Brother, Can You Spare a Billion?
Facing a projected $1 billion shortfall, the mayor and the City Council are scrambling to balance the 2025 budget. How did we get here?
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When Chicago Hustled
In the late ’70s, a pro women’s hoops team briefly captivated the city by living up to its name. Then it all unraveled.
The Nazi of Oak Park
It was a stunning revelation: A respected high school custodian had been a concentration camp guard. This excerpt of a new book examines how the disclosure of a dark secret...
Looking for Al Capone
A man named Al Brown was arrested in Burnham in 1921. Was he actually the notorious gangster?
Best of Enemies
A new book chronicles how Illinois political foes Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas set aside their rivalry for the good of the nation. Here’s what we learned.
The Planet Hunter
Astrophysicist Jacob Bean has devoted his career to studying worlds beyond our solar system. Now, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, he can observe them in greater detail than...
The Indeterminate Sentence of Johnnie Veal
Who deserves to be paroled and who doesn’t? Deciding that is an imprecise process, one that grapples with our fundamental approach to incarceration, as this excerpt from the new book...
Behind the Scenes
As a movie extra, the author has ridden the L with George Clooney and watched Christopher Nolan direct. But it’s not always so glamorous.
The Blackhawks’ Wunderkind
Chicago is positively giddy about a certain Canadian teenager moving to town. But who exactly is Connor Bedard? And can he possibly live up to the hype?
The Tramp in Chicago
Before Hollywood became Hollywood, it was here, too.