Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:50 PM EST
A panel of federal judges has upheld a new congressional map drawn by Illinois Democrats, but still referred to it as a "blatant political move to increase the number of Democratic congressional seats."
Continue reading this entry ...
Tue Nov 29, 2011 4:37 PM EST
After her older brother disappeared in 1976, Laura O'Leary suspected that the 19-year-old construction worker had probably died at the hands of John Wayne Gacy. But the family was never able to prove it.
Continue reading this entry ...
Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:51 PM EST
More than 30 years after finding bones beneath John Wayne Gacy's house, authorities have identified a 19-year-old Chicago construction worker who disappeared in 1976 as one of Gacy's eight unnamed victims.
Continue reading this entry ...
Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:22 PM EST
Catholic Charities announced Monday that it was ending its legal battle over Illinois' civil unions law and no longer is providing state-funded services.
Continue reading this entry ...
Thu Nov 3, 2011 5:24 PM EDT
After spending almost two decades in jail for a rape and murder he didn't commit, Robert Taylor walked out of an Illinois prison a free man Thursday with just one word to describe the feeling: Beautiful.
Continue reading this entry ...
Thu Oct 27, 2011 4:56 PM EDT
Striding quickly through the streets he learned as a boy, Mark Harris handed out fliers hoping to entice people to spend a weekend in Chicago's most violent neighborhood, where barred windows are the norm and even residents keep watchful eyes on their parked cars.
Continue reading this entry ...
Thu Sep 22, 2011 3:03 AM EDT
Asian carp may be a plankton-gobbling nuisance threatening the Great Lakes, but Illinois officials on Thursday expressed hope in changing that perception one bite at a time.
Continue reading this entry ...
Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:08 AM EDT
Long a city with a reputation for withholding information, Chicago now wants to make public every crime over the past 10 years — a highly unusual move among the nation's major police departments.
Continue reading this entry ...
Tue Sep 6, 2011 3:57 PM EDT
Duct tape covers a large crack in the premier booth at Hard Time Josephine's Cooking, where waitresses call you "sweetie" and customers come for the steaming shrimp bisque and homemade peach cobbler that leaves a hint of cinnamon on the tongue.
Continue reading this entry ...
Wed Aug 17, 2011 5:21 PM EDT
When thunderstorms slammed New York's Central Park before this summer's highly anticipated Black Eyed Peas concert, officials made the rare decision to call off the event. Tens of thousands of fans were livid, but safety experts praise the decision for bucking the industry's aversion to such last-minute cancellations.
Continue reading this entry ...
Sun Jul 24, 2011 9:26 PM EDT
Men and women in conservative dress sat quietly before the start of a what promised to be a typical Pakistani Muslim community gathering, until Ifti Nasim — the gay Pakistani Muslim poet, activist and Chicago radio show host — strode in wearing leather pants, a leather overcoat and pimp hat with feather.
Continue reading this entry ...
Wed Jun 22, 2011 7:08 PM EDT
Poor financial decisions with a Chicago futures brokerage firm lost an alleged al-Qaida operative with links to Osama bin Laden some $20 million dollars in just eight months, according to a lawsuit filed recently in Chicago by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Continue reading this entry ...
Tue Jun 7, 2011 3:05 AM EDT
Five days of testimony from the government's star witness in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks provided a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a Pakistani militant group and its suspected ties to the country's main intelligence agency.
Continue reading this entry ...
Tue May 31, 2011 3:01 AM EDT
Testimony in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks wrapped up swiftly Monday as defense attorneys called only two witnesses before resting their case.
Continue reading this entry ...
Mon May 23, 2011 3:49 AM EDT
In 2000, David Coleman Headley called a phone number he saw on a recruiting poster in a mosque in Pakistan, and in doing so launched a nearly decade-long career as a terrorist.
Continue reading this entry ...
Sun May 15, 2011 1:08 PM EDT
The 12 jurors selected Wednesday in the federal trial of a Chicago businessman accused of helping plan the deadly 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks are mostly minorities and mainly women.
Continue reading this entry ...
Fri Apr 8, 2011 2:34 PM EDT
When Fernando Molina left central Mexico to move to Illinois, he was searching for affordable housing, job opportunities and established Hispanic neighborhoods with grocery stores, bakeries and clothing shops.
Continue reading this entry ...
Tue Apr 5, 2011 8:21 PM EDT
Investigators officially closed the books Tuesday on shootings last year in rural Illinois and Indiana after DNA evidence helped show a man killed in a suburban Chicago robbery attempt months later was the shooter.
Continue reading this entry ...
Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:46 PM EST
Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said Sunday that he considers Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi a friend and won't distance himself from him despite the deadly crackdown on protestors in the turbulent North Africa country.
Continue reading this entry ...
Fri Feb 25, 2011 2:05 PM EST
The Nation of Islam, long known for its promotion of black nationalism and self-reliance, now is calling attention to another core belief that perhaps isn't so well-known: the existence of UFOs.
Continue reading this entry ...
Fri Feb 18, 2011 4:17 PM EST
Grammy-award winning rapper Che "Rhymefest" Smith has made it into a runoff race for a Chicago City Council seat.
Continue reading this entry ...
Tue Feb 8, 2011 11:03 AM EST
Chicago emergency management officials defended the city's expansive network of cameras following a scathing report from a leading civil rights group that raised concerns about the loss of privacy, a lack of regulation and fears the technology could violate the First Amendment.
Continue reading this entry ...
Fri Jan 21, 2011 3:25 AM EST
Chicago's mayor courted Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday during a whirlwind visit that included a tour of a local high school and stop at a business expo in an effort to boost economic ties between the world's second-largest economy and companies in Chicago and elsewhere in the Midwest.
Continue reading this entry ...
Thu Jan 20, 2011 8:44 PM EST
Chinese President Hu Jintao is praising Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's decades in office, calling him America's "most senior ranking" mayor.
Continue reading this entry ...
Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:47 PM EST
Mayor Richard Daley's long effort to build ties with the world's second-largest economy seemed to pay off Thursday as Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived for his first visit to Chicago, his only stop outside Washington during this trip.
Continue reading this entry ...