Chicago Sun-Times

ONE MAN’S UNLIKELY SUMO DREAM

If ever there was an underdog Chicago could get behind, Rupert Cintron is it. Cintron, a 51-year-old Chicagoarea truck driver, made his debut as a pro sumo wrestler in a new league that swung through Chicago over the weekend. “It’s just an opportunity...

U. OF C. RARELY EXPELS STUDENTS RESPONSIBLE FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT

The University of Chicago rarely expels students who commit sexual assault, a WBEZ analysis of nearly two decades of school records shows, leaving the door open for most survivors to come face-to-face with their attackers on campus. Between 2007 and...

NEXT ILLINOIS HOUSE SPEAKER A WOMAN?

After this week’s bombshell announcement that Illinois’ first Black House speaker wouldn’t seek a fourth term, Democratic state legislators could blaze another new trail with their selection for the next leader of their chamber. Five women lawmakers...

SCREAMS, THEN SORROW

A fire tore through a Rogers Park townhome early Thursday morning, killing a family of four, including a 13-year-old boy and their dog, police, witnesses and an alderperson said. The 13-year-old boy was identified as Kilmer International Academy...

ILLINOIS MAKES HERSTORY

When U.S. Sen.-elect Juliana Stratton is officially sworn in next January, Illinois will become the first state with two women of color serving in the Senate simultaneously. Stratton, Illinois’ first Black lieutenant governor, will also become the...

DEM-OLITION

Juliana Stratton’s fiery anti-President Trump messaging helped to deliver a resounding victory over Republican Don Tracy in the open U.S. Senate seat to replace Sen. Dick Durbin. Stratton, 61, has also made history in becoming the second Black woman...

IT’S YOUR DEMOCRACY. GO VOTE.

Tuesday’s monumental midterm elections will help determine control of Congress and will serve as a litmus test of President Donald Trump’s far-reaching second term. It’ll also help determine the trajectory of his final two years in office, with...

THERE WAS SOMETHING ROTTEN AT TASTE

Overflowing garbage. Backed-up sinks. Food prepped in bushes. More than 800 pounds of food tossed due to improper temperatures. These are just a few examples of food safety problems city inspectors documented during one hot weekend in July when one of...

BONE APPETIT!

When Susie Jendro and Mike Colesworthy moved into their Galewood Georgian in the summer of 2017, they were given some neighborly advice: Start getting ready for Halloween now. The couple did not shrink from the challenge. “We called his bluff,”...

ARTICLES OF FAITH

For a country that over the last 25 years has come to associate religious scandal with the Catholic Church, Julie Roys is here to tell us something: Other Christian churches also have their fair share of failings, whether involving sexual abuse,...

BRIDGEPORT BEARS?

A Chicago architectural firm on Wednesday released renderings of a plan that would put the Bears in a new domed stadium at the site of Bridgeport’s Rate Field — and potentially help bolster a plan for the White Sox to move to the South Loop. Skidmore,...

MAYOR’S SACKS ATTACKS

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday accused billionaire businessman Michael Sacks of leading a “nasty coalition of billionaires” who are using their wealth to elect school board members who would close more Chicago Public Schools. Johnson never mentioned...

14 ... FOR NOW

Thirteen candidates will vie for the right to deny Brandon Johnson a second term and become Chicago’s 58th mayor, but only if they can survive cutthroat petition challenges that could narrow the field considerably. Joining the mayoral field on the...

HOW NEW TRANSIT AGENCY’S POWER TO DEVELOP LAND COULD CHANGE NEIGHBORHOODS

When lawmakers passed the law creating the Northern Illinois Transit Authority nearly a year ago, they spoke about the new agency’s grand mission to transform Chicago-area public transit. To make that happen, lawmakers concentrated power in NITA that...

Four years of reader-funded journalism

This newsroom exists because readers chose to fund it. Four years later, that choice still has to be made again and again, by more people than are making it today. The Sun-Times needs to roughly double its membership by 2030, and that growth depends...

AN ILLINOIS LAW WAS SUPPOSED TO HELP FAMILIES. IT’S FAILING THEM INSTEAD.

After a traumatic week of labor with their first child that ended in a cesarean section, Eleanor Grano and her husband were burned out. They got home from the hospital after the major abdominal surgery with their newborn son, and, with the help of...

THERE WAS ‘CHEERING’ DURING ALLEGED FRAT HOUSE SEXUAL ASSAULT

She came to a fraternity party over the weekend near the University of Chicago campus, where she told the Chicago police she danced and had some drinks. But as Saturday night gave way to Sunday morning, the 21-year-old woman said she “began feeling...

COULD ELECTED CPS BOARD BE END OF MAX TAX HIKES?

Chicago’s school board has long relied on increasing property taxes annually — the only avenue the school district has available to raise revenue on its own. Those increases have generated more than $100 million every year and helped balance the...

MILE 22 MOTIVATORS

Equipped with more than 6,000 bottles of water, plastic trumpets and a DJ booth, Chloe Wilkerson, 34, and her family were ready Sunday morning for the thousands of runners to pass by the support station they had set up at Mile 22 of the Chicago...

Sox a big part of brothers’ bond

Daniel Zoric and his younger brother, Charlie, were bound by their White Sox fandom before they shared the same air. Daniel, 24, has been a fan for as long as he walked this earth. But 20-year-old Charlie’s fandom began before he was born. When their...

SPEAKING UP AND WALKING OUT

Several hundreds of students walked out of Lincoln Park High School on Thursday afternoon in solidarity with the former Cornell University student who alleged she was raped by several members of the Chi Phi fraternity at the Ivy League school in...

WAITING GAME

By the first week of October, the sea of parking lots around Rate Field typically reverts back to asphalt-desert status for its six-month hibernation period. That was certainly the case the last four years, with the White Sox piling up 405 losses...

CLINCHING THEIR THIRST?

A line of more than 20 customers stood outside of sports retail store Grandstand before it opened Tuesday at 10 a.m., but co-owners Josh and Stephanie Ganal weren’t surprised. The store at 600 W. 35th St., a few blocks from Rate Field, has been...

Four years of reader-funded journalism

This newsroom exists because readers chose to fund it. Four years later, that choice still has to be made again and again, by more people than are making it today. The Sun-Times needs to roughly double its membership by 2030, and that growth depends...

BRONZEVILLE DREAMS TURNING INTO REALITY

A network of eight community leaders says it has raised $75 million to help build or redevelop nine Bronzeville cultural sites and solidify the neighborhood as a national destination for the arts. The sites include the National Museum of Gospel Music,...

A WHOLE U BALLGAME

Northwestern University officially opened the new Ryan Field — an $875 million, 35,000-seat football stadium — for the Big Ten opener against Penn State on Friday night. Generations of fans piled into the massive structure in Evanston to celebrate a...

A MATTER OF DISTRUST

When federal prosecutors in Chicago assured a judge last spring they’d had no contact with the White House or top Justice Department officials about their pursuit of six Operation Midway Blitz protesters, U. S. District Judge April Perry took them at...

SOX AND AWE!

HOUSTON — Early in this improbable White Sox season, hitting coach Derek Shomon had a thought about second baseman Chase Meidroth that seemed bold but now seems sage. ‘‘[Assistant hitting coach] Joel [McKeithan] and I were like, ‘Dude, you can...

KNOCKING THEIR SOX OFF

Eager White Sox fans gathered Tuesday at Cork & Kerry at The Park in Armour Square in anticipation of the team’s first playoff game in five years. “I am absolutely sick to my stomach right now, but in a good way,” said Patrick Ramos, before the Sox’...

WILD, WILD QUEST

SAN DIEGO — The playoffs have arrived. The Cubs have been building to this all season long, eyeing a run deep into October. ‘‘This group is ready,’’ catcher Carson Kelly said Sunday. ‘‘It’s been a long year. We’ve had our ups and downs. But what this...

PRESIDENT AT PRESIDENTS CUP

President Donald Trump addressed the crowd at Sunday’s Presidents Cup golf tournament in suburban Medinah, saying “Our country is doing great, better than ever before.” Hundreds gathered at the first hole of the tournament, where Trump lauded the...

CHICAGO TEENS’ $50,000 QUESTION

Chicago teens would like to see more investment in job opportunities and businesses on the South and West sides, according to a survey conducted by My Block, My Hood, My City this summer. The youth empowerment nonprofit collected responses in July...

AIRFARE WARNING

Chicago travelers planning to fly this holiday season could face higher airfare as rising fuel prices put pressure on airline costs. Fares are expected to rise dramatically in the next few weeks, according to Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul...

HOP ON THE ‘BIKE BUS’

It might’ve looked like a bike parade at first glance. It was Friday morning in Ravenswood. A couple dozen children and parents were on bicycles. As they rode through the neighborhood, more kids and parents joined. “Big crowd today,” one neighbor...

ANTI-CTU GROUP’S BOARD GAMES?

Parents and other members of a Local School Council are asking Chicago Public Schools to sanction an organization that they say violated the district’s rules by electioneering at a back-to-school festival on school grounds. Adam Johnson, who has one...

JB ON DROPPING LBS

Gov. JB Pritzker delivered one of the most high-profile political speeches of his life two years ago at Chicago’s Democratic National Convention. But now, two years later, Pritzker, 61, said he’s astounded to see photographs and video of that...

SPOILING THE VIEW

The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry is one of those buildings that just looks good from all sides and angles — graced with perfect siting, courtesy of Daniel Burnham, and a great Greek Revival design by the hand of architect Charles Atwood. The...

WHY THERE MAY BE NO END IN SIGHT TO PUMPED-UP PRICES

Soaring gas prices have been a challenge since early this spring, but eventually came down. Are prices spiking again now? Yes. The nation’s average price of gasoline was $4.25 a gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy. The national average is up 19 cents...

CUSTOMS OFFICER SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ‘THE MOST VULNERABLE OF VICTIMS’

It simply didn’t matter whether Luis Uribe’s victims were sex workers. That’s what a prosecutor told jurors this week when he asked for a guilty verdict against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who used his gun and badge to commit...

FLOCK U

5 Illinois public universities use controversial Flock cameras for surveillance in hopes of combating crime and keeping campus safe, but some students and faculty are pushing back against the tech. ‘Why are we gathering this giant pool of information?’

PARKING BREAKS?

City Council leaders have brokered a proposed deal that could pave the way for approval of a New York investment firm to acquire Chicago’s parking meters for $2.5 billion, in exchange for a host of lucrative benefits for the city and motorists. Former...

CHICAGO’S MAYORAL MELEE

The crowded field of candidates running for mayor of Chicago is almost certain to narrow after the Oct. 26 filing deadline and the petition challenges that are likely to follow. But for now, 12 candidates are vying for the job and circulating...

COUNT HIM IN

HAIL TO THE KEEF

On the second night of Ye’s starstudded homecoming concert Sept. 5 at Soldier Field, Yeezy brought an unexpected special guest. In his first concert appearance within city limits in more than a decade, Chief Keef rose atop the gigantic electronic globe...

SEPTEMBER 11, 2000

On Sept. 11, 2001, my older son was 5, and some mornings played video games on my computer. So I wasn’t plugged into the world that morning. I didn’t know that American Airlines Flight 11 had struck the North Tower at 7:46 a.m. Chicago time. I did not...

TEENS’ UNWELCOME ENCOUNTER

At around 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 19, more than 160 Chicago teenagers were hanging out, eating food and taking photos at North Avenue Beach. But then, the volleyball players came. The beach party — permitted by the city — had signage around the courts....

PROUD TO PARTNER WITH THESE EXCLUSIVE BRANDS

Known for its unique blend of 23 flavors, Dr Pepper offers a truly one-of-a-kind taste experience. Since its creation in 1885 in Waco, TX, Dr Pepper has become a beloved favorite, delivering smooth, satisfying refreshment for every occasion. For those...

THE WOUNDED CITY

BEARING THE BLITZ COVERAGE BY CINDY HERNANDEZ, LAUREN FITZPATRICK AND ALDEN LOURY,

LINCOLN GLOVES RESURFACE AT CALIFORNIA MUSEUM

After being auctioned last year, bloodstained gloves Abraham Lincoln had when he was assassinated and that once were showcased at his presidential museum in Springfield have now turned up about 2,000 miles away in Southern California. The rare...

WHAT BLITZ GRAND JURORS WANTED TO KNOW

Federal grand jurors listened to more than an hour of testimony last fall about a tussle between Operation Midway Blitz protester Cole Sheridan and then-U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino — an event that lasted a matter of seconds. Prosecutors...

GARY’S ‘WARNING’ FOR COMED

ComEd customers have footed the bill for billions of dollars spent by the utility in recent years to help ensure that power stays on in Northern Illinois even during the worst weather. Yet the lights still went out in 2.4 million homes during storms...

A BRIDGE TOO AJAR

The DuSable Lake Shore Drive bridge was reopened to traffic Wednesday afternoon, more than four hours after the bridge became stuck open during a routine lift. With the bridge unable to close all the way, traffic was snarled up and down the...

CITY SEES FEWEST SUMMER MURDERS SINCE 1965

Despite historically low levels of violent crime in Chicago this year, candidates trying to replace Mayor Brandon Johnson are sweeping aside the numbers in favor of anecdotes and are depicting the city as reeling in a “crisis” of gun violence and...

THE TROUBLED HISTORY OF SOUTH CHICAGO CHAPEL

The tax bills piled up for years on an Evergreen Park couple that ran a sprawling network of crematory and funeral services across the South Side and suburbs. So did a series of professional disciplinary cases against Clark and Johanna Morgan, along...

THIS KISS

Earlier this year, Lyons Township Clerk Elyse Hoffenberg, a Democratic candidate for Cook County Board, pushed for the installation of surveillance cameras at her Countryside government office at taxpayer expense. Footage from those cameras is now at...

‘WHERE IS MY MAMA?’

Months ago, Shawnese Shannon’s family mourned her death and celebrated her life in a sea of purple. She loved Prince’s “Purple Rain” and had asked her family and friends to wear her favorite color. But recently, the memory of that celebration turned...

THE NEW TORNADO ALLEY?

So far this year, 207 tornadoes and counting have touched down in Illinois. That figure may rise as officials continue working through the remaining post-storm assessments, according to the National Weather Service. The tornado season also has yet to...

GARY POWERS ON

“We’ve been getting up trees and stuff out from people’s cars and from the front of their houses, and it’s a bunch of broken branches and everything over there from the storm that happened. I came to help out because it was in my neighborhood and my...

BLUE CROSS’ PAINFUL NEW POLICY?

The day a Chicago woman named Rachel learned Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois was “downcoding” her longtime psychiatrist’s claims and cutting his pay, she immediately got to work. She reached out to elected and state officials to see what, if...

1ST DAY ALL ABOUT POMP — AND CIRCUMSTANCES

With a DJ playing celebratory hip-hop music and blue balloons flying overhead, Leland Elementary Principal Alesia Franklin-Allen welcomed back her students. She worked to put first-timers, like five children who’d moved to the West Side school from...

‘WHY IS THIS OK?’

Melissa Dixon is on edge as she walks into Gary’s City Life Center gymnasium toward the end of the free Saturday dinner service. Three daughters, her 1-year-old granddaughter and her son-in-law surround her. Another daughter is off with a relative who...