The long-anticipated elimination of cash bail officially takes effect in Illinois Monday, following extensive delays, legal challenges and pushback from critics who sought to keep the existing system in place.

City Council approves another big payout for wrongful convictions. Illinois’ secretary of state on his trip to DC. And the Chicago-born former first lady of Ukraine on Russia and the future of the region.

Kateryna Yushchenko, the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, was born in Chicago and lived much of her early life in Humboldt Park before moving to Mount Prospect. After earning an MBA in international economics from the University of Chicago, Yushchenko had an impressive career in public service.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias was in Washington, D.C., this week to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee regarding a new state law aimed at deterring book bans.

The Englewood Jazz Festival runs through Saturday, Sept. 16. In its 24 years, the festival has worked to cultivate a musical community at what’s said to be the “Ravinia of South Side.”

The $500 million presidential center now under construction in Jackson Park has already made South Shore “ground zero” of Chicago’s housing crisis, with a high eviction rate and surging real estate prices, according to supporters of a City Council proposal.

Why some CHA residents say they’re facing retaliation. Spotlight Politics on the city’s budget shortfall. A fallen firefighter is laid to rest. And a different kind of training for police officers.

A new study from researchers at the University of Chicago Crime Lab has found a training program rooted in behavioral science can dramatically cut the number of use-of-force incidents committed by police while also increasing officer safety.

One longtime CHA resident said the potential sale of her home is part of a longtime pattern of neglect and retaliation from management companies and a failure of proper oversight from the CHA — a pattern echoed by claims from four other leaseholders or resident advocates in neighborhoods around the city.

The budget gap is nearly three times the size of the gap forecasted by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot as she left office, but is still smaller than any projected shortfall since 2019.

Will Chicago’s tipped minimum wage soon be a thing of the past? The U.S. vs. Google in a major antitrust trial. Illinois’s secretary of state testifies in Washington. And glass art from war-torn Ukraine.

Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward) is sponsoring a Chicago ordinance that would eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers. The proposal has the backing of Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Prosecutors opened a landmark antitrust trial against Google with sweeping allegations that the company intentionally stifled competition challenging its massive search engine, accusing the tech giant of spending billions to operate an illegal monopoly that has harmed every computer and mobile device user in the U.S.