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Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region.

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Featured Writers

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Kait Sweeney

policy wonk. communications strategist. campaign professional.

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JAMIE VALENTINO

I am committed to creating narratives that reveal original truths about humanity or its ever-changing society instead of headlines with clickbait. You can read my work in Business Insider, Vice, …

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IVONNE SPINOZAiv.spinoza@gmail.com [ press about me & my work ]

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Erin Gifford

I am a Washington, DC-based travel & outdoor writer. My writing has appeared in USA Today's GoEscape, Outside, The Wall Street Journal, AARP.org, The Washington Post, Thrillist, LonelyPlanet.com, HGTV.com, Costco …

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Nicole Pyles | Freelance Writer & Copywriter

I am a copywriter and freelance writer in Portland, Oregon. I am experienced with a wide range of topics, including commerce, lifestyle, business, and more. Thanks to my extensive experience …

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Steve Rhodes

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Latest Articles

Hundreds gather in Springfield to push environmental bills on wetlands, plastics and data centers

More than 200 Illinois residents gathered in Springfield on Wednesday for Environmental Lobby Day, joining lawmakers and advocates in the Illinois Capitol rotunda to push for a trio of environmental bills aimed at curbing pollution and protecting natural resources. “We’re facing some really, really big fights here,” said Cate Caldwell, …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Chicago space expert weighs in on launch of mission to orbit the moon

After weeks of delays, four astronauts are preparing to launch Wednesday evening on a trip around the moon, the first such spaceflight to be undertaken in more than 50 years. “It’s really just a historic mission for the future Artemis missions, but also to prepare us for the human journey …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Illinois bill would ease rules on solar plug-ins, expand access to renters and condo owners

As energy bills climb across the state, lawmakers are exploring new ways to expand access to renewables. And one green option is outpacing the others: solar. Although Illinois is committed to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2050, a large group of state residents, including renters and condo owners, remain shut …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Illinois farmers brace for another bruising season as Iran war spikes fertilizer prices

From sunrise to well past sundown, Rodney Bushmeyer has been driving his tractor over freshly turned soil on his western Illinois farm, planting soybean seeds. He has covered nearly 800 acres. But with another 2,200 acres to go, spring planting season is far from over. Bushmeyer has been cultivating fields …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

A push to protect Morgan Shoal — a marine wonder on the South Side — and the Chicago shoreline

A few hundred feet off the shoreline of Kenwood and Hyde Park lives an underwater marvel few Chicagoans ever see: the remnants of a 400 million-year-old coral reef scattered with ancient fossils and the wreckage of the Silver Spray, a steamship that sank after striking the shallow bedrock in 1914. …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller wins Illinois’ 2nd District over comeback effort by former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller was declared the winner of the Democratic primary in Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District Tuesday, ending a comeback effort by former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Miller, who ran a health care-focused campaign, weathered criticism from opponents that her campaign was overly backed by a pro-Israel lobbying …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Trump vows to fight invasive carp in Great Lakes, but Illinois federal funds remain frozen

A recent pledge by President Donald Trump to protect the Great Lakes from invasive carp comes as his administration continues to withhold federal funding for a key Illinois project designed to stop the spread into Lake Michigan. Illinois officials say they welcome the president’s public support but are urging immediate …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Illinois EPA rejects coal ash cleanup plan in Joliet, a ‘heartening’ win for environmentalists

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency denied Midwest Generation’s application to clean up more than 3 million tons of toxic coal ash in Joliet earlier this week, saying the company’s proposal was “insufficient.” The decision marks the first time the agency has rejected a coal ash cleanup permit since Illinois finalized …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Chicago’s hottest club is … Seafood City? Viral pop-up dance party comes to the Filipino grocery store

Party in Aisle 8! Under the fluorescent lights and produce banners of Seafood City Supermarket, an unlikely dance floor opened for over a thousand Chicagoans Friday night. Inside this Filipino grocery store in the North Mayfair neighborhood, the aisles were packed with crowds waving Philippine flags, children perched on parents’ …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Illinois orders 21 communities to remove forever chemicals from drinking water by 2029. But who will pay?

Sitting on the Mississippi River flood plains, Collinsville is among a handful of Illinois communities that draw drinking water from the American Bottoms aquifer. The Metro East town of 30,000 is also one of 21 communities, covering 47 water systems, that contain levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Graduates of Illinois clean energy workforce program gain a vision — and skills for the future

Overlooking the shoreline of Lake Michigan and an aging coal plant, a packed conference room was filled with families, advocates and Illinois legislators celebrating the graduation of two dozen newly trained clean energy workers. “It’s not lost to me today that we’re sitting on the fifth floor of the College …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

As Indiana extends coal and builds data centers, Illinois may be on the hook for neighbor’s AI boom

WHEATFIELD, Ind. — Surrounded by farmland and wetlands, three generations of the Hunter family have grown crops and raised cattle, chickens and horses in this quiet corner of northwest Indiana. When the Hunters first started farming the 20-acre plot “this was their dream property,” said granddaughter Carly Schroeder. But in …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Illinois Rewilding Law, first in US, a step toward state wetland protection

As sweeping changes to the federal Clean Water Act in recent years have weakened protections for wetlands, Illinois has become the first state in the nation to officially recognize a conservation tactic known as rewilding. The Illinois Rewilding Law, which took effect last month, empowers the Illinois Department of Natural …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

South Side residents protest rejection of Quantum Shore nonbinding referendum

On a brisk Wednesday morning, South Side residents gathered outside New Sullivan Elementary School to demand their voices be heard about a major development rising just across the street: Quantum Shore Chicago. “No quantum facility, invest in community,” demonstrators chanted. New Sullivan Elementary will serve as a polling site for …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Great Lakes ice resurges this winter, but unpredictable shifts threaten businesses and ecosystem

On a brisk January day with wind chills plunging to minus 25 degrees, Paul “Blade” Bloedorn stood out on nearly 2 feet of ice on Lake Michigan’s Little Bay de Noc. Last weekend, more than 400 shacks speckled the frozen bay, Bloedorn recalled, as ice anglers flocked to the Upper …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Will trees ‘explode’ during this cold snap? Illinois arborists weigh in.

Chicago residents are weathering a dangerous cold snap this week — but so are the trees. After a post on X warning of “exploding trees” went viral on social media ahead of this week’s polar vortex, many people are asking: What’s happening to our trees during this severe Arctic blast?
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

A collapsing polar vortex brings Arctic blast to Chicago area. How long will it last?

Polar vortexes are a year-round phenomenon. But Chicago-area residents only notice them when they collapse, experts say. That’s what’s happening starting Thursday when dangerously frigid air from Siberia and the North Pole is forecast to plunge the Great Lakes region into subzero territory for multiple days.
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Nearly a year after asphalt spill in Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, EPA criticized for leaving cleanup unfinished

Nearly a year after a toxic asphalt spill in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, state and local officials and environmental advocates say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ended the cleanup effort before it was completed. A week before Thanksgiving, the agency posted a notice on its website that federal …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Environmentalists push back against US EPA plan to extend coal plant closings

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is facing strong public opposition to its proposed plans to extend closure deadlines until October 2031 for 11 coal plants across the country — three of which are in Illinois and one in northwest Indiana. But many environmental experts, including Earthjustice senior attorney Mychal Ozaeta, …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Plans to close dozens of toxic coal ash ponds in Illinois stuck in backlog

ALTON, Illinois — Where the Wood and Mississippi rivers meet in southern Illinois, over a million cubic yards of toxic coal ash sit on the edge of Illinois’ floodplain, threatening the waterways that surround it. The retired Wood River Power Station is home to one of 72 coal ash impoundments, …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Illinois among states with most cuts to environmental agencies, report shows

In the past 15 years, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has faced major budget cuts and a 21% decline in staffing, according to a recent report from the Environmental Integrity Project. Illinois is among the 14 U.S. states with the most significant cuts to its state environmental agency, the report …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Southeast Side residents push for benefits as Chicago quantum campus moves forward

Chicago is bracing for a technology boom expected to come with the construction of Quantum Shore Chicago, a 440-acre development that will feature the nation’s first utility-scale quantum computer. But residents of the South Chicago neighborhood want to make sure they’re not left behind in the process.
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Illinois settles suit against Monsanto for $120 million for PCBs contamination

Illinois reached a settlement Monday of at least $120 million with Monsanto Co., the largest producer of now-banned PCBs, to address longstanding contamination across the state. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sued Monsanto in 2022 over its denial of the health and environmental harms of the hazardous synthetic chemical, known …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Snowy owls’ unusually early visit to Chicago lakefront could signal migratory boom

Over the weekend, hundreds of curious Chicagoans ventured to Lake Michigan beachfronts to witness a birding marvel: the early arrival of snowy owls. Two snowy owls have been spotted at Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary and a third briefly at Rainbow Beach, according to the Chicago Ornithological Society. These are earlier …
By Christiana Freitag
• Chicago Tribune

Chicago Heights priest begins walk for immigrant children from Pope Leo’s childhood home in Dolton

The Rev. Gary Graf, a Chicago Heights Catholic priest, began a 50-day pilgrimage Monday from Pope Leo’s boyhood home in Dolton to New York to bring attention to the cause of immigrant children. Graf’s planned destinations are Ellis Island, formerly the country’s primary immigration processing center, and the Statue of …
By Evy Lewis
• Chicago Tribune

Flossmoor Frank Lloyd Wright house will open to public for the first time

A Flossmoor house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright will open to the public Saturday, Oct. 11, to raise money for the historical society. Wright designed many buildings in Chicago and the surrounding areas, but the Frederick Nichols House’s location makes it noteworthy. “It’s the only one in the southern suburbs,” …
By Evy Lewis
• Chicago Tribune