Angie Leventis Lourgos

Angie Leventis Lourgos has been a Chicago Tribune staff writer since 2009. Her work has won two Lisagor awards, one Sarah Brown Boyden award and several Illinois Press Association awards. She is the author of "Life-Altering: Abortion Stories from the Midwest."

Lisa Fleischmann sorts hats in her Trump Truth Store and Hangout on Jan. 13, 2026, reopening this weekend in Crystal Lake. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Trump Truth Store to reopen in Crystal Lake after summer shutdown amid eviction threat

January 14, 2026 at 4:32 p.m.

A taste of Mar-a-Lago is coming to northwest suburban Crystal Lake. After closing under threat of eviction six months ago, the controversial Trump Truth Store is reopening in a new...

Adam Rangoon distributes Narcan and Defent One, a fentanyl detection device, to people along West Lake Street during an outreach event on Dec. 30, 2025, outside the West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force offices in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Outreach workers pass out free fentanyl detection devices to help screen drugs, reduce risk of overdose

January 5, 2026 at 2:53 p.m.

A young man approached a card table set up under the Green Line tracks on the city's West Side and asked the woman behind it if she had any clean...

The Nativity scene outside Lake Street Church of Evanston on Dec. 24, 2025, which has been updated to a scene of family reunification. Federal agents included in the original display were turned into shepherds. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Immigration-themed Nativity scene at Evanston church turns ICE agents into shepherds for a peaceful Christmas

December 26, 2025 at 3:41 p.m.

The outdoor creche had drawn mixed reactions, with some praising the anti-immigration enforcement message as “powerful art” and others criticizing it as “blasphemy."

Pope Leo XIV blesses the crowd with holy water during his installation Mass in St. Peter’s Square on May 18, 2025, at the Vatican. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Pope Leo XIV’s historic rise forges special Vatican connections for Chicago

December 25, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Seven months into his papacy, Pope Leo XIV's Chicago roots have helped frame both his spirituality and priorities.

The White Eagle banquet hall in Niles is permanently closed. Gabi Vargas, a sales representative who started working there as a teen, reminisces there on Nov. 24, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

White Eagle in Niles closes after decades as a hub for Polish community and political powerhouses

December 10, 2025 at 3:18 p.m.

White Eagle banquet hall was the social center of Chicago's Polish community for decades. Now it has served its last pierogi.

Kimberly Steffes asks son Trevor Woodrum, 8, who has Down syndrome, if he wants to sing a song while waiting for his bus to take him to school on Dec. 5, 2025, at their home in Joliet. According to his dad, Scott Woodrum, Trevor likes children’s music and bands Journey and the Eagles. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

Resurgence of a slur: Local parents, intellectual disability advocates condemn Trump’s use of the ‘R-word’

December 6, 2025 at 9:59 p.m.

Once a common schoolyard insult, the R-word had largely vanished from mainstream speech until recently. Donald Trump has helped its resurgence.

Delila, at her sister's home on Oct. 30, 2025, has been living with her sister since her father and only parent was taken in an Oct. 21 immigration enforcement operation. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Her dad was taken by immigration agents. Now a 12-year-old girl fears she’s lost her only living parent.

November 22, 2025 at 6:30 p.m.

The separation illustrates a tragic consequence of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown: children left behind after a parent is detained or deported.

Gov. JB Pritzker answers reporter's questions at a news conference at the Illinois Capitol during the legislative session on Oct. 30, 2025, in Springfield. On Thursday, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order directing $20 million toward food banks across the state. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

JB Pritzker directs $20 million to Illinois food banks as SNAP benefits set to freeze Saturday amid shutdown

October 30, 2025 at 12:48 p.m.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has earmarked additional funding to support seven food banks that supply more than 2,600 food pantries statewide ahead of SNAP freeze.

Yasmin Rodríguez, right, helps Joanna Martínez, a SNAP recipient, choose and load food items into a shopping cart at the Northwestern Settlement food pantry in Chicago on Oct. 22, 2025. Local food pantries are preparing for a surge in demand as SNAP benefits are expected to be paused during an ongoing government shutdown. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Illinois SNAP recipients and pantries brace for halt of federal food stamp funding amid shutdown: ‘A crisis’

October 30, 2025 at 6:36 p.m.

Nearly 2 million Illinois residents depend on SNAP to help pay for groceries. As the government shutdown continues, they're scrambling to find other ways to feed their families.

The Rev. Emily Heitzman, center, from Loyola University Chicago, and protesters participate in the flower ceremony during an interfaith prayer service led by the North Shore Unitarian Church outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Broadview on Oct. 24, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Local clergy, faith leaders decry Trump’s immigration crackdown: ‘Antithetical to the Gospel’

October 25, 2025 at 4:43 p.m.

Cardinal Cupich, Pope Leo and hundreds of Christian clergy of various denominations say they stand with immigrants as ramped up enforcement stokes fear across the Chicago area.

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