Charitable giving dropped more than 2% in 2023, according to a Giving USA report. But local organizations are making efforts to reach their donation goals just in time for the new year. 

The union called it the largest strike against the company in U.S. history, although Amazon said it did not expect the labor action to impact its operations.

The law, enacted in April, set a Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok to be sold or else face a ban in the United States. The popular social media platform has more than 170 million users in the U.S.

The massive silos — popular with urban explorers and famously featured in “Transformers: Age of Extinction” — date back more than a century but haven’t been used as grain elevators since the 1970s.

Express lanes are set to reopen Jan. 13 pending successful completion of testing, which will begin Jan. 2, weather permitting, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. 

The investment could reach tens of millions of dollars, IBM President and CEO Arvind Krishna said, and comes with an initial commitment of 50 permanent jobs that he expects will be paired with fellowships, internships and partnerships with other local firms.

While banks have cut back on overdraft fees in the past decade, the nation’s biggest banks still take in roughly $8 billion in the charges every year, according to data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and bank public records. Currently, there is no cap on the overdraft fees that banks can legally charge.

Brothers Andy and Fredy Granados opened Grano Panadería and Café in Back of the Yards. The shop combines traditional Mexican flavors with their first-generation Chicago roots.

SmileDirectClub, once a publicly traded company known for selling clear dental aligners, shut its doors in December 2023. In an abrupt move, the company canceled outstanding orders and announced that its “Lifetime Smile Guarantee” would no longer exist.

The plan is to transform the former U.S. Steel South Works site into the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. Officials are calling the campus “history-altering,” but some neighbors want the process to slow down and are raising environmental and displacement concerns.

The Pennsylvania-based beer company, founded in 1829 and touted as the oldest brewery in America, made the announcement as part of the company’s broader efforts to expand in the Midwest.

The first professions to be licensed under the new system are clinical psychologists, music therapists and nail technicians.

Some shoppers may remember lining up to score Black Friday deals and discounts on Thanksgiving evening. However, this changed in 2020, when many stores opted to stay closed to limit crowding during the pandemic and spread out the holiday shopping season.

Nearly 1.5 million travelers are expected to pass through O’Hare — an 11% increase in passenger traffic compared to last year, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. Sunday is expected to be the busiest travel day for the city’s airports.

People who use wheelchairs and guide dogs have watched drivers cancel rides, charge cleaning fees for guide dogs or outright refuse to take them where they need to go.

“It is time to treat people with developmental disabilities the same and have them be paid what they’re worth, which is what we pay everybody else,” state Sen. Cristina Castro told an Illinois Senate committee.