Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago news, sports, politics, entertainment

A party, a cake — and then gunfire: Toddler and 7-year-old brother remain hospitalized after Back of Yards mass shooting

Aaron Mendez, 22 months old, suffered kidney damage and may have to have a kidney removed. His older brother, Isaiah, has been sedated since undergoing surgery. “I’m devastated to think I could have lost both of my kids that night,” their mother told the Sun-Times.

By David Struett and Kaitlin Washburn

Marijuana

4/20 is Saturday: What you need to know for weed's 'high' holiday

Read on to find out about how 4/20 came about, some frequently asked questions about Delta-8 weed alternative and a weed syndrome that causes vomiting, and some events that fall on the high holiday.

By David Struett

Crime

Woman accused of killing, dismembering landlord takes stand in defense

End cars on two subway trains shine their red lights as a CTA worker wearing a yellow vest walks between them.

The Watchdogs

CTA touts its ‘Second Chance’ program for ex-offenders, but few end up with permanent jobs

The Rev. Mark Santo, shown at St. Philip High School in Chicago in the 1960s.

The Watchdogs

Catholic priest accused of sex abuse served in 9 church jurisdictions, including Chicago. So why is he on just one abuser list?

The Watchdogs

'Deceptive' real estate firm tied to Loop's Monroe Capital sued by Kwame Raoul

Commentary

The opinions in and around Chicago that inform, analyze, hold power accountable and entertain.

Alicia Schemel

25 years after my dad was killed, his murder is unsolved. Two bills could spur action on cold cases like his.

Mary Mitchell

Columnist

What’s your Chicago story? We want to hear it.

Natalie Y. Moore

Columnist

‘Shame of Chicago, Shame of the Nation’ looks back at city’s racist housing history

Jeff Agrest

Deputy sports editor

With Stadium, Jerry Reinsdorf can create something he couldn’t 40 years ago

Politics

City Hall

Mayor Brandon Johnson's $1.25B borrowing plan sails through City Council

With interest, the plan could cost the city $2.4 billion over 37 years, officials have said. Johnson’s team says that money will be more than recouped by property tax revenue flowing back to the city’s coffers from expiring TIF districts.

By Mitchell Armentrout

A road, flanked by leafy trees, leads to the Illinois Capitol and its picturesque columns and dome.

Columnists

Chicago Teachers Union tries to bulldoze through Springfield on selective schools bill — and loses

Health

FDA recalls Abbott heart pumps linked to deaths, injuries

Elections

Ballot bypass? Illinois sees lowest presidential primary voter turnout in decades

Israel-Hamas War

Chicagoans with ties to Middle East brace for consequences after Iran's missile strike on Israel

Citibank’s South Michigan Avenue branch in downtown Chicago, where former Citi wealth adviser Helen Grace Caldwell worked.

The Watchdogs

Ex-Citi VP in Chicago ripped by judge for bilking elderly clients of $1.5 million, gets 30 months in prison

By Eva Putnam | Injustice Watch

Columnists

Watch and learn: Chicago Palestine Film Festival aims to entertain, educate

By Rummana Hussain

2024 Democratic National Convention

Democratic convention events getting Chicago treatment with new hospitality vendors

By Amy Yee

Environment

Hundreds protest in Global Climate Strike, demand that U.S. declare a climate emergency

By Sun-Times staff

Sports

Bulls

A long offseason begins as Bulls fall to Heat in final play-in game

The Heat jumped on the Bulls midway through the first quarter and never let go the rest of the night. With this Bulls roster falling short yet again, there is some serious soul-searching to do, starting with free agent DeMar DeRozan.

By Joe Cowley

Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams

Bears

Once the Bears land Caleb Williams, the real work — and pressure — begins

White Sox

Nothing good — not even Garrett Crochet — in White Sox' loss to Phillies

Cubs

Jameson Taillon allows one run in season debut as Cubs beat Marlins

Sports Media

With Stadium, Jerry Reinsdorf can create something he couldn’t 40 years ago

Entertainment and Culture

Someone to Watch in ’24

Rising singer-songwriter Kara Jackson opening first U.S. tour with sold-out Chicago show

The Oak Park folk musician and former National Youth Poet Laureate who sings of love and loss is “Someone to Watch in 2024.”

By Erica Thompson

Columnists

Look inside the Indiana company trying to re-create the world's best trumpets

Food and Restaurants

Two new Filipino eateries open in Chicago adding to wave of restaurants offering fun spins on ube and longaniza

Inking Well

Chicago tattoo artist Allie Marie gives pets a permanent spot on their owners' bodies

Theater

'Guys and Dolls' delivers plenty of camp, comedy and the usual lovable characters in Drury Lane staging

All latest stories

Burnham Prairie - Landscape Wetland - Jul19 3.JPG

Editorials

Illinois wetlands deserve protection. Lawmakers should make that happen, while there is still time.

State lawmakers can pass legislation that would restore the safeguards the U.S. Supreme Court removed last year on wetlands, which play a key role in helping to mitigate the impact of climate change and are critical habitats for birds, insects, mammals and amphibians.

By CST Editorial Board

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White Sox

Bettors knew White Sox would be bad, but they’re worse than expected

Bet on it: Don’t expect Grifol’s team, which is on pace to challenge the 2003 Tigers for the most losses in a season, to be favored much this year

By Rob Miech

Dear Abby

Dear Abby: Decades after their ugly divorce, my parents still keep bringing it up

Dad just disclosed an intimate detail that could prolong the blame game over the breakup.

By Abigail Van Buren

A building crane near three partially demolished buildings.

Letters to the Editor

Mayor Johnson's bond plan should address vacant CHA land

Twenty years after the city and CHA demolished high-rise public housing developments, there are still 130 acres of vacant land and buildings at several CHA redevelopment sites.

By Letters to the Editor

Sports Saturday

Solid FX doc 'Broken Horses' offers answers on why the animals keep dying young

Evidence points to doping by unscrupulous trainers and owners.

By Richard Roeper

Outdoors

Chicago outdoors: Turkey and shed story along with record youth turkey harvest

Teri family finding a shed antler and bagging a turkey during the second weekend of youth turkey season and a record turkey harvest during Illinois’ youth spring turkey seasons are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.

By Dale Bowman

Horoscopes

Horoscope for Saturday, April 20, 2024

By Georgia Nicols

Crime

Woman killed, man injured in West Garfield Park

The two were driving in an alley just before 5 p.m. when several people started shooting from two cars, police said.

By Sun-Times Wire

Obit Mandisa. Mandisa accepts the award for pop/contemporary album of the year at the Dove Awards Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. Mandisa, a contemporary Christian singer who appeared on “American Idol” and won a Grammy for her 2013 album ‘Overcomer’, has died.

Music

Mandisa, Grammy-winning singer and 'American Idol' alum, dies at 47

Mandisa, whose full name is Mandisa Lynn Hundley, was born near Sacramento, California, and grew up singing in church.

By Associated Press

Bears

USC quarterback Caleb Williams aims to exceed Texans star C.J. Stroud's rookie season for Bears

Williams also said he hopes to play for the team for 20 seasons and eclipse Tom Brady’s seven championships.

By Jason Lieser

Cubs

Jed Hoyer hopes resiliency is a hallmark for Cubs

Hoyer commended the team for persevering through a long road trip, blown leads, an overworked bullpen and injuries.

By Kyle Williams

Bears

Former Bears executive Bill Tobin dies at age 83

Tobin was a longtime Bears executive who served as the team’s de facto general manager in 1986-92.

By Patrick Finley

City Hall

City Council OKs $70 million in extra funding for migrant crisis

By a 30-18 vote, the Council approved the latest round of funding for a crisis that has highlighted racial divisions in the city.

By Mitchell Armentrout

Religion

Chicago's Jewish community prepares to celebrate Passover

Passover, which starts before sundown Monday and ends after nightfall on April 30, commemorates the liberation of Jews from slavery in Egypt.

By Mohammad Samra

Middle age grey-haired man suffering for back injury sitting on bed at bedroom

Columnists

Old age isn't fun

Columnist Gene Lyons was out for a few weeks after he was diagnosed with several illnesses. Now that he’s back in the saddle, he writes about aging and what felt like a near-death experience.

By Gene Lyons

Cubs

Polling Place: Is it time for the Cubs to pull Kyle Hendricks from the rotation?

Other poll questions: Do you wish Tim Anderson were still with the White Sox? And how sure are you that Caleb Williams is the best QB in next week’s NFL draft?

By Steve Greenberg

Crime

Kim Foxx won't take sides on request by man facing rape trial for 'certificate of innocence' in murder case

William Dukes Jr. was acquitted of the 1993 killings of a Cicero woman and her granddaughter after a second trial in 2019. In 2022, he was arrested in an unrelated sexual assault case in Chicago.

By Frank Main and Matthew Hendrickson

Northwestern football helmets at an NCAA college football against Stanford in Evanston, Ill, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015.

College Sports

NCAA approves helmet radios for next football season

An NFL-style two-minute warning was also OK’d.

By Associated Press

Blackhawks

Analyzing most encouraging, discouraging aspects of Blackhawks’ 2023-24 season

From Connor Bedard to Lukas Reichel, from Alex Vlasic to Arvid Soderblom, from leadership to coaching, the Hawks’ just-finished season was full of both good and bad signs for the future.

By Ben Pope

Jim Gwinn, who has worked at Conn-Selmer for 11 years, works on a trombone at the factory in Elkhart, Indiana Wednesday, March 27, 2024. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Picture Chicago: 18 must-see Sun-Times photos from this week in news

By Sun-Times staff

Artist Jason Messinger stands with the murals he created hanging in the Ogden stationhouse at the Illinois Medical District stop on the Forest Park branch of the CTA Blue Line.

Chicago muralist hopes to ease patients arriving at Illinois Medical District CTA station through his art

By Genevieve Bookwalter

Suburban Chicago

Two dead after apparent murder-suicide in Lemont motel

The bodies of Richard Crane, 62, and an unidentified woman were found shot at the D-Lux Budget Inn in southwest suburban Lemont.

By Sun-Times Wire

Iranian women without wearing their mandatory Islamic headscarf walk past a banner showing missiles being launched from Iranian map in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 19, 2024. Iran fired air defenses at a major air base and a nuclear site near the central city of Isfahan after spotting drones early Friday morning, raising fears of a possible Israeli strike in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.

Nation/World

Iran fires at apparent Israeli attack drones near Isfahan air base and nuclear site

The strike came just days after Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel.

By Associated Press

President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pa., on Jan. 5, 2024.

How Biden will win women

Women might be upset with President Biden over issues like inflation, but Donald Trump’s legal troubles and his role in ending abortion rights are likely to turn women against him when they vote.

By Steven V. Roberts

Crime

Man stabbed to death in Pilsen

The man was found with stab wounds around 4:15 a.m., police said.

By Sun-Times Wire

Dear Abby

Dear Abby: Groom worries about tattooed cousin at his wedding

He fears the free-spirited guest, with her ink and underarm hair, will steal focus from the bride and draw ridicule.

By Abigail Van Buren

Chicago’s Next Voices

From Archer Heights to downtown Chicago, Chicago's Next Voices columnist climbed that steep ladder

Southwest Side native Valery Pineda writes of how she never thought the doors of the downtown skyscrapers would be open to her — and how she got there and found her career.

By Valery Pineda

A boatload of people, including two children in life vests, enjoy an outing with Chicago No Limits Fishing on a boat last.

Outdoors

This Chicago fishing group opens the outdoors for people with disabilities

Chicago No Limits Fishing provides boating and fishing experiences around downtown on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River.

By Dale Bowman

Blackhawks

Blackhawks rally, then crumble, in season-ending loss to Kings

The Hawks finished their season 23-53-6 — with the most losses in franchise history — after a 5-4 overtime defeat Thursday in Los Angeles. They ripped off three third-period goals to take the lead, but conceded late in regulation and then six seconds into overtime.

By Ben Pope