Stories by WTTW News

Remembering a beloved local DJ. The latest on the legal tangle over the state’s assault weapons ban. A trans bus driver who was fired from the CTA. And how well do you know Chicago’s street grid?

In 2019, WTTW News covered his successful push for the CTA to add gender affirming care to its health insurance policy. The employee behind that push has since been fired and is now suing the agency and his union. 

Multiple county sheriffs across the state have said they won’t enforce it. On Friday, a circuit court judge in downstate Effingham County issued a temporary restraining order blocking the new law — although that ruling only applies to the 850 plaintiffs and four licensed gun dealers named in the case.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a simplified approach for future vaccination efforts, allowing most adults and children to get a once-a-year shot to protect against the mutating virus.

The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, which runs through Jan. 29, will unquestionably change your conception on how puppets can be used in staged productions.

The Chicago Board of Ethics voted unanimously to ask both the Chicago inspector general and the Chicago Public Schools inspector general to probe emails sent by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign to CPS teachers and City Colleges instructors.

How exactly are streets organized in Chicago? WTTW News gives you a guided tour of the grid system that organizes the city’s streets and addresses. 

The suspect, Huu Can Tran, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Sunday, had visited police in his town of Hemet twice this month to allege he was the victim of fraud, theft and poisoning by family members between 10 and 20 years ago in the LA area, spokesman Alan Reyes told The Associated Press.

A low-flying helicopter, towing what looks like a giant hula hoop, is set to pass over a wide swath of the state's midsection into Northwest Indiana, surveying the Illinois River watershed. 

Classes and labs will resume Monday as employees represented by the UIC United Faculty return to work after a four-year deal was struck during a nine-hour bargaining session Sunday.

Chicago Police Department officials, alderpeople, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city departments spoke with leaders in the city’s Asian American Pacific Islander community Sunday night to discuss the California shooting that left 10 dead.

It’s a public relations challenge that could determine whether the country meets President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

According to the Chicago Police Department, there were 27 separate incidents between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday. That included two 18-year-olds who were killed in different shootings Sunday.

Twice in the past three months, probes by the city’s watchdog have uncovered ties between members of the Chicago Police Department and far-right extremist groups that have clashed with the United States government.

Biden should be “embarrassed by the situation,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, adding that the president had ceded the moral high ground on an issue that has already entangled former President Donald Trump. 

Lin Brehmer, a stalwart of Chicago rock radio known for his poetic reflections on life and pop culture, has died. He was 68. 

In her work, Tulsa-based archaeologist Alicia Odewale, Ph.D., is uncovering stories from Tulsa's Greenwood district, which was the site of a vicious racial attack in 1921.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced the latest timeline and application process for obtaining a cannabis dispensary license.

Vendors have rallied in front of the Chicago Police Department headquarters, asking for more police presence in the morning, when many vendors are out as early as 4 a.m.

The Mobility Opportunities Fund will provide stipends that help limited-income residents of North Lawndale purchase conventional bikes, e-bikes, e-cargo bikes and electric vehicles.

The U.S. Department of State has put much of Mexico under a travel advisory, including an advisory not to travel to the state of Sinaloa due to crime and kidnappings.

The YWCA Metropolitan Chicago is now accepting applications for a free 11-week program that pays its trainees a stipend to learn the basics of construction and utilities trades.

Safety and travel concerns over violence in Mexico. Street vendors under attack in Little Village. Construction career training. And it's game night.

More cannabis dispensary licenses are in the works, but social equity applicants say challenges remain. Climate-friendly rides for North Lawndale neighbors. And Pullman National Park gets a new name and designation.

The new policy allows undocumented workers to make complaints about labor violations and to participate in investigations without fear of immigration-related retaliation.

Owners Yesenia and Jose Maldonado hosted game nights for years before taking the leap and converting a former bar into a bright, tropically tinged haven for game play.