Sean Leone got up before the crack of dawn last month to catch a rare sight right outside his house on Fish Lake, Indiana: thousands of sandhill cranes. With their tall gray bodies and a hint of crimson just above their beaks, which looks like a burglar’s mask, some sandhill cranes make this lake their home during journeys to points north. The cranes’ annual visits are one of Leone’s favorite parts of living on Fish Lake. But about a week after the sighting, Leone noticed something troubling: dead sandhill cranes. Sandhill cranes like these are dying in Indiana. Sun-Times file “I starte ..read more

Back in the fall, Ethan Del Mastro seemed to be lagging behind other young defensemen in the Blackhawks' system. Del Mastro's subpar performance at Hawks training camp disrupted his momentum after an impressive first pro season in 2023-24, during which he was Rockford's lone representative at the AHL All-Star Game. Back in Rockford to begin 2024-25, Del Mastro was displaced from the first pairing and power-play units by Artyom Levshunov and Kevin Korchinski, forcing him to settle into a lesser role. At the same time, his close friend and former defensive partner, Nolan Allan, was establishing ..read more

The White Sox have touched them all since 2000, hitting it out of the park with a World Series title in 2005, striking out looking with a modern-day record for losses in 2024 and pulling off too many “in all my years watching baseball there’s something I’ve never seen” moments in between. Jerseys shredded by a protesting All-Star pitcher’s pocketknife, the unforeseen and controversial return of Tony La Russa, an unsolved stadium shooting and Drake LaRoche all made back-page headlines in between. There were just five postseasons — four of them one-and-done bow-outs — one owner, four general man ..read more

Notes come from around Chicago outdoors. WILD OF THE WEEK Paul Vriend photographed a young red-tailed hawk "play hunting" at Rosehill Cemetery, noting, "After take a couple of passes at a goose feeding on the grass, the hawk started attacking a stick that was near the goose. The attacks mimicked just about every attack, pounce, swoop, seize, I have ever seen a hawk perform in the field." A young red-tailed hawk dive bombs a stick while practicing hunting at Rosehill Cemetery. Dale Bowman WOTW, the celebration of wild stories and photos around Chicago outdoors, runs most weeks in the spe ..read more

Ryan Whitacre and Josh Sokol bass fished the discharges downtown Saturday in the adyed green Chicago River, thinking fish might be stacked there to escape the dye. But the discharges, even by the Merchandise Mart, were turned off. Yet, they persevered to the enjoyment of thousands. It's another angle on what the dye means to fish. "We just saw it as a unique to Chicago challenge to catch a bass in a dyed green river," Whitacre explained. "The weather isn't always so nice this time of year, [but], with temps in the 60s and warming water, it seemed like a good opportunity. Tournaments haven't s ..read more

Once upon a time in America, a high school diploma was the ticket to a good job. The kind that paid decent enough wages and offered good enough benefits to support a family, put a car or two in the garage and a kid or two through college. Times have changed. Over the past few decades, earning a post-secondary degree has become an economic imperative. Consider that in 1979, a full-time worker with a bachelor’s degree earned 38% more on average than a high school grad. By 2024, that wage gap ballooned to 84%. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the unemployment rate for ..read more

DEAR ABBY: How do I tell my friend I feel she needs a mental health evaluation? She has been my closest friend for 20 years, and we have been through many trials together. She has been married for a couple of years to a man who seems very nice. Abby, she is convinced that she's being followed, but doesn't know by whom or why. She tells me about terrible arguments she has with her husband because she thinks he orchestrated situations in public places. For instance, she claims he seats himself in a position to look at other women. The poor man is blind in one eye and has limited vision in the ot ..read more

Rosalynn Gingerich took every precaution five years ago when the COVID-19 stay-at-home order was issued. The artist and educator at the School of Art Institute of Chicago wore masks, practiced social distancing and got vaccinated, but in the fall of 2022, she tested positive for COVID. She’s been dealing with long COVID symptoms like dizziness, brain fog and extreme fatigue ever since. Gingerich’s story is one of many. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 5 adults have a health condition that might be related to their previous COVID-19 illness. Doctors are wo ..read more

This week’s top photo comes from Visual Journalist and Assistant Photo Editor Pat Nabong. Follow her on Instagram. What makes this photo great? Peripheral moments can offer a fresh look at a yearly event. We photograph the Trinity Irish Dancers almost annually, and each year, I know what the most emblematic photo would be: a photo of a line of dancers in mid-air with their toes pointed to the ground. This year, I was on the lookout for that moment, but also for something different. While the oldest dancers of the group performed, I noticed Maddie McGrath, one of the youngest performers, peek o ..read more

“If you’re going to try and make sense of the NCAA Tournament, best of luck to you. Because this thing is a beautiful mess.”  — college basketball analyst Seth Davis Let’s for the sake of necessity focus on the word “beautiful.” Every year we collectively can’t wait to get back here. Survive and Advance season. Bracketoligarchy. March magic. Madness guaranteed, promised, inevitable. Lady Gaga. Luther Vandross. Everyone in-between, everyone’s all in. We, as a nation of millions who are now gaining a generational understanding of what it’s like to be held back, need this NCAA Tournament mor ..read more