Olivia Alexander

Michaela Cheairs, 28, from left, daughter Zariyah Cheairs, 7, friend Valerie Shamley, 3, her sister Natalie Shamley, 5, and their mother Nicki Shamley, 38, work in the Heartland Alliance's urban garden during an Earth Day event organized by My Block, My Hood, My City, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on April 22, 2018, in Chicago.

Earth Day activities: Here’s how you can do your part to help the planet

April 21, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

Three years after COVID restrictions began limiting activities, full-fledged Earth Day celebrations are bursting out all over the Chicago area this weekend. Scores of events in the city and suburbs...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a press conference in City Hall on. Feb. 21, 2023, in Chicago.

Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson weigh in on weekend shootings of teenagers as summer approaches

April 17, 2023 at 5:23 p.m.

The weekend shootings of three teenagers in two separate incidents drew responses from Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson as summer looms. In a statement released Sunday afternoon, Lightfoot...

A woman walks near a planter of tulips on State Street as scattered rain falls in the area after temperatures dropped to the 40's on Sunday in Chicago. Several inches of snow are possible north of I-88 and west of the Chicago metro area, likely leading to slushy snow accumulations on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Conditions right for evening snow in Chicago, weather officials say to ‘bundle up’

April 16, 2023 at 10:10 p.m.

Snow is possible for the Chicago area Sunday night after last week's summer-like temperatures. The National Weather Service Chicago has told people living in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana to...

Ellie Rebellón lifts the head of her prototype belted kingfisher mascot costume while assembling the costume at the Siebel Center for Design on the University of Illinois campus on April 11, 2023, in Champaign.

Still no official decision on U. of I. mascot, but the belted kingfisher is waiting in the wings

April 14, 2023 at 7:43 p.m.

It's been three years since students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign passed a campuswide proposal for a bird called the kingfisher to be the new school mascot. This...

A person walks near the Art Institute of Chicago along Michigan Avenue on July 19, 2022.

Former Art Institute employee pleads guilty in $2 million payroll embezzlement scheme

April 13, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

A former payroll manager for the Art Institute of Chicago pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to misappropriating more than $2 million in museum funds. Michael Maurello, 56, of Beach...

Ride-share driver accused of firing shots inside crowded South Loop movie theater

April 9, 2023 at 11:38 p.m.

A dispute over a ride-share driver being stiffed on a fare led to a scuffle with the rider that ended with a volley of gunfire Saturday night inside a South...

15-year-old killed in overnight Washington Heights shooting, police say

April 9, 2023 at 11:07 p.m.

A 15-year-old girl was pronounced dead Sunday morning after being shot in the Washington Heights neighborhood, according to Chicago police. The shooting happened around 12:51 a.m. in the 10600 block...

Man struck and killed by CTA Blue Line train

April 9, 2023 at 4:24 p.m.

Chicago police detectives are investigating the death of a man hit by a CTA Blue Line train Sunday morning. At around 4 a.m., police responded to the death of an...

Dr. John Friedewald, left, medical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, looks on as Dr. Aleksandra Gmurczyk, who had donated a kidney and started a chain that saved that saved two lives, meets for the first time Art Reyes, 50, of Chicago, who was one of the transplant recipients, during a news conference at Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women's Hospital on April 6, 2023.

Northwestern Medicine, Illinois secretary of state spotlight need for lifesaving organ donations

April 6, 2023 at 11:18 p.m.

Northwestern Medicine nephrologist Dr. Aleksandra Gmurczyk regularly sees patients with failing kidneys. She's noticed that many of those she treats would rather stay on dialysis than undergo a kidney transplant....

Metro Nashville police Officer Rex Engelbert was part of a team of first responders to the Covenant campus on March 27, 2023.

Rex Engelbert, Nashville cop who was raised in Chicago, recalls role taking down school shooter: ‘Call it fate or God or whatever’

April 5, 2023 at 11:33 p.m.

Metropolitan Nashville police Officer Rex Engelbert believed March 27 would be an average day at work, but by that afternoon, he had been declared a hero. The Chicago-raised Engelbert was...

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