Stories by WTTW News

The candidates running in the historic race for Chicago Board of Education president join us along with an in-studio audience to discuss the district’s finances, student enrollment and much more.

With Election Day less than two months away, the four candidates running to become Chicago’s first-ever elected school board president faced off Tuesday to discuss finances, student achievement and their vision for the future of education as part of a special town hall forum hosted by WTTW News.

A researcher at Shedd Aquarium tracked a single bluegill traveling nearly 7.5 miles in a single day, or the equivalent of a 52-mile swim for a human.

In all, the city has banked $2.6 million in revenue from the tickets, records show.

A new report outlines investments made by the forest preserve district between 2023 and 2025 that wouldn’t have happened without additional tax dollars.

The 21-year-old Bedard is the second-youngest captain in the history of the storied franchise, behind Jonathan Toews.

More battery storage is needed if the state is to meet its decarbonization goals while keeping ratepayer bills down.

The deal requires Stonepeak to sell Omni Air International, which has a contract with the Trump administration to carry out deportations, according to the City Council members.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the Supreme Court after it rejected his push to restrict mail-in voting in this year’s midterms, saying justices who opposed him were “not the people I interviewed.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson launches his reelection campaign — he joins us in the studio. And what to know about November’s historic Chicago Board of Education elections.

“We can’t go backward,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said, accusing his rivals of wanting to close schools and “militarize our streets.”

A pending federal proposal would roll back the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which prevents road construction and timber harvesting on millions of acres of federal forest land, including approximately 11,000 acres of sensitive wildlife in the Shawnee National Forest.

For decades, Chicago has been the only city in Illinois with its board of education handpicked by its mayor. In the November general election, for the first time ever, all 21 seats on the board will be up for grabs, ending a reign of mayoral control that dates back to 1995 under Richard M. Daley.

Snelling received his first monthly pension payment of $15,744.73 on Aug. 31, and they will continue for the rest of his life, according to records obtained by WTTW News from the Policeman’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago.

The findings come amid federal cuts to safety net programs like SNAP, along with rising costs and insufficient wages, which are forcing residents to choose between groceries and other essentials like housing and medicine, according to the report.

New warnings from within the artificial intelligence industry have revived a long-running debate over whether advanced AI could escape human control and ultimately threaten humanity’s survival.

Democratic state parties announced Monday that they are launching an operation for the midterm elections they’re calling the “New Battlefield Project,” intended to recruit 10,000 volunteers to guard polling places in case armed federal officers show up.

The Englewood Jazz Festival returns to Hamilton Park on Sept. 17-19. The festival will feature performances honoring the legacies of Oscar Brown Jr., John Coltrane and Miles Davis while also celebrating the next generation of musicians.

Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson said last month that winning the Super Bowl isn’t enough for him. He wants to have the highest-scoring offense in NFL history.

Caleb Williams threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 65 yards and two more scores as the Chicago Bears defeated the Carolina Panthers 59-37 on Sunday.

WTTW News spoke with Ron Pitelka, the guy who extracted a 50-ton prehistoric boulder at O’Hare Airport.

Chicago marks the one-year anniversary of the “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration crackdown. And the Bears look to defend their NFC North championship as their season kicks off.

NetChoice, a trade association representing the tech industry, sued to block the social media and digital advertising taxes approved as part of the state’s 2026-27 spending plan, which take effect Jan. 1, records show.

The national average of nearly $6.06 is up from $5.85 last week and almost $3.71 this time last year, according to motor club AAA.

The milestone anniversary brought memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime.

Chicago is facing an $882 million budget gap. We explore ideas for how to close it. And the impact of Sept. 11 — 25 years later.