John Owens

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
(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.

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

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.

By John Owens
Five years after workers were accused of digging up and dumping hundreds of bodies in a scheme to resell burial plots, Burr Oak Cemetery is trying to overcome the scandal and reassume its place in preserving Chicago's African-American history.

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.

CHICAGO -- Doug Redenius' first encounter with the fictional British secret agent James Bond occurred at an Illinois movie theatre back in 1964.
"I was eight years old and my dad took me to see 'Goldfinger,'" Redenius recalled. "I was hooked. After 'Goldfinger,' my father and I went to see every James Bond movie when it would come out."
Redenius' love for all things 007 would eventually lead to his collecting vehicles from the Bond movies.

By John Owens
"Unshackled", a radio drama produced by Chicago's Pacific Garden Mission and heard on thousands of radio stations throughout the world, is celebrating its 65th anniversary in 2015. The show premiered on WGN-AM on Sept. 23, 1950.

By John Owens
A look at Filmack Studios, which has produced classic movie trailers like "Let's All Go to the Lobby". The company, which opened in 1919, is now operated out of the Glenview, Ill. home of owner Robbie Mack.

By John Owens
Historians want William Veeck, who like his son reshaped baseball, to join Bill in the Hall of Fame

By John Owens
Four decades after Chicago's Riverview amusement park closed, fans still
find ways to keep
its memories alive.

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.