Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a new gifting program would mail free and age-appropriate books to children from birth to age five, regardless of the family’s income.

The program is a partnership between the state and Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Foundation, which offers scholarships and other educational prizes.

The retiring CEO of World Business Chicago urged Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday to “find solutions that work for the airlines” to salvage construction of a global terminal and two satellite concourses at O’Hare Airport that airline officials say are $1.5 billion over budget.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that O’Hare’s two largest carriers, United and American, want to slow down, dramatically scale back or indefinitely ground the airport’s massive expansion project. The effort is bankrolled by airline ticket taxes, landing fees, concessions and other revenue sources at the airport.

The Chicago Bears continue to check out a variety of sites in and around Chicago — including the site of Soldier Field — as potential homes for a new stadium, officials said Wednesday.

The Bears are doing due diligence on the viability of the south parking lot at Soldier Field as the location for their next stadium, according to unnamed sources cited by The Parkins & Spiegel Show on WSCR-AM 670 The Score.

A key city panel on Thursday will consider an agreement to extend the contract with the city’s largest police union for an additional two years in return for bigger than expected raises and bonuses for officers. The contract would also upend the system used to punish officers for 60 years.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration will ask the City Council’s Workforce Development Committee to endorse the agreement they brokered to resolve the issues left over from the contract agreement reached by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in July 2021 that ended the longest union negotiations in the city’s history.

Shortly after the Illinois government halted plans to construct a migrant base camp in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office released a statement elaborating on the state’s decision.

Following the state’s call to stop construction on Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office released a statement that appeared to attribute blame toward the state for the endeavor’s failures.

O’Hare International Airport travelers who leave their cars on residential streets in Des Plaines while they’re out of town now will face fines of up to $250.

Several residential streets in Des Plaines that aren’t far from Rosemont’s Allstate Arena will be no-parking zones for anyone who doesn’t live there, too.