John Owens

By John Owens
On the 20th anniversary of his historic election, colleagues and rivals look back on Harold Washington, Chicago's first African-American mayor.

LEMONT, IL -- The Aurora supercomputer and Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois are transforming scientific discoveries.

"Aurora is massive," said Katherine Riley, the director of science at Argonne. "Think of it as 10,000 computers that are all talking to each other very, very quickly."
...

CHICAGO -- CHICAGO - Descend the stairs off Michigan Avenue near the Wrigley Building, leaving the high-end stores of the Magnificent Mile behind, and you step into one of Chicago's legendary taverns.

CHICAGO -- Change is inevitable in Chicago's City Council after Tuesday's municipal elections, with 14 alderpersons not running for re-election and a number of wards up for grabs.

But Chicago's 51st alderman will be returning to City Hall, regardless of the election results.

By John Owens
(Podcast)

When Bennie Lee was only 13 years old he became a leader of the Apache Vice Lords, a black street gang on Chicago’s West Side. In and out of prison for years, Lee eventually landed on death row in the aftermath of a deadly riot at the Pontiac Correctional Center in Illinois. Lee was acquitted, set himself straight, and is now helping the formerly incarcerated imagine a life on the outside.

By John Owens
(Story and video)
The owners of the Chicago home where film legend Walt Disney was born may open to the public by the end of 2015 as a museum and children's creativity center.

By John Owens
(Story and video)

Two local collectors are putting on their second annual event dedicated to the passé precursors to contemporary music videos.

By John Owens
After decades of ignoring him, a white family finally embraces a celebrated African-American ancestor who was a celebrated Chicago photographer.

He was banned from baseball 94 years ago, accused of fixing the 1919 World Series. Now the family of former Chicago White Sox third baseman Buck Weaver is making a last-ditch attempt to get their ancestor back in baseball.

By John Owens

LAKEVIEW — The crews creating the soaring overhead structure that will untangle the Red, Purple and Brown line tracks north of Belmont are digging deep — 70 feet.
Construction workers are currently excavating 70-foot-deep shafts for the foundation for the Belmont Bypass, a key part of the CTA’s $2.1 billion Red-Purple Line Modernization Project.

By John Owens
(Story and radio report)

Efforts to preserve historic buildings in low-income and inner-city neighborhoods throughout the state face challenges — like the lack of access to financing and restoration projects taking a back seat to more pressing issues in the community.

CHICAGO - Jerry Pritikin, now 86, has done much of his cheering for the Cubs in character as "The Bleacher Preacher." In 2024, he celebrated 80 years of fandom at Wrigley Field.

CHICAGO -- Its one of Chicago's most unique sports, with a history that goes back to the late 19th century.
The game is 16-inch softball and it has been a staple of Chicago's outdoor sports season for generations. Thousands of Chicagoans are familiar with this brawny cousin to baseball and 12-inch softball, played in parks and playgrounds throughout the Chicagoland area and celebrated as a Windy City tradition in movies like "About Last Night".

By John Owens
(Story and documentary)
The owners of two shuttered inner-city movie palaces in Chicago attempt to re-open their landmarked buildings.

CHICAGO -- Ann Weinert has been a performer since she was 15. But the Chicagoan became enamored with the art of American burlesque as an adult in 2007, and her perception of performing in front of audiences changed immediately.
"I was doing theater, and I was kind of over it," Weinert said. "I was actually pretty burnt out, mostly by the male-dominated negative energy. I wanted to feel like I had complete control over my creative expression. When I found burlesque, it was life changing for me."