The Rundown | Chicago News

Chicago residents and City Council members grilled Chicago Housing Authority leadership over a long list of issues. Mayor Brandon Johnson stands behind his pick for the Regional Transportation Authority’s board after a contentious committee hearing. Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul is suing an online publisher for posting sensitive personal information about Illinois voters.

The Illinois agency that oversees licensing is still struggling to fix technology problems. In light of a recent lawsuit, a state lawmaker is calling for comprehensive changes to the state department of juvenile justice.

Journalists often avoid including themselves in the stories they tell. But when Arionne Nettles sat down to write a book about Black Chicago, she knew she had to include some of her story. “I am a byproduct of the culture that I’m talking about,” Nettles said. Her book is called “We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything.” And when she says “everything,” she means it: The book ch...

Purdue University is being sued in federal court for something passed by Indiana lawmakers. Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias launched the “Get Real” Campaign this week to urge residents to get their Real I-D card ahead of next year’s deadline. A WBEZ analysis shows that speed camera violations in Chicago skyrocketed after the city lowered the speeding threshold three years ago.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has changed course on his proposal to relocate migrants from a downtown shelter to one on the city’s South Side. Before dawn on Tuesday, campus police at the University of Chicago raided and cleared the Gaza solidarity encampment protesters had been occupying for the past week. A new report rips Chicago and Illinois officials for apparent indifference over the impendi...

When she read the script for the play “Jump,” actor Jazzma Pryor said the themes of grief and family drama spoke to her. “[They’re] topics that everybody can relate to, will go through, have seen,” Pryor said. “Us looking at grief in a really open way in a Black family in Chicago, I just feel is a really necessary conversation to have,” said AmBer Montgomery, who directs the production for the Sha...

Construction has officially begun at downtown Chicago’s James R. Thompson Center, the Illinois Dept. of Public Health gives out 100,000 gun locks, and more suburban homeowners are doing “No Mow May.”

Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin said he does not support using federal cash for a new Chicago Bears stadium. The Chicago Reader plans to return to a weekly print edition next month. The Field Museum has unveiled its Archaeopteryx, a pigeon-sized fossil that could have lived about 150-million years ago.

In Chicago, it can feel impossible to find housing you can afford and actually want to live in. Some Chicagoans have found an answer in cooperative housing. “It’s a model that can lend itself sometimes to a lower cost of living and then also a sense of community,” said freelance writer Olivia Dimmer, who has been reporting on co-ops for the Chicago Sun-Times. In co-op living, residents own a share...

A group of counter protesters confronted students at a pro-Palestinian encampment at DePaul University yesterday. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is defending the city’s preparations for the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Cook County is looking to provide more resources for an often overlooked group of people who are trafficked — boys and men.

A line of police officers, many in riot gear, are watching the pro-Palestinian encampment this afternoon on the University of Chicago campus after the university president said it "cannot continue." The man accused of killing Chicago Police Officer Luis Huesca will be held in jail until trial. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling defended an internal investigation into officers whose names...

At many colleges across the country, administrators and police have cracked down on groups of pro-Palestinian protesters who have set up encampments on campus and occupied campus buildings. At college campuses here in Chicago, the scenes so far have been heated, but still noticeably less chaotic than those at other universities. “As long as they're being respectful of the space, as far as I can te...

Nine Chicago police officers whose names appeared on Oath Keepers membership lists won’t be disciplined. CAIR Chicago speaks out against an expansion of the definition of antisemitism. And fallen Illinois police officers are remembered in Springfield.

Student activists are speaking in defense of the pro-Palestinian encampment movement. Illinois voters could be asked about in vitro fertilization and a millionaire’s tax on the November ballot. The Doc 10 film festival is back in Chicago this weekend for its ninth year.

Dr. Ricardo Rosenkranz said he was not interested in magic when he was a kid. He came to it later in life, when he was already practicing medicine. “I discovered that this was a great art form that also could play a role in healing,” Rosenkranz said. “Not from the perspective of a manipulation that actually changes cells or molecules physically in the body in that particular way, but in terms of o...

Jewish leaders, students and parents say yesterday's sit-ins at Chicago Public Schools protesting the war in Gaza incite anti-semitism and harm Jewish students. Police Superintendent Larry Snelling is hoping parents of young people will help in keeping downtown peaceful this summer. A cabinet secretary for Illinois Governor J-B Pritzker is facing questions over expanded drug coverage for state wor...

Worker rights organizations held a rally in Pilsen on today’s May Day, asking President Joe Biden to issue work permits for all immigrants. Theodore Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana, is on the list of America's eleven most endangered historic places, released by The National Trust for Historic Preservation. A descendant of Chicago brewing legend Conrad Seipp is resurrecting his recipes for m...

Bril Barrett started tap dancing at a young age. His whole family pitched in to pay for lessons and drive him to classes. Now, he’s a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow. But Barrett isn’t just a dancer. He’s also an educator, historian and self-proclaimed “tap-tivist.” He uses his work to educate students and audiences on the origins of tap. “I tell people ‘When you don’t know a...

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is defending his administration’s call for $210 million to help state workers lose weight. A document that helped kick off the Civil War now lives in Springfield. The first-ever Conservation Day took place at the Illinois statehouse yesterday.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson plans to re-launch a guaranteed income program that pays low-income residents $500 dollars a month. Paul Vallas is asking a federal judge to go easy on former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke when he faces sentencing later this year. Two dozen LGBTQ+ advocates are urging Chicago’s mayor to restore capacity for this year’s Pride parade to previous levels.

Black homeownership in America lags behind white homeownership by a rate of about 44% to 72%, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. That gap creates issues not just for Black people, but for broader society, said former Chicago Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara. “When you have those kinds of assets in your life, it gives you way more options and way more ability to care...

Chicago government officials will try to spend down hundreds of millions in federal grant money before it expires at the end of the year. Illinois lawmakers are heading back to Springfield today after their last break of the spring session. The Illinois Department of Corrections is proposing moving the Logan women’s prison onto the same site as the Stateville men’s prison.

Some Illinois state lawmakers are pushing a bill that would merge the CTA, Metra and Pace into one transit agency. A tent encampment was erected this morning at the University of Chicago, in solidarity with the people of Gaza. A new kind of music festival is coming to the Chicago area in September.

Poet Tarnynon Onumonu grew up in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. She discovered poetry at 10 years old, and as an adult, she uses her writing to find community and healing. “I’ve just always used poetry as a tool to activate my creativity, to return to myself, to feel comfort in difficult times,” Onumonu said. In this episode, Onumonu meditates on how creativity helps her c...

Funeral services begin at 10 a.m. for a fallen Chicago police officer. Hundreds are expected to attend – many from out of town. The American Lung Association’s State of the Air report lists Chicago among the top 25 most air-polluted cities in the nation. A study surveying 765 Black and white women found that poor heart health leads to cognitive decline among Black women.