Stories by WTTW News

A fight for transgender lives. The LGBTQ community speaks out after two Black trans women are found dead. And a preview of “Fire Shut Up In My Bones,” now playing at Lyric Opera.

“Fire Shut Up In My Bones” is based on a memoir by longtime New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow. Composed by Terence Blanchard, the story explores how Blow works to heal from traumatic incidents of abuse in his childhood. 

The state recently announced a $17 million grant to build the first state-funded network of Freedom Schools in the country. The schools date back to the 1960s when volunteers traveled to Mississippi to teach Black students how to read and write, along with lessons on constitutional rights and African American history.

Tatiana LaBelle, also known as “Tee Tee,” was found in a trash can, beaten to death in the Chatham neighborhood on March 18. Her death was ruled a homicide. One day later, transgender activist Elise Malary was found dead along the lakefront in Evanston, a week after she was reported missing.

JoAnn Cunningham, 39, of Crystal Lake, claimed in her petition for post-conviction relief that she did not receive adequate counsel. She claimed to have been seeing demons and believed her son was possessed by a demon, and said she sought an exorcism from a priest, a chaplain and AJ’s father. 

The relationship between law enforcement and Latino communities. Health care benefits for immigrant adults over 55. And local recovery workers on how the pandemic has affected substance abuse.

The Illinois Overdose Action Plan offers new and expanded resources to help treat substance abuse and addiction.

In March 2021, the city was sent reeling when Chicago police officers shot and killed Adam Toledo and Anthony Alvarez just a few days apart. We look at where the relationship between law enforcement and Latino communities stands.

In December 2020, Illinois expanded Medicaid to provide health coverage to immigrant adults ages 65 and older. Now, another expansion offers health care benefits to low-income immigrants ages 55 to 64 starting May 1. 

Maestro Riccardo Muti and the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra featured three very different and extremely challenging works Thursday night that, as always, showcased the brilliance of both the composers and their interpreters.

Artist Ben Miller uses a unique technique called fly cast painting. He’ll be demonstrating it Sunday on the Riverwalk as he creates a portrait of the Chicago River.

Chicago has a new Inspector General. Lightfoot floats gas tax relief. WTTW investigates a high-profile gubernatorial candidate’s big donations from contractors. And the new 11th Ward alderperson on the Week in Review. 

With a week to go before the Illinois legislature’s planned April 8 adjournment, Democrats in the state Senate on Friday introduced an election-year “inflation-busting” plan offering tax breaks to low-income workers, homeowners, parents, teachers, drivers and even volunteer first responders. 

The city’s commitment of $6 million to the Englewood Nature Trail is part of a total of $15 million announced by the mayor to jump-start a number of “green infrastructure” projects throughout Chicago.

“Many of these guns have been linked to shootings in the Chicago area in which multiple people have been injured and several killed,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday.

The new Visceral Dance Center is an ultra-modern, elegant, rectangular structure in tones of gray and black with six state-of-the-art studios. A stunningly performed program by Visceral Dance Theater is now inaugurating the building’s Ann Barzel Theater. This mightily impressive contemporary dance company deserves just such a home.

Warehouse workers cast 2,654 votes in favor of a union, giving the fledgling Amazon Labor Union enough support to pull off a victory. According to the National Labor Relations Board, which is overseeing the process, 2,131 workers rejected the union bid.

March's 178 shootings and 37 homicides marked declines of more than 20% compared with the same month in 2021, Chicago Police Department data published Friday shows.

Leaders of the groups that successfully pushed Chicago elected leaders to support a map that redraws the 11th Ward to include a majority of Asian American voters warned members of the City Council that asking voters to decide the boundaries of the city’s 50 wards “fans the flames of racial division.”

WTTW News investigates campaign filings of Republican candidate for governor Richard Irvin. Plus, international travel is taking off at O'Hare airport. And details on the president's budget proposal.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is predicting O’Hare International Airport may see more passenger flights this fiscal year than it did prior to the pandemic.

President Joe Biden’s proposed $5.8 trillion budget aims to provide more money for police, education, public health and housing — while at the same time slimming the federal deficit.

A WTTW News review of public records has also found that Aurora taxpayers are on the hook for tens of millions in tax incentives to two other development companies that have donated thousands to Richard Irvin and political funds connected to him.

The state’s reparations task force tackled the divisive issue of which Black residents should be eligible — it narrowly decided in favor of limiting compensation to the descendants of free and enslaved Black people who were in the U.S. in the 19th century.

The lawsuit alleged that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a law enforcement agency in the Justice Department, awarded the license to JA Industries, renamed from Jimenez Arms, after it violated federal firearms law.

Led by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is the vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee, Illinois Democratic leaders unveiled their plan to bid for the convention on Wednesday. At an unrelated news conference Thursday morning, Lightfoot began showcasing Chicago’s attributes.