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On May 6, 2004, 52.5 million people watched a group of young friends, or “Friends,” wrap up their professional and romantic adventures.

When I read about the allegations of rampant sexual violence in the Northwestern University football program, I was horrified. But sadly, I wasn’t surprised. As a cheerleader, I, too, was a victim of sexual abuse and harassment at Northwestern University, and school officials did nothing to stop it.

Chicago officials are closing in on plans to transform a budget motel along North Lincoln Avenue into a housing pilot that would provide on-site substance abuse and mental health treatment — part of the city’s long-term efforts to combat chronic homelessness by pairing temporary shelter with intensive health care.

Brandon Johnson’s election as mayor and Illinois’ enactment of liberalized social policies under Gov. J.B. Pritzker served as rallying points for the three-day Netroots Nation conference, the largest national gathering of progressives and a precursor to next year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

CHICAGO -- Canada is experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons in modern history, and experts said climate change is increasing the fires’ intensity, frequency and reach.

CHICAGO — Halfway through coffee with Emily Long, the new executive director of the Gene Siskel Film Center, we had a little linguistic misunderstanding. She mentioned an upcoming September Film Center retrospective of banned films, curated by the center’s programming director Rebecca Fons; I heard the word “band,” not “banned,”…

In a move that predictably led to increased tensions between Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority and its ethnic Serbian minority, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti recently installed ethnic Albanian mayors in four Serbian-majority towns in northern Kosovo after the ethnic Serbians boycotted the elections.

Huberth Espinoza, 65, sat on a bench outside the 5th District police station in Pullman on a Wednesday in late June, waiting to be picked up for work.

Longtime U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel, the former leader of the Illinois State Police who went on to preside over the corruption trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the landmark Family Secrets mob trial, and many other of the area’s biggest cases, died Saturday night after a long illness,…