The Illinois Department of Public Health says the states overall respiratory illness level has gone from moderate to high. Hospitals are seeing an early uptick in winter hospitalizations. Emergency room visits topped 21 percent last week…that’s up 17 percent from the week before and the number of visits for the flu doubled. Covid cases were…

The world population increased by more than 71 million people in 2024 and will be 8.09 billion people on New Year’s Day, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Monday. The 0.9% increase in 2024 was a slight slowdown from 2023, when the world population grew by 75 million people. In January 2025, 4.2 births…

Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are on strike in a handful of U.S. cities as they seek to exert pressure on the two major companies to recognize them as unionized employees or to meet demands for an inaugural labor contract. The strikes that started Thursday and Friday followed other recent standoffs between corporate America…

Workers at seven Amazon facilities went on strike Thursday, an effort by the Teamsters union to pressure the e-commerce company for a labor agreement during a key shopping period. The Teamsters said the workers, who voted to authorize strikes in recent days, joined picket lines after Amazon ignored a Sunday deadline the union set for…

A judge declined Wednesday to throw out statements made by a man charged with killing seven people at an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago in 2022. Robert Crimo III willingly waived his right to remain silent while speaking to police, and there was no “coercion, deceit or intimidation” to prevent him from talking to…

An Indiana man convicted in the 1997 killings of his brother and three other people is set to receive a lethal injection by early Wednesday in the state’s first execution in 15 years, without any independent witness present under the state’s laws shielding information about the death penalty. Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on death…

Two people are dead and multiple people are injured after a shooting at a Christian school in Wisconsin, police said. Police say the shooter, a juvenile was found dead inside the school. The shooting occurred at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, the state capital, police said. “This remains an active and ongoing investigation,” Madison…

The NHL is partnering with P-X-P to serve the Deaf community, creating an alternate telecast for the Winter Classic that features analysis in American Sign Language. The announcement was made Thursday by the league and a company that aims to improve access to ASL in sports. NHL in ASL made its debut when Florida outlasted…

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law Monday to prohibit public and school libraries from banning books in the state and to enshrine protections against civil and criminal charges for librarians who comply with the law. New Jersey becomes the latest Democrat-led state to enact a ban on book bans, joining Illinois and…

Four women who accused Curtis Hill of drunkenly groping them at a bar when he was Indiana’s attorney general dropped their civil lawsuit against him hours before jury selection was set to begin on Monday. The women initially sued in federal court in 2019 before filing this last lawsuit in a Marion County court in…

The city will clear a homeless encampment in Humbolt Park today after advocates for the homeless held a rally earlier this week asking for it to stay. The city wants to move the residents into transitional housing. Already over 100 have moved to transitional or affordable housing but a large number of residents remain. Alderperson…

The Chicago Blackhawks fired coach Luke Richardson on Thursday, with the team off to the worst start in the league nearly a third of the way through his third season. The Blackhawks are 8-16-2, two standings points behind the next-worst team, Nashville. Richardson went 57-118-15 with Chicago. Anders Sorensen of the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs was…