Stories by Patty Wetli

“I loved being the alderman of the 35th Ward,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 36, said. “But you can’t turn down a job like this when you love Chicago as much as I do.”

A day after a Fourth of July shooting killed two women and an 8-year-old boy in Chicago, police were investigating two other mass shootings that wounded 14 people in the city early Friday.

Shake any family tree, and a few skeletons are bound to fall out — that’s as true for birds as it is for people. Except that for birds, the wacky cousin lurking in one of those branches is T. Rex.

Meet Ellis Chesbrough, Chicago’s first city engineer and designer of the water delivery system we still use today. WTTW News Explains how water cribs work out on Lake Michigan. 

Chicago will host the 2024 Democratic National Convention, putting the city and its leaders at the center of the national political spotlight next summer. 

The National Weather Service said starting around 2 p.m. Friday, the Chicago area is expected to see destructive winds and the possibility of tornadoes that could cause extensive damage.

The car involved in the crash has been recovered. Now the search is on for the driver in what appears to be an intentional act that took place Sunday outside South Shore’s Jeffery Pub, police said.

With three community meetings complete, the roulette ball bounces back to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is expected to make her decision within the next two months and pick one of three proposed Chicago casino locations. 

Community organizers on Chicago’s Southeast Side are marshaling their forces and looking for solutions to address what they see as yet another environmental threat to their already beleaguered neighborhood.