Stories by WTTW News

Officials in Broadview are calling out ICE agents, saying they’re putting residents in harm’s way. And a potential government shutdown is just hours away.

“America’s Test Kitchen” has been at it for 25 years — with hosts trying out different cooking techniques, reviewing kitchen gadgets and perfecting recipes.

Mayor Katrina Thompson on Tuesday accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of waging a “disinformation campaign” amid their continued use of chemical and less-lethal munitions directed at crowds outside the agency’s Broadview processing center.

The last shutdown was in President Donald Trump’s first term when he demanded that Congress give him money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall. Trump retreated after 35 days — the longest shutdown ever — amid intensifying airport delays and missed paydays for federal workers.

Ground was ceremonially broken Tuesday on the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, a development officials say will bring an economic boom to South Chicago. Neighbors would like to get those benefits in writing.

This fall, free take-home meals at Malcolm X College, Kennedy-King College and Olive-Harvey College will be available for students and their family members.

Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly hit back-to-back homers, helping the Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres 3-1 on Tuesday in Game 1 of their NL Wild Card Series.

Illinois cannot yet file suit against the federal government for an apparent plan to send federal troops to Chicago, Attorney General Kwame Raoul said, but if boots hit the ground, President Donald Trump “should expect a legal challenge.”

Harrison Ford is one of the most famous people on the planet. David Willard has spent a career and his retirement cataloguing dead birds. Both will be recognized as conservation superstars during October’s Half-Earth Day event at the Field Museum.

Nearly 400,000 Social Security and SSI recipients receive their benefits through paper checks.

President Donald Trump revealed that he wants to use American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday in declaring an end to “woke” culture before an unusual gathering of hundreds of top U.S. military officials.

An exclusive vinyl edition of Taylor Swift's new album, "The Life of a Showgirl," will be available at a handful of Illinois' Target stores during a midnight release Friday, including one location in Chicago.

DePaul, a Catholic school in Chicago, prohibits distribution of any kind of birth control on its campus. To get around that, a student group runs a covert contraceptive delivery network.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court made a move that makes it easier for federal immigration agents to use ethnicity as a factor in deportations.

Are military troops bound for Illinois? And how a court ruling on racial profiling could impact local policing.

Chicago taxpayers paid $295 million between 2019 and 2024 to resolve lawsuits naming officers whose alleged misconduct led more than once to payouts, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News. In all, the city spent $491.7 million to resolve lawsuits alleging 1,643 Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct.

“CPD has failed to rein in its culture of brutality and abuse,” according to the coalition of police reform groups that forced the city to agree to federal court oversight. “The department is moving in the wrong direction.”

The invasive spotted lanternfly appears to be making inroads in Chicago. So far, there have been more reports of the bug in September 2025 alone than there were in all of 2024.

If government funding legislation isn’t passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Tuesday night, many government offices across the nation will be temporarily shuttered and nonexempt federal employees will be furloughed, adding to the strain on workers and the nation’s economy.

Pritzker on Monday said the Department of Homeland Security has ordered the Illinois National Guard deployment after ICE agents used chemical munitions and less lethal ammo on protesters outside the agency’s suburban Broadview facility.

Beginning immediately, non-privileged mail will be opened and inspected for contraband, scanned in color, then be uploaded to an individual’s tablet, the department announced Monday. Nearly all incarcerated people now have tablets, according to the department.

A $15 million homeowner relief fund program aims to assist Cook County homeowners who have experienced a substantial increase in property taxes in recent years, officials announced during a Monday news conference.

Dozens of armed federal agents, in full tactical gear, walked the streets of some of the city’s most prominent tourist and shopping areas. That comes amid a surge of immigration enforcement that began early this month.

ICE agents again fire tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters outside an immigration facility. And Illinois bucks the feds, recommending COVID-19 boosters for all adults.

Federal immigration agents targeted the well-liked leader of Iowa’s largest school district in a traffic stop Friday and arrested him after he fled into the woods, leaving educators and community members stunned.

The department recently sent letters to local governments in at least six states — Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Mexico — informing them it was withdrawing money awarded under the $1.1 trillion infrastructure law former President Joe Biden signed in 2021.