Rosie Nolan who’s been living and biking in Chicago since 2021, rides her bike along North California Avenue, Thursday, May 9, 2024. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times Rosie Nolan began biking regularly when she moved to Chicago in 2021 because public transit was too inconvenient from her home in Ukrainian Village on the Near Northwest Side. “It was just a little too out of the way from the Blue Line and buses,” she said. So she took up a friend’s recommendation to try the city’s Divvy bike-share program and hasn't turned back since. “It became my No. 1 mode of transportation,” said Nolan ..read more

The 89-year-old suburban Chicago woman claiming a popular heartburn drug caused her colon cancer detailed how her diagnosis and subsequent health issues derailed her life on the stand Thursday in a Cook County courtroom. Drew Angerer/Getty Images The 89-year-old suburban Chicago woman who claims a popular heartburn drug caused her colon cancer detailed on Thursday in a Cook County courtroom how her diagnosis and subsequent health issues derailed her life. Angela Valadez, suing the drugmakers GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim, testified she used Zantac, the heartburn drug, for 18 years. Follow ..read more

Ascension health care network is investigating a possible cybersecurity attack disrupting clinical operations. PR Newswire A suspected cybersecurity event has disrupted clinical operations at Ascension hospitals, according to a statement from the health care network. Ascension detected “unusual activity,” on some network systems Wednesday and “responded immediately,” the statement said. Access to some systems remains limited as the investigation continues. “Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to ..read more

The Center for Care and Discovery at the University of Chicago, shown on May 2, 2016. Michael Satalic Medical residents and fellows at University of Chicago Medicine voted to unionize, making it the third teaching hospital in Chicago to organize, seeking fair pay. In a vote Monday, 98% of voters at UChicago moved in favor of representation by the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR/SEIU). CIR/SEIU will represent more than 1,000 residents. Residents at UChicago are the latest to organize, following in the footsteps of their peers at the University of Illinois Chicago, who unionized in ..read more

Las familias que ya reciben beneficios de asistencia pública, como SNAP, verán automáticamente los beneficios agregados a la tarjeta Link que utilizan para esos beneficios existentes. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file photo Las familias de Illinois con niños en edad escolar pueden ser elegibles para un nuevo programa durante las vacaciones de verano que tiene como objetivo reemplazar las comidas que comen en la escuela. Las familias participantes recibirán una tarjeta de débito con $120 por niño, gracias al programa de Transferencia Electrónica de Beneficios de Verano (EBT, por sus siglas e ..read more

Mounting evidence shows that to kill pervasive poison oak and other weeds at Fort Ord — a former Army base that closed in 1994 — the military sprayed and experimented with the powerful herbicide combination Agent Orange as far back as the 1950s. Winifred Brown/U.S. Army As a young GI at Fort Ord in Monterey County, California, Dean Osborn spent much of his time in the oceanside woodlands, training on soil and guzzling water from streams and aquifers now known to be contaminated with cancer-causing pollutants. “They were marching the snot out of us,” he says, recalling his year and a half ..read more

Among high school students in 2019, 36.7% reported persistently feeling sad or hopeless in the past year, and 18.8% had seriously considered attempting suicide, according to the CDC. Stock.adobe.com "Are you thinking of killing yourself? Do you want to die?" The woman looked at me doubtfully and said: "We have to ask that?" It was near the end of a Youth Mental Health First Aid course I was co-teaching at a Chicago elementary school, and the time had come to discuss how to respond to a young person in crisis. The security guard who posed the question had been an active participant all mo ..read more

Union workers at Howard Brown Health overwhelmingly approved their first contract. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times Howard Brown Health's union employees have ratified their first contract after more than 17 months of negotiations. Employees overwhelmingly approved the three-year contract, which raises workers' pay by an average of 7%. The agreement also includes a minimum wage of $19.23, insurance for part-time employees and layoff protections. About 85% of the 360-member union, which includes Brown Elephant employees as well as medical staff, cast ballots. Howard Brown Health Workers United said t ..read more

An Illinois resident alleges in a lawsuit she developed colorectal cancer after taking Zantac, a major heartburn drug, for nearly 20 years. The suit is one of many claims made nationwide that the over-the-counter heartburn drug Zantac and its generics have an active ingredient that causes cancer. Drew Angerer/Getty Images An Illinois woman's lawsuit claiming she developed colorectal cancer from taking the heartburn drug Zantac for nearly 20 years goes to trial this week — a first among many similar claims made nationwide. Opening statements are expected Thursday in a jury trial in Cook C ..read more

Grocery and convenience stores that accept SNAP benefits will participate in the late summer EBT program in Illinois. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file photo Illinois families with school-age children may be eligible for a new program over the summer break that aims to replace free school meals. Participating families will receive a one-time grocery debit card loaded with $120 per child, thanks to the federally funded Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program. “Many families who rely on these free and reduced-price school meals that they get during the school year lose access to these impo ..read more