The Qatari government said a final decision hadn’t been made. Still, Trump defended the idea — what would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government — as a fiscally smart move for the country.

More closures are expected to take place during May as part of ongoing construction to the Kennedy Expressway, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced.

Travelers who aren’t Real ID compliant by the upcoming deadline this week will still be able to fly but should be prepared for extra scrutiny, the head of Homeland Security said Tuesday.

Data obtained by WTTW News shows the overall number of bus and train operators who worked for the CTA last year neared its pre-pandemic peak of employees. As a result, the amount of overtime worked dropped.

The seventeen students and two drivers were transported to hospitals in the area for observation. All are in fair condition, according to police.

Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes, making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston.

If lawmakers don’t reach a deal to reform the northeastern Illinois transit system and introduce new funding before their May 31 adjournment, transit officials say it will result in significant cuts, which would result in a “nightmare scenario,” according to Regional Transportation Authority spokesperson Tina Fassett Smith.

Chicago drivers with eligible ticket debt will be able to pay off their debt in the next three months without incurring any late penalties, interest or additional fees as part of a new program launched Tuesday by the mayor’s office.

After a 30-day warning period without fines and a 14-day blackout period, citations will begin being issued to the registered owners of vehicles going over the speed limit by six miles per hour or more.

A $25 million reconstruction project to improve accessibility at the Green Line’s Austin station on the West Side is underway amid broader funding uncertainty that stands in the way of efforts to make all rail stations on the Chicago Transit Authority fully accessible by 2038.

The CTA, Metra and Pace are facing an impending budget gap when federal COVID-19 relief funding runs out next year. Transit labor groups have stopped short of calling for a merging of the transit systems as a funding solution, unlike what some advocacy groups have called for.

The transit agencies came up with the doomsday models at the RTA’s behest, responding to calls from Springfield legislators who’ve demanded specifics about how bad it could get if transit goes over the fiscal cliff — as well as what public transportation could look like if lawmakers go beyond plugging the budget gap and drastically increase state funding.

The order comes after a 2023 ruling in federal court that Chicago’s long-running failure to protect blind pedestrians violated the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, following on the heels of a similar ruling in New York City.

The CTA board of directors approved the purchase of cameras aimed at catching bus lane scofflaws on Wednesday, making good on a plan announced last year as part of a pilot program.

This year’s construction is focused on the outbound Kennedy lanes. Work is expected to start Monday and be finished around Thanksgiving, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Metra has launched a survey to get feedback on potentially renaming lines to make the system “easier to understand for new and occasional riders,” according to the rail service on Monday.