15westnews

Updated for the Nov. 3, 2026 election. Why vote? This November, Chicago voters will elect all 21 members of the Board of Education, completing the transition to a fully elected school board. Each voter will choose one representative from their school board subdistrict and the Board president. The Board approves the CPS budget, sets districtwide policies and priorities, hires and evaluates the CPS CEO, and makes decisions about issues including school actions, contracts and some personnel matters.

A woman stood at a Chicago gallery last August, staring at a photograph of a Palestinian child smiling. It was the first photograph she had ever seen of any Palestinian smiling, she told organizers. Four months into a ceasefire that is violated almost daily by Israel's missile strikes on Gaza, mainstream news organizations are accused of setting the stage for genocide. In Chicago, artists, educators, and journalists are confronting media bias through education and art.

The cold, dry December air didn't stop people from gathering at 2337 W. Monroe St. on Dec. 3 to mark 56 years since Chicago police assassinated Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton and Peoria Defense Captain Mark Clark. The vigil marked the last night Hampton and Clark spent alive before being killed in the early morning hours of Dec. 4, 1969. One person in attendance, Dr Howard Ehrman, had worked directly with Fred Hampton and Ronald Satchel in the past, a year before starting medical school.