Stories by Patty Wetli

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a new plant hardiness zone map, and significant swaths of the country — Chicago included — are now in warmer zones.

Reflecting on the impact political cartoonist and activist Danny Sotomayor had on the AIDS epidemic in Chicago during the 1980s and 1990s. 

Only two weeks ago, an industry-shaking $1.8 billion verdict in an antitrust class-action case was handed down, finding the National Association of Realtors and two brokerage firms liable for conspiring to keep commissions artificially high. 

Three debates for next year’s presidential general election are set to be held in college towns in Texas, Virginia and Utah between Sept. 16 and Oct. 9, with the lone vice presidential debate happening in between in Pennsylvania.

Over the last five years, agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have employed a new seek-and-destroy strategy that uses turncoat carp to lead them to the fish’s hotspot hideouts.

At least three teenagers were fatally shot over the weekend across Chicago, including a pair of 14-year-old boys killed in the Chatham neighborhood Sunday and a 16-year-old boy who died Saturday.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the closest adviser to Jimmy Carter during his one term as U.S. president and their four decades thereafter as global humanitarians, has died at the age of 96.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairperson Jennifer Homendy said the Chicago Transit Authority train was traveling at 26.9 mph on Thursday when it struck the snow-removal equipment, which was on the tracks conducting training for the winter season.

Officials at the Illinois State Board of Education say they’re receiving more requests for increased funding for next year than the state could possibly afford, and they’re bracing for the possibility that budgets will start to tighten in the near future.

Ford, General Motors and Stellantis agreements, which run through April 2028, will end contentious talks that began last summer and led to six-week-long strikes at all three automakers.

Chicago gets more money from the state to care for migrants. City Council rubber-stamps Johnson’s $16.6 billion budget. And former Ald. Ed Burke’s trial resumes after a COVID-19 delay.

The new policy could mean more than 3,000 people will lose their beds in city shelters by early February, with the rest forced out by April.

The NTSB will examine the condition of the track and the train, how people were protected inside the train, the operator’s training and work history, and the CTA’s safety culture, including how dispatch cleared the Yellow Line train.

Federal prosecutors called their first witness Friday afternoon in the longtime alderman’s landmark corruption trial — Elmhurst College professor Constance Mixon, who gave the jury a crash course in the city’s political system.

The core principle of “leave the leaves” is to manage the leaves on site. It doesn’t mean to just leave them where they fell.

While prosecutors said former Ald. Ed Burke was a “bribe-taker and an extortionist” who used his elected office to “line his pockets,” Burke’s attorneys said he was an “old school, hardworking public servant” devoted to Chicago and its residents.

Regulators at the Illinois Commerce Commission unanimously approved rate hikes for four major natural gas utilities, but the little-known regulatory body’s decision was perhaps more notable for what it rejected. The board flexed its regulatory muscle, slashing the utilities’ requested rate increases by as much as 50 percent.

Forest preserve districts across the region are in the middle of fire season — not combatting them, but setting them. 

The Avondale Restorative Justice Community Court program offers those charged with nonviolent offenses a chance to turn their lives around. Rather than serving time, people are given another option.

Chicago is set to get more money from the state to care for migrants. What local Mexican restaurants are bringing to the table for vegans. And why Cicero has worse air quality than its neighbors.

According to Cook County data, 35% of residents speak a language other than English at home, while 14% of those people say they speak English less than “very well.” Meanwhile, migrants continue arriving in Chicago with limited to no English-speaking skills and few resources.

The project involves sensors installed and monitored by the Cicero Independiente and MuckRock providing data to back up what many community members were already feeling.

When it comes to tacos, the first thing on many people’s minds is what kind of meat is going to be inside that tortilla. But these days, about 20% of Mexicans identify as vegan or vegetarian, and a growing share of America’s Latinos do as well.

After a seven-year wait, the state of Illinois will finally begin issuing monarch butterfly specialty license plates, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced Thursday.

The Workers United union chose Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day to stage the walkout since it’s usually one of the busiest days of the year. 

The Chicago Police Department has reached full compliance on just 6% of its consent decree requirements. Independent monitor Maggie Hickey expressed a belief that additional transparency will help bring police in line with necessary reforms.