other states filed a lawsuit against social media app TikTok alleging the platform has deceived the public about the dangers it presents to children and teens.

“I truly believe in community input,” Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) said. “I want the people to have a voice. I don’t know every nook and cranny of every neighborhood. And when I say the people, I mean the alderman.”

“As someone that represents Chicago, it seemed irresponsible to completely overhaul the makeup of the board just months before the election,” state Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) told WTTW News.

A fiery news conference today as Mayor Brandon Johnson unveils his new Chicago Board of Education appointees. We’ll have reaction.

The mayor announced his new picks for the board amid a tumultuous time between Johnson and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who said he rejected the mayor’s request that he resign his position.

“This has been kind of an extreme and somewhat stressful year for a lot of plants,” said Tom Tiddens, supervisor of plant health care at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

The race, which transformed the streets of downtown into a 2.2-mile street course, is already set to make its return to Chicago next summer.

The Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in 2022 of three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.

Five people were killed by gunfire in shootings across Chicago over the weekend, according to the Chicago Police Department.

The longtime House speaker, along with his longtime confidant and current co-defendant Michael McClain, are finally set to go to trial this week, more than two and a half years after the men were first charged in a bombshell federal indictment that accused them of racketeering, bribery and wire fraud.

The entire CPS board calls it quits. Early voting gets underway in Chicago. And the presidential contest comes to the Midwest.

Attendees of the outdoor concert venue the Salt Shed might have been exposed to a bat during a Sept. 12 concert for the band Goose, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Board president Jianan Shi, Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland and fellow members Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano, Michelle Morales and Tanya Woods plan to step down from their positions this month.

A record share of U.S. kindergartners had an exemption for required vaccinations last school year, leaving more than 125,000 new schoolchildren without coverage for at least one state-mandated vaccine.

Another week, another set of navigational challenges on North DuSable Lake Shore Drive as the number of lane closures increases to accommodate an ongoing resurfacing project.

Forest preserve districts in DuPage, Kane and Lake counties, along with the McHenry County Conservation District, are all asking either for tax increases or the ability to issue bonds to pay for land acquisition, habitat restoration and ongoing maintenance.

Voters in the Nov. 5 election will pick a member to represent each of 10 new districts as the board triples in size from its current size of seven up to 21 members beginning in January 2025.