Public health officials are sounding the alarm about an increase in mental health issues among young people, saying the pandemic aggravated what was already a crisis.

The narrow margin of the committee’s vote sets up what could be a nailbiter at the City Council meeting set for April 27.

Changes to state mask guidelines. Gov. Pritzker signs the state budget into law. Alderpeople on the ward remap process and the city’s casino plans. Starbucks workers unionize. And Winnie the Pooh.

It’s a classic story that has withstood the test of time, now, the Mercury Theater is bringing that story to its stage in a new musical adaptation.

In December, a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York became the first of the company’s thousands of U.S. locations to vote for unionization. Just weeks later, workers at Chicago’s Randolph and Wabash location moved to join the effort.

The CTA passes and gas cards with Mayor Lori Lightfoot's name would be sent to voters approximately 10 months before the next mayoral election.

The $46 billion budget Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Tuesday includes $1.8 billion in largely temporary tax relief, including $50 rebate checks to adult taxpayers, a one-time increase for property owners worth up to $500, and lifting for a year a 1% sales tax on groceries, meaning that shoppers will save $1 on $100 worth of food.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued the revised executive order hours after Chicago health and transportation officials told riders a state order required them to keep masking up.

Down to the wire on a new city ward map, and some alderpeople are starting to speak out against casino locations. Plus, fallout from the RNC’s decision to avoid presidential debates, and the city’s top cop on ghost guns.

Chicago-area birds are nesting and laying eggs earlier than ever before. A mysterious meteor burns up over Papua New Guinea. A fossil could rewrite the history of the evolution of life on Earth. And a disturbing finding about microplastics.

An alderperson comes out against one of the three Chicago Casino finalists; developers plan new apartments for the Magnificent Mile; and a series of ads hopes to showcase Illinois as “the middle of everything.”

Tracie Hall, executive director of the American Library Association, says the books that are being banned in the past year target topics like racism, sexuality and sexual orientation.