Stories by Patty Wetli

The screenings will take place at parks in communities where residents have some of Chicago's lowest life expectancies.

Beat the January blahs with some blues — or a prize-winning play or an art show. In a few months when everyone is complaining about the heat, you’ll recall that time in the dead of winter when you bundled up and defied the season.

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

In an effort to minimize patient disruptions, Planned Parenthood of Illinois leaders said they plan to expand patient care at other locations as needed and through the PPDirect app.

Slashing jobs in federal DEI positions is one move in a series of actions taken by the new administration, after Donald Trump promised to wage a war against such programs and take on the practice on Day 1.

The memo, written by acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, also instructs the Justice Department’s civil division to work with a newly formed Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group to identify state and local laws and policies that “threaten to impede” the Trump administration’s immigration efforts and potentially challenge them in court.

In many districts across the country, educators have sought to reassure immigrant parents that schools are safe places for their kids, despite the president’s campaign pledge to carry out mass deportations.

Hispanic advocacy groups and others expressed confusion at the abrupt change and frustration at what some called the administration’s lack of efforts to maintain communication with the Latino community, which helped propel him to the presidency.

How the state is bracing for mass deportations. And he never holds back — one on one with Michael Eric Dyson.

Illinois is suing to block President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, while state leaders brace for potential raids aimed at removing individuals in the U.S. without legal documentation.

Author and university professor Michael Eric Dyson is known for his rapid-fire commentary — threading hip-hop lyrics with Bible verses in his signature alliteration to make points about politics, pop culture and racial justice in America.

Rich Hein, an intensely gifted photographer who spent four decades working at the Chicago Sun-Times, died Sunday. He was 70.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday signed a long-awaited bill to stop Illinois organizations from paying less than the minimum wage to workers with disabilities.

President Trump and his team wasted little time reassigning nearly two dozen senior Justice Department officials and dismissing career DOJ officials who oversee the nation’s immigration courts, State Department diplomats and the commandant of the Coast Guard.

“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” is a celebration of Black hair and salons, a kind of sanctuary for Black women where societal expectations on how to present and perform no longer exist.

According to Streets and Sanitation, thousands of people voted in the contest, now in its third year.

Ben Johnson finalized an agreement to become Chicago’s head coach, the Bears announced on Tuesday.

From public libraries to community centers, the city of Chicago offers more than 190 public facilities where anyone can go to keep warm this winter.

Some of the orders revive priorities from his first administration that his predecessor had rolled back, including forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico and finishing the border wall. Others launched sweeping new strategies, like an effort to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in America.

If there were snow pack on the ground, Tuesday's temperatures could be closer to approaching record lows.

With his opening rounds of memoranda and executive orders, Trump repealed dozens of former President Joe Biden’s actions, began his immigration crackdown, withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accords and sought to keep TikTok open in the U.S., among other actions. He pardoned hundreds of people for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The commutations cover the sentences for 14 far-right extremists from the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were convicted or charged with seditious conspiracy. With the pardons, Trump has granted full clemency to hundreds of people already convicted of felony crimes like assaulting police and destroying property as part of the effort to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

Almost six decades later, urban historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas is making sure new generations know the details of Martin Luther King Jr.’s time in Chicago through his educational tours of the city’s neighborhoods.

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president — a look at his priorities. And local reaction to his first day plans.

The Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator has agreed to become the Chicago Bears head coach, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday.

After Monday’s daytime temperatures hovered in the single digits, they are expected to dip to minus 10 to minus 3 degrees overnight, according to the National Weather Service. Flurries and isolated snow showers are also expected in the Chicago region.