Nara Schoenberg

Edward Carrico, left, and Spencer Kearney, with Solar Service in Niles, install solar panels on a home in Lake Zurich in March 2017..

New climate laws offer Illinois residents a chance to save around 70% on rooftop solar

September 7, 2022 at 1:47 p.m.

Wondering how you're going to pay for a $25,000 rooftop solar system? Help is on the way. Two historic climate laws — one state, one federal — offer incentives that...

Murphy Westwood, vice president of science and conservation at the Morton Arboretum, walks through tall grasses and weeds to reach an endangered blue ash tree infested with the emerald ash borer beetle at the arboretum on Aug. 25, 2022, in Lisle.

At least 1 in 9 native tree species are now threatened with extinction, including 10 in Illinois, report says

August 29, 2022 at 4:01 p.m.

Fluffy giant pandas and ferocious Sumatran tigers get more attention, but beloved backyard trees face extinction threats, too. A new first-of-its-kind report on the conservation status of all 881 native...

Chicagoans Ted Shieh and Catherine Morris in front of their house in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood on June 29, 2022. Over the past five years, they have retrofitted their 100-year-old brick home and went all-electric to combat climate change.

In the fight against climate change, some Chicagoans are going all-electric at home: ‘Hopefully, this will be the future’

August 22, 2022 at 9:14 a.m.

At first glance, the scene is strikingly ordinary: just two working parents whipping up a quick family dinner. Scott Kroll stirs the pasta sauce. His wife, Clare Fauke, drops spaghetti...

High water levels in Lake Michigan are seen June 16, 2020, along the Lakefront Trail south of North Avenue Beach in Chicago. In 2020, Lake Michigan set a string of monthly records.

Good news for beach lovers: Lake Michigan water levels are expected to stay well below the near historic highs of 2020

August 14, 2022 at 2:57 p.m.

The Great Lakes region is enjoying another year of lower water levels and wider beaches. July water levels on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron were down more than 2 feet...

A recently-hatched piping plover chick appears from under one of its parents, Monty or Rose, at Montrose Beach on July 10, 2021, in Chicago.

In a win for endangered piping plovers like Chicago’s Monty and Rose, the Great Lakes has record breeding season

August 5, 2022 at 9:53 a.m.

Monty and Rose, who achieved local fame in 2019 as the first federally endangered piping plovers to raise a family in Chicago in almost 60 years, are gone from the...

Activists Jae Rice and Ab Weeks with SOUL, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, during a Rally for Trans Lives at Daley Plaza, March 31, 2022. The rally was to honor Tatiana Whetstone, a transgender woman recently murdered in Chicago, and Elise Malary, a transgender woman who was recently found dead in Evanston.

Allegedly killed by a man she was dating, Martasia Richmond, 30, is the city’s second known transgender homicide victim of 2022

July 19, 2022 at 6:26 p.m.

Martasia Richmond was only 19 when she started caring for the newborn niece whom she would go on to adopt. "She had a heart of gold," said her brother, Marvin...

All Stories

New climate laws offer Illinois residents a chance to save around 70% on rooftop solar

At least 1 in 9 native tree species are now threatened with extinction, including 10 in Illinois, report says

In the fight against climate change, some Chicagoans are going all-electric at home: ‘Hopefully, this will be the future’

Good news for beach lovers: Lake Michigan water levels are expected to stay well below the near historic highs of 2020

In a win for endangered piping plovers like Chicago’s Monty and Rose, the Great Lakes has record breeding season

Allegedly killed by a man she was dating, Martasia Richmond, 30, is the city’s second known transgender homicide victim of 2022

Important local birds are on the rise in Chicagoland, with many doing better here than in rural Illinois, study says

¿Por qué hay poca justicia en los homicidios de mujeres transgénero de color?

Electric appliances, which cause fewer greenhouse gas emissions, would get a boost under proposed Chicago ordinance

In Chicago, killings of transgender women of color often go unsolved. ‘There’s no justice,’ relatives say.