Stories by Paris Schutz

A 36-year-old Chicago Public Schools teacher is charged with two felony counts of stalking after a confrontation with officers outside of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s home earlier this week.

Engaging the city’s youngest voters ahead of the mayoral election. Cash payments for Evanston’s reparations program. A local author traces her lineage back to Benjamin Banneker. And Glencoe's once-thriving Black community.

The National Museum of Mexican Art launched its annual Sor Juana Festival, an event series featuring Mexican and Mexican-American artists. The festival’s name honors 17th century Mexican nun, mathematician, writer and activist Sor Juana Ines de La Cruz.

Americans are discovering family secrets every day thanks to DNA testing and online genealogy. But not everyone learns they have a luminary of Black American history as an ancestor.

The initial program issued payments of $25,000 for housing benefits like mortgage assistance or renovations. Black residents who lived in Evanston during a 50-year period of discriminatory zoning laws and their direct descendants receive priority for eligibility.

A new exhibit from the Glencoe Historical Society explores the town’s beginnings as an unusually integrated community and takes a stark look at how the Black members of that community were pushed out.

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, only 3% of voters ages 18 to 24 voted in the Feb. 28 Chicago municipal election.

Latino voters could be the crucial swing vote that decides who will be Chicago’s next mayor, but according to a recent poll, many Latinos said they haven’t heard from either of the candidates ahead of Tuesday’s runoff election.

Three-time Golden Gloves champion Jorge Pacheco became dedicated to boxing as a teenager. He now applies lessons learned in the ring to his business.

As Election Day approaches, top issues on the minds of voters. A local congregation helping migrants. The Golden Gloves turns 100. And “Adventures with Abuelita.”

In Belvidere, Illinois, a tornado collapsed the roof of the Apollo Theatre as 260 people attended a heavy metal concert, killing one person and injuring 40, officials said.

Illinois congressmen react to former President Trump’s indictment and the mishandling of classified documents. Friction is growing within the CTU over campaign spending. And Transgender Day of Visibility celebrations in the city.

An airport destroyed in the middle of the night by the government. It may sound like the plot of an exotic spy thriller, but it happened in Chicago 20 years ago this week.

On Friday, people around the world came together for the annual Transgender Day of Visibility, a day to celebrate the resilience of transgender and nonbinary people.

Both Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas will spend the final days of what is expected to be the closest election in Chicago history scrambling for any possible advantage – and trying to make sure their supporters cast a ballot.

U.S. Representatives Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) recently introduced legislation that would implement stronger enforcement to protect classified documents and impose civil penalties for officials who mishandle those documents.

A group of teachers has filed legal action against the CTU, alleging union leaders are wrongly spending dues money on political organizations supporting Brandon Johnson for mayor. They said it’s not about politics, but about their contention that their own union has deceived them.

Trump indictment sets the national political world on fire. Vallas and Johnson race toward the finish line. “ComEd Four” trial peels the curtain back on the Madigan machine. And Cubs and Sox are undefeated.

Researchers at Northwestern University found that people who live directly next to Lake Michigan or along one of the major interstate highways running through Chicago are regularly exposed to more air pollution than residents in the rest of the city.

Violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Daniil Trifonov dazzled an Orchestra Hall audience Wednesday night, writes WTTW News theater critic Hedy Weiss. The musicians, in top form, even treated the enthusiastic crowd to two encores.

The First District Appellate Court issued a 38-page ruling Friday, ordering that Micheail Ward will be given a new trial after statements he made to investigators after he invoked his right to remain silent were used in court.

Chicago Public Schools on Friday informed parents and students at Lindblom Math & Science Academy that it had removed Abdul Muhammad from his principal duties, citing “an investigation that substantiated findings” against him.

Researchers from Shedd Aquarium and Chicago-based Urban Rivers teamed with counterparts in Boston and Baltimore and confirmed that floating wetlands can improve water quality and provide vital habitat.

In a presidential proclamation on Thursday and a subsequent statement on Friday, Biden acknowledged “a wave of discriminatory state laws” aimed at trans Americans, squarely blaming “MAGA extremists” for “advancing hundreds of hateful and extreme state laws that target transgender kids and their families.”

The new rules take effect April 18 and are aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on China and other countries for battery supply chains for electric vehicles.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose 0.3% from January to February, down from a 0.6% increase from December to January.