John Keilman

John Keilman is a former Tribune reporter.

Opioids laced with veterinary sedative xylazine a growing threat to Chicago drug users

April 1, 2022 at 12:19 a.m.

A veterinary sedative called xylazine is increasingly showing up in the systems of people who die of opioid overdoses in Cook County, raising concerns that street drugs are becoming even...

Marine Corps veteran Justin Wigg is part of the effort for the decriminalization of psychedelic plants such as ayahuasca and psilocybin.

Mescaline, magic mushrooms and Mother Ayahuasca: Touting mental health benefits, advocates aim to decriminalize psychedelic plants in Illinois

March 28, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.

Marine Corps veteran Justin Wigg was suffering from anger issues and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, but traditional medicine had been little help. So last fall, he traveled to...

A plane fly's near the city skyline the day after a winter storm passed through the area Friday Feb. 18, 2022 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

¿Qué hay detrás de la caída de la población en Chicago y otras grandes ciudades de EEUU?

March 25, 2022 at 7:44 p.m.

Dayna Lynn Nuckolls pasó la mayor parte de su vida en Chicago y los suburbios del sur, pero ya estaba planeando irse cuando llegó el COVID-19. Estaba harta de los...

The Chicago skyline and surrounding neighborhoods on Feb. 18, 2022, a day after a winter storm. Metro Chicago lost more than 91,000 people between July 2020 and July 2021.

‘The energy of migration has been very high.’ What’s behind the population dip in Chicago, other big US cities?

March 25, 2022 at 4:43 p.m.

Dayna Lynn Nuckolls spent most of her life in Chicago and the south suburbs but was already planning to leave when COVID-19 struck. She was fed up with the winters...

Christian Casco, left, and Zack Osborne watch a Champions League match between Chelsea Football Club and Lille Olympique Sporting Club on television at Graystone Tavern on March 16, 2022, in Chicago. The Ricketts family, who owns the Chicago Cubs, has expressed interest in purchasing the Chelsea Football Club.

Local fans knock bid by Chicago Cubs owners to take over storied English soccer club Chelsea: ‘They don’t understand the sport’

March 17, 2022 at 1:10 p.m.

News that the Ricketts family aims to add Chelsea F.C. to their sporting portfolio brought an instant reaction from the storied English soccer club's local fan group: No, thanks. "The...

University of Chicago researcher Xiaoyang Wu shows items in the tissue culture lab at the U. of C. Gordon Center for Integrative Science on March 3, 2022.

Genetically altered skin grafts hold promise as addiction treatment, University of Chicago scientists say

March 15, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.

Scientists at the University of Chicago have come up with an intriguing potential treatment to combat cocaine and alcohol addictions — a skin graft genetically altered to release molecules that...

A scene from the television movie "The Day After" in 1983.

John Keilman: President Biden says don’t worry about nuclear war. Maybe we should.

March 11, 2022 at 2:14 p.m.

I was in middle school the last time I contemplated dying in a nuclear fireball. It was 1983, and I had just seen "The Day After," a TV movie that...

Ayesha Akhtar, seen at the Oak Park Library on Feb. 24, 2022, was an administrator of the popular Oak Park Coronavirus Facebook group, and decided to shut it down earlier this month.

‘What do you do when you can’t agree on reality?’ Demise of popular Oak Park Coronavirus Facebook group highlights pandemic’s divisions

February 28, 2022 at 4:24 p.m.

The final argument in the 4,500-member Oak Park Coronavirus Facebook group earlier this month was more exhausted than fierce. After someone posted an article about long COVID, a lengthy debate...

Karen Bigg, of Chicago Recovery Alliance, holds safe smoking kits for drug use on Feb. 15, 2022. She distributes them and other harm reduction tools, like clean syringes, in order to cut down on injury and disease among drug users.

Misleading ‘crack pipes’ uproar shows enduring stigma against drug users, Chicago health groups say

February 21, 2022 at 1:16 p.m.

The big purple truck that delivers health supplies to drug users in Chicago's suburbs carries more than 100 items — everything from syringes and condoms to snacks and winter coats....

Robert Johnson, pictured on Feb. 18, 2022, is suing the owner of a Lisle apartment complex where he used to live, saying the owner unlawfully kicked him out after learning he'd been arrested, but not convicted, on a gun charge years earlier.

Lawsuit: Suburban landlord’s refusal to rent to people with arrest records equals racial discrimination

February 19, 2022 at 1:58 a.m.

A former tenant is suing the owner of a Lisle apartment complex, alleging it bans people who have faced felony charges even if they were never convicted — a practice...

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