Ald. Emma Mitts looks on as Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa apologizes during the Chicago City Council meeting on Nov. 7, 2023, in which he narrowly avoided censure. (WTTW News)

“I felt like I was back in the South,” said Ald. Emma Mitts, who grew up in Arkansas, during the era of Jim Crow. “I felt like everything in me was shaking.”

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward), center, attends a meeting of the City Council's Budget Committee hours after resigning as Mayor Brandon Johnson's top City Council ally. (Heather Cherone/WTTW News)
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Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa said in a statement that he allowed tensions at Thursday's special City Council meeting “to get the better of me and act in a way unbecoming of a leader.”

IEMA and FEMA workers assess flood damage on the West Side. (WTTW News)

West Siders were hit particularly hard by floods nearly a month ago. More than 8 inches of rain flooded basements and ruined people's belongings.

Flooding in Chicago on July 6, 2023. (WTTW News)

The entire city was drenched with torrential rain earlier this week, but residents on the West Side were hit especially hard as more than 8 inches of rain fell in the Austin community and nearby suburbs.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot celebrates the opening of the new public safety training facility in West Garfield Park, which has been named in honor of slain Chicago Police Commander Paul Bauer and Firefighter MaShawn Plummer, who died while battling a fire. (Chicago Mayor’s Office)
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The facility includes a “scenario village” that features multiple two- and three-flat residential brick buildings complete with fences, curbs, alleys, sidewalks, yards, back stairways, porches, basements and garages. It will also include a new 18,000-square-foot location Boys & Girls Club and two restaurants. 

(WTTW News)
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The narrow margin of the committee’s vote sets up what could be a nailbiter at the City Council meeting set for April 27.

A file photo shows 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin at a Chicago City Council meeting. (WTTW News)

Indicted Ald. Carrie Austin (34th Ward) collapsed during Wednesday’s City Council meeting and was treated by former firefighter Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward) before reviving and being taken out of the Council Chambers on a stretcher.

A new Chicago ward map will take effect in time for the 2023 municipal elections — assuming it is not blocked by a judge. (WTTW News via Google Maps)

The leaders of the Chicago City Council’s Black and Latino caucuses said Tuesday that they could endorse a new Chicago ward map with 18 wards with a majority of Black voters and 15 wards with a majority of Latino voters.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot appears on “Chicago Tonight” via Zoom on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021. (WTTW News)

Plus: 4 Chicago alderpeople react to the proposal

As Chicago emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told WTTW News on Monday that city officials must be “bold and transformative” to address not only the immediate damage caused by the pandemic but also the city’s longstanding woes. 

(WTTW News)

A proposal to create an elected board of Chicagoans to oversee the Chicago Police Department is likely to pass easily, now that it has the backing of a coalition of community groups and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, several aldermen told “Chicago Tonight” on Monday.

The Boys & Girls Club set to be built as part of the new police and fire training facility is the first new club to be built in Chicago in a generation, officials said. (Credit City of Chicago)
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Supporters of the plan told aldermen Wednesday that it will benefit young residents of the West Side and bring much-needed investment to one of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods. If the plan is approved, it will end a ferocious controversy that has raged for nearly four years.

A bartender mixes a drink at the Chicago restaurant 14 Parish. (WTTW News)
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The measure, which would ban the sale of alcohol at stores after midnight, is part of a part of a massive package of initiatives Mayor Lori Lightfoot said was designed to help Chicago businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

(WTTW News)
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot will introduce a measure Thursday that would ban the sale of alcohol at stores after midnight, dropping her effort to set an earlier cutoff. The mayor called the revised proposal “a reasonable compromise.”

(Courtesy of Noble Network of Charter Schools)

A Chicago charter school looking to expand its building size and enrollment will have to hold off on those plans after an alderwoman refused to support the project.

West Side residents accuse for-profit recyclers of fostering a crime wave by accepting materials stolen from the neighborhood. Elizabeth Brackett reports.

Some aldermen are pushing schools to ban saggy pants and any "gangster-style" clothing. We hear both sides of this emotional debate.