Stories by Erica Gunderson

Every year, the Carole Robertson Center for Learning holds ceremonies and social justice activities in remembrance of Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carol McNair — the four little girls killed in a 1963 white supremacist attack on the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.

This month, the Morton Arboretum is inviting people to get back in touch with their roots with a variety of events and programs highlighting Latino cultures and communities, beginning with the Celebración de los Árboles on Sept. 16-17.

Shattered Globe Theatre’s vividly acted and deeply disturbing revival of the Arthur Miller classic “A View From the Bridge” could not have been revived at a more ideally timely moment.

Biden won 61% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 in 2020, making young voters a critical part of his coalition. However, his approval ratings within that age group now stand at 29% compared to 40% overall, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

City Council approves another big payout for wrongful convictions. Illinois’ secretary of state on his trip to DC. And the Chicago-born former first lady of Ukraine on Russia and the future of the region.

Kateryna Yushchenko, the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, was born in Chicago and lived much of her early life in Humboldt Park before moving to Mount Prospect. After earning an MBA in international economics from the University of Chicago, Yushchenko had an impressive career in public service.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias was in Washington, D.C., this week to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee regarding a new state law aimed at deterring book bans.

The Englewood Jazz Festival runs through Saturday, Sept. 16. In its 24 years, the festival has worked to cultivate a musical community at what’s said to be the “Ravinia of South Side.”

COVID-19 vaccines and flu shots will be available to everyone at no cost, regardless of insurance or immigration status.

A tent collapse in southwest suburban Chicago injured at least 26 people, police said. Five of those hurt had serious injuries, Bedford Park Police Chief Tom Hansen said.

The $500 million presidential center now under construction in Jackson Park has already made South Shore “ground zero” of Chicago’s housing crisis, with a high eviction rate and surging real estate prices, according to supporters of a City Council proposal.

Chicago taxpayers have now spent $178 million since January 2019 to resolve lawsuits brought by more than three dozen people wrongfully convicted based on evidence gathered by Chicago Police Department officers, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

Oktoberfest, Oksoberfest and a pair of arts festivals usher in the weekend. Here are five things to do in and around Chicago.

The Workers’ Rights Amendment provides, in part, that all employees have a “fundamental right” to organize and engage in collective bargaining over wages, hours and working conditions.

 Anthony Freud will retire as general director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago at the end of the season, ending a 13-year tenure.

For years, former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White blocked attempts by an ex-state trooper to regain his driving privileges after a high-speed crash that caused the deaths of teenage sisters on a busy St. Clair County interstate in 2007.

Hunter Biden is accused of lying about his drug use when he bought a firearm in October 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction to crack cocaine, according to the indictment filed in federal court in Delaware by a special counsel overseeing the case.

Despite the enthusiasm of supporters who held a City Hall rally before the City Council meeting and packed the chambers, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) tried, but failed, to prevent it from heading directly to a committee hearing and vote.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted 12-9 in favor of recommending April Perry to become the next U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. With the committee’s approval, she is now set for a final confirmation vote before the full Senate.

Why some CHA residents say they’re facing retaliation. Spotlight Politics on the city’s budget shortfall. A fallen firefighter is laid to rest. And a different kind of training for police officers.

A federal judge declared illegal a revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. He declined, however, to order an immediate end to the program and the protections it offers to recipients.

A new study from researchers at the University of Chicago Crime Lab has found a training program rooted in behavioral science can dramatically cut the number of use-of-force incidents committed by police while also increasing officer safety.

One longtime CHA resident said the potential sale of her home is part of a longtime pattern of neglect and retaliation from management companies and a failure of proper oversight from the CHA — a pattern echoed by claims from four other leaseholders or resident advocates in neighborhoods around the city.

The budget gap is nearly three times the size of the gap forecasted by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot as she left office, but is still smaller than any projected shortfall since 2019.

The state Department of Agriculture, which hosts the fair each year, reported on Tuesday that about 708,000 people attended the fair, an 11% increase from 2022.  

A kick-off event Sept. 16 is aimed at recruiting more volunteer stewards, whose work helps safeguard the nature preserve’s endangered and threatened species.