Officials try to clamp down on holiday weekend crime. Mayor Brandon Johnson passes first City Council test. State lawmakers have a budget — we think. And a damning report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

The $50.6 billion spending plan (SB250) passed the Illinois Senate late Thursday night, with only the support of Democrats who drafted it.

The mayor and police unveil the city’s weekend safety plans. The latest from Springfield as the budget deadline approaches. And how Chicagoans are celebrating AAPI Heritage Month.

May marks Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month. Across Chicago, members of those communities have made the city their home while keeping their cultural traditions alive.

“The Gospel at Colonus” is based on “Oedipus at Colonus,” Sophocles’ 2,500-year-old play about an aging king who seeks redemption after a life of sin. The revival just opened at Court Theatre in Hyde Park.

The mayor was joined by several community leaders and city department leaders at 63rd Street Beach Thursday afternoon to outline Chicago’s public safety plan ahead of what has historically been a violent weekend.

Legislators and environmental activists alike say they were caught off guard by fast-tracked proposals that would pave the way for a private entity to own a piece of an expanded I-55. 

A more than $50 billion dollar budget agreement Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the leaders of the legislature trumpeted on Wednesday afternoon isn’t a done deal yet.

Mayor Johnson’s first City Council meeting — how’d it go? Hours ticking away in Springfield with budget talks heating up. Visiting with the former head of CPS. And where you can make your own rug.

Janice Jackson serves as CEO of Hope Chicago, a two-generation scholarship program that aims to remove financial barriers for thousands of CPS students and their parents by allowing them to attend college debt-free.

At Freestyle Ceramics and Tufting, anyone can make their own rug. Each session begins with a practice tutorial to ensure every tufter feels comfortable with the tufting gun.

Approximately 784 men, women and children are living on floors in Chicago police stations across the city as of Tuesday, officials said.

The vote represents a reversal from March 30, when nearly two-thirds of the Chicago City Council voted to approve a declaration of independence — five days before Mayor Brandon Johnson defeated former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in the runoff.