
Chicago takes leading role in national gun debate
They are counting the dead from gunfire again in Chicago, a city awash in weapons despite having one of the strictest gun-control ordinances in the ...

Teen performer at inaugural events fatally shot
A 15-year-old girl who had performed in President Barack Obama's inauguration festivities is the latest face on the ever-increasing homicide toll in ...

Fraud concerns linger over new Ill. license law
As Illinois becomes the fourth and most populous state to give illegal immigrants permission to drive, nagging concerns remain about whether there are ...

Obama picks foreign policy aide as chief of staff
President Barack Obama announced Friday that his new chief of staff is longtime trusted aide Denis McDonough, whom the president described as a close ...

McDonough no stranger to Obama inner circle
In selecting Denis McDonough to be his next and fifth chief of staff, President Barack Obama is tapping a longtime confidant and unflappable ally to ...

Boeing plans to carry on with 787 production
Boeing plans to keep building its flagship jetliner while engineers try to solve battery problems that have grounded most of the 787 fleet. It's not ...

AP sources: McDonough likely for chief of staff
President Barack Obama is likely to name Denis McDonough, one of his closest national security advisers, as his next chief of staff, according to ...

Conn. group starts anti-violence effort
Parents of children slain in the Connecticut school massacre called for a national dialogue to help prevent similar tragedies as New York moved to ...

Conn. group launches anti-violence initiative
Parents of children slain in the Connecticut school massacre held photos of their sons and daughters, cried, hugged and spoke in quavering voices as ...

Will longer school year help or hurt US students?
Did your kids moan that winter break was way too short as you got them ready for the first day back in school? They might get their wish of more ...

A snapshot of influenza activity in all 50 states
Here is a snapshot of flu activity in all 50 states and the District of Columbia: Alabama: Like many states, Alabama is having an earlier and busier ...

Jackson Jr.'s wife leaves Chicago City Council
The wife of former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. announced Friday that she was resigning from the Chicago City Council, saying she could not adequately ...
Cities chart course through pension morass
In Philadelphia, pension costs doubled in a single decade. Cities in Rhode Island dimmed streetlights, raised taxes and put off road repairs.

Violence, gangs scar Chicago community in 2012
It was February, the middle of lunch hour on a busy South Side street. The gunman approached his victim in a White Castle parking lot, shot him in the ...

Chicago poised to fight over handguns _ again
Facing a climbing homicide rate, Chicago is poised for another fight over handguns — just two years after the last one. When the U.S. Supreme Court ...

Court ruling on Ill. gun ban sets stage for fight
Backers of Illinois' ban on concealed weapons vowed Wednesday to fight for continued controls on gun possession, a day after a federal appeals court ...

5 states to increase class time in some schools
Open your notebooks and sharpen your pencils. School for thousands of public school students is about to get quite a bit longer. Five states announced ...

Obama's education agenda dominated by loose ends
President Barack Obama's education agenda for next four years may look less like real reform and more like tying up loose ends, experts say, with ...

Chicago's top cop: 'Code of silence' not tolerated
Just before the beating of a female bartender by an off-duty Chicago police officer persuaded him to end his own career, then-police Superintendent ...

Will Chicago act on verdict in cop beating trial?
Will the city act? That's the question many Chicagoans will be asking Wednesday — a day after the dramatic conclusion of a civil trial that stemmed ...

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. leaves Mayo Clinic
Questions about Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s health and political future swirled again Tuesday as the Chicago congressman left the Mayo Clinic for the ...

Campaign surrogates shore up support in final days
President Barack Obama has Springsteen. Republican Mitt Romney has his sons. They, along with dozens of other celebrities and elected officials, are ...

Obama, Romney allies square off on foreign policy
On the eve of their final presidential debate, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama — through their allies — squared off Sunday over which candidate would ...

Chicago schools CEO replaced after 17 months
Just three weeks after Chicago teachers returned to the classroom following a bitter strike, Mayor Rahm Emanuel replaced his schools CEO with a ...