Stories by Matt Masterson

“This is an important moment for our district, not only because of the change in mayoral leadership; but because, with the election of ten board members in November 2024, the Chicago Board of Education will begin its transition from fully appointed to fully elected,” the advocates wrote in the June 14 letter.

The entire state of Minnesota and most of Wisconsin were under air quality alerts Wednesday as a gray haze from wildfire smoke shifted south, according to the National Weather Service.

Experts cited several possible reasons for the increases, including higher rates of depression, limited availability of mental health services and the number of guns in U.S. homes.

Glenda Jackson, a two-time Academy Award-winning performer who had a second career in politics as a British lawmaker before an acclaimed late-life return to stage and screen, has died at age 87.

The increases, MCA’s first since 2017, were approved Wednesday by the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners and will affect residents and non-residents alike, though the latter is getting hit harder.

Chicago’s dance scene is in high gear these days with formidable performances by ballet, modern, jazz, tap, Spanish and classical Indian companies on stages in and around the city. A case in point was this past Saturday’s one-night-only world premiere performance of “Memoirs of Jazz in the Alley” by South Chicago Dance Theatre.

City Council meets to hash out NASCAR details as closures pile up. What’s next in the bombshell Trump indictment. And a Marvel Comics artist gets an exhibit in Elmhurst.

Artist Alex Ross is a hero to fans of comic book art and graphic novels. For 30 years from his home near Chicago, Ross has been the go-to artist for revitalizing beloved characters — from Spider-Man and Superman to Iron Man and the Fantastic Four.

City leaders and NASCAR officials said they were confident the race would avoid all of the possible potholes and showcase Chicago in all of its summertime glory for a national audience.

After a rough summer in 2022 when a lifeguard shortage left the Chicago Park District scrambling to open even a fraction of its pools, the district doubled down on recruitment efforts in 2023.

Riot Fest received permit approval from the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, over the objections of opponents who’ve campaigned for more than a year to keep the festival out of Douglass Park.

Historically, the medical mistreatment of people of color has resulted in the mistrust of a system that saves lives. With health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease on the rise within Black and Brown communities, physicians are working to restore trust.

Michael McCuskey is charged with investigating complaints of corruption or other misconduct from members of the General Assembly or the people that work for them. The post was created in 2003, and all three people who have held it in the past have criticized the lack of power given to the office.

Arthur Brown spent 29 years in prison after being convicted of killing two people by setting fire to a South Side store in 1988. He was released in 2017 after a judge overturned his conviction, prompting Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to drop the charges against him.

Most of the car companies manufacturing electric vehicles, a quickly growing market, have dropped AM radio from new vehicles. Because more than 40% of all radio listening is done in cars, there has been major pushback to the growing lack of AM access.

Hundreds of acres of vacant land in Sugar Grove has a developer looking to build housing, civic space, retail – and distribution warehouses. Some residents are uneasy the project would change the village’s small town feel. 

Ayca Sarialioglu, 29, was arrested and charged with felony counts of failing to report an accident involving injury and leaving the scene of a traffic accident involving injury. She also faces a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol stemming from the incident Monday.

The failure likely sent hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, wood, brick, metal and glass into landfills that could have been reused or recycled, according to the audit by the city’s watchdog.

According to the Chicago Police Department, the boy was charged Wednesday with two counts of robbery and a single count of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm.

The Fed’s move to leave its benchmark rate at about 5.1%, its highest level in 16 years, suggests that it believes the much higher borrowing rates it’s engineered have made some progress in taming inflation. 

Getting around town during the NASCAR races. The western suburbs could be getting a new development. Will future cars have AM radio? And organ donation in Black and Brown communities.

The Chicago Board of Ethics determined all of the violations of the city’s Ethics Ordinance were minor in nature, which will mean the candidates will be admonished in condfidential letters from the board — but not fined.

According to the Chicago Fire Department, the victims were all transported to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the bus refused medical assistance.

Chicago Public Schools unveiled its budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, which officials say will boost per-pupil spending by nearly $1,000 and reduce the number of schools that will see decreased funding, compared to spring projections.

The north suburban community of Waukegan is the latest town to get in on the high-stakes game of bidding for the Chicago Bears, joining Naperville, Chicago and Arlington Heights. 

Donald Trump is expected to become Tuesday the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as the city of Miami prepared for possible protests by crowds that officials said could number in the tens of thousands.