Election Day is officially here. What to know as polls begin to close. And two very different visions for the nation’s future — our Spotlight Politics team unpacks that and more.

Barbara Taylor Bowman is known not only for her lifelong work in the field and for co-founding the Erikson Institute, but also as the mother of Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

The latest presidential polls have Kamala Harris and Donald Trump deadlocked across swing states. But what does polling actually tell us? And how to cope with stress caused by the election.

A study by the American Psychology Association reports that 77% of U.S. adults say the nation’s future is a significant source of stress in their lives. This category of mental health is known as socio-political stress and it seems more prevalent to people who are politically active compared to those not engaged in politics. 

Recent polls say presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are neck and neck. But what do polls actually tell us and what impact do they have?

The Chicago Board of Elections has hired 8,100 election judges to help things go smoothly, spokesman Max Bever said. Many of those judges are students. 

What’s on the line as Election Day approaches. And Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget pitch includes property tax hike.

Chicago Board of Education President Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson resigned under pressure Thursday after a series of antisemitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial social media posts generated a wave of outrage that stretched from the Chicago City Council to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Field Museum scientists have new CT scans of mummified people from the museum’s “Inside Ancient Egypt” exhibit. Researchers hope the scans will help the public see the mummified individuals as people instead of artifacts.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said proposing the tax hike, the second largest in modern Chicago history after the $588 million property tax hike pushed through by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2016, was a “difficult decision” that was the result of an "excruciating process.”

Will the mayor break his campaign promise in tomorrow’s budget address? And a midseason look at where the Bears go from here after last week’s heartbreaker.

The Chicago Bears snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on Sunday in Washington, D.C. Now instead of the playoffs, the talk is of a heartbreaking and improbable loss that some Bears players are calling the worst they’ve ever experienced.

Brown founded her first company and namesake, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, at a time when the industry rarely catered to a large array of skin tones. Her approach offered shades for women of every color, helping to establish a standard for inclusivity.