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She and her husband and restaurant co-founder Rocco Palese created a hearty “stuffed” pizza (not deep dish) that would become the core of Nancy’s Pizza restaurants.Nancy Palese and her husband, Rocco, helped develop the stuffed pizza that became the cheese-and-tomato-filled foundation of her namesake Nancy’s Pizza restaurants. The couple’s inspiration for their specialty, with a crust on the top and bottom, was scarciedda, a stuffed Italian Easter pie. Mrs. Palese, who had dementia, died Jan. 20 at a nursing home at 87, according to her daughter, Marisa Palese Besch. Up until 2019, Mrs. Palese would drop in and look over...

CHICAGO -- An 8-year-old was among five people killed in Chicago weekend shootings which left another 17 people wounded. And a 17-year-old boy among 13 others wounded by gunfire in Chicago from Friday, 5 p.m. to Monday, 5 a.m.. Melissa Ortega was walking with a guardian about 2:45 p.m. Saturday when someone fired shots at the 26-year-old man in the 3900-block of West 26th Street, striking him in the back, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office said. The guardian heard the gunfire and saw the girl was shot in the head, police said. She was taken to...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Saturday searched the Illinois headquarters of a national COVID-19 testing company that is under federal and state investigation. "The FBI was conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in Rolling Meadows yesterday," Siobhan Johnson, a spokesperson for the FBI's Chicago office, said to USA Today on Sunday. The test company, known as the Center for COVID Control, has received over $124 million from the federal government as reimbursement for COVID-19 testing. The company once operated over 300 locations in 26 states and gathered over 80,000 COVID-19 tests daily.

CHICAGO (CBS) – At least three people are dead and eight are injured in shootings across the city over the weekend. three of the victims are under the age of 18. The first homicide of the weekend happened around 9 p.m. Friday night in the Auburn Gresham area. Police said a 19-year-old man was standing outside the 9000 block of South Normal when he heard shots fired and felt pain. The victim sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the legs and upper body and was transported to Christ Hospital where he later died. A 33-year-old man was shot while driving in...

This week ice pancakes were found along Chicago's shoreline of Lake Michigan. Ice pancakes, much like their namesake, look exactly like you think they would -- round flat discs made of ice. They are common in the Arctic but typically only start making an appearance in the Lower 48 states once the temperatures get well below freezing for several days. "A signature feature of pancake ice is raised edges or ridges on the perimeter, caused by the pancakes bumping into each other from the ocean waves,"

Some Chicago officers want to get away from a demoralized police department. Now, the law also lets them transfer up to 5 years of service to suburban pension plans. Sean Jaycox, a third-generation Chicago police officer, was goofing around on his computer last winter. He started looking at Florida police departments that hire cops from other states but don’t make them go through a training academy again. “I threw an application in for fun, and here I am now,” Jaycox says of his new job as a Fort Lauderdale cop. “I’m only 24, no wife, no kids,” he says. “If...

WASHINGTON — Mayor Lori Lightfoot said GOP candidates for governor, making crime — especially in Chicago — central campaign themes should think twice about damaging the city’s reputation. “Vilifying the economic engine of your state just strikes me as a really foolhardy strategy,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday. Lightfoot said there are “definitely productive ways in which a governor can be helpful. But anybody who thinks that they’re going to solve crime by sitting in Springfield and lobbing bombs obviously doesn’t understand the first thing about public safety.”

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot allegedly called the owner of a high-end exotic car dealership an "idiot" during a heated meeting after the store was targeted in an armed smash-and-grab robbery, according to a report. Lightfoot allegedly "got into a fight and walked out" of Gold Coast Exotic Motor Cars during a meeting with store owner Joe Perillo, according to sources who spoke to CWB Chicago. One of the sources told the outlet the mayor called Perillo an "idiot" as she left the showroom, though Perillo told Fox News he did not hear her call him that. "I’m not aware that...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, announced Tuesday that she has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms.

Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Tuesday that she tested positive for COVID-19. Lightfoot said on Twitter that she received the positive test early Tuesday and will continue to work from home while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for isolation. "I am experiencing cold-like symptoms but otherwise feel fine which I credit to being vaccinated and boosted," she said. Lightfoot also called on other Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. "This is an urgent reminder for folks to get vaccinated and boosted as it's the only way to beat this pandemic," she said. Approximately...

Nearly 100 murder suspects in the Chicago area are enjoying the comfort of home — thanks to soft-on-crime judges and criminal justice reforms designed to keep defendants out of jail, according to reports. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said 2,600 defendants are under home confinement and electronic monitoring as part of the pre-trial program he runs. SNIP Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was stunned by the data.

NEWSFLASH: Cardinal Cupich BOOED AND HECKLED at March for Life in Chicago!

You can count on three fingers how much Al Sharpton has in common with Pastor Corey Brooks, the pastor who’s on a 100-day rooftop “campout” in frigid, single-digit weather to bring attention to the culture of violence and poverty in Chicago. They’re both black. They’re both focused on issues in troubled black communities. And they both hold titles as members of the Christian clergy. Other than that, these men are worlds apart in their approach to solving the generational problems of blacks – especially young black men – in urban areas. Sharpton curses the darkness from a distance, then adds...

Hundreds of pro-life activists gathered in Chicago at Federal Plaza Saturday for the March for Life Chicago rally and march as a group of abortion rights protesters attempted to shout them down. March for Life Chicago posted photos from the Chicago Tribune depicting the opposing groups.

A group of Chicago parents this week sued the city’s teachers union over its refusal to teach classes in person.The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted on Tuesday night to only teach classes remotely, arguing the rise in COVID-19 cases and an alleged lack of protective measures made it too dangerous to instruct students inside classrooms.Chicago Public Schools (CPS) deemed the action an illegal work stoppage and canceled classes for three consecutive days as officials negotiated with union leaders. CTU and city officials also filed competing labor complaints.The lawsuit, filed in Cook County circuit court, offers a similar view of the...

--(snip)-- "The tsunami of illicit firearms in Chicago and across America includes too many guns bought from gun dealers in straw purchases. Felons who cannot pass background checks use others with clean records to make these straw purchases. This is the deception reportedly used to buy the gun that killed Officer Ella French. It’s time to prosecute this reckless conduct aggressively. A bipartisan bill I have introduced will move straw purchases from a paperwork offense to a serious federal crime. Second, the outrageous stories of carjacking across the region demand an intervention. I join Sheriff Tom Dart in appealing to...

A group of Chicago parents sued the Chicago Teachers Union after the union voted earlier this week to delay a return to classrooms due to COVID concerns. Chicago Public Schools and the union have yet to reach an agreement on whether in-person learning should return amid the recent uptick in coronavirus cases caused by the highly infectious omicron variant. Friday marks the third straight day classes in the district were canceled. The lawsuit, filed Thursday night by attorneys at the Liberty Justice Center, alleges that the school closures constitute an "illegal strike" and violate the union's own contract. "CTU’s resolution...

A top CPD leader canceled days off for the city’s cops over the upcoming weekend, and sources indicate the reason is that positive COVID tests have decimated the department’s active force. In fact, the union representing front-line Chicago cops estimates 2,600 officers are currently out for medical reasons. Before COVID, the medical absence number usually hovered around 1,000, according to the union. If the union’s estimate is accurate, that would mean about 20% of the city’s police force is out on medical leave. Cops who test positive for COVID are required to take ten days off. The COVID surge is...

An Indiana judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a relative of famed 1930s gangster John Dillinger seeking to dig up his body to confirm it is actually him. In a tan-walled Marion County courtroom, Superior Court Judge Timothy Oakes entertained arguments from the Crown Hill Cemetery, where Dillinger’s body is buried, which claimed that it has a right under state law to deny the exhumation of any body. The fight over digging up Dillinger’s remains came after the gangster’s nephew Michael Thompson filed a lawsuit in August claiming the cemetery is wrongfully preventing him from exhuming the body...

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said Monday he’s “not going to give up” trying to reach an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union that averts a districtwide move to remote learning amid a spike in city COVID-19 cases. “I visited six schools today, and our network chiefs were visiting schools across the city. And one of the things that we saw was just significant differences across schools,” Martinez told the Tribune before describing some schools that recorded low staff and student attendance and other schools with opposite experiences. “When I saw that today, it just, for me, confirmed that...