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This Thursday, spend a part of your morning catching up on the latest from WTTW News.
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The O’Hare boulder, during extraction on June 16, 2026. For context, the excavator’s bucket is more than 6 feet wide. (Courtesy of Matt Tracy)
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Ron Pitelka has an idea for what to name the 50-ton prehistoric boulder that was unearthed this summer at O’Hare Airport.
“I would probably call it ‘Geo,’” Pitelka said. “It might not be funny, but it’s a little more appropriate.”
Why should his opinion carry any weight?
Because Pitelka’s the guy who found the giant rock back in June, as part of a construction crew working on the airport’s latest expansion project.
In all of the 23 years he’s been operating excavators — so, half his life — “I’ve never seen a boulder this big come out of the ground. It’s pretty damned rare,” Pitelka, who lives in Homer Glen, told WTTW News. “I was like a kid on Christmas.”
The pictures he’s seen circulating online don’t remotely do the boulder justice, he said.
Some backstory:
On June 16, he was behind the controls of a Caterpillar 352, a beast of a machine that’s about as large as excavators come outside of those used for mining. Its bucket is six-and-a-half feet wide — four scoops can overload a semi — and it’s capable of lifting 50,000 pounds.
His team had been digging in O’Hare’s South Basin, a 110-acre stormwater retention pond undergoing expansion, with the dirt then being trucked over to backfill the airport’s Central Basin. Bulldozers were making thin cuts into the soil — previously undisturbed “virgin” blue clay — and then pushing it into piles for operators like Pitelka to transfer into semis.
“At the bottom of one of the dirt piles I hit extremely hard ground,” he said.
Pitelka’s colleague, Matt Tracy, attempted to budge the object with his bulldozer. It didn’t move. Pitelka tried to hook it and the Cat 352 balked. Eventually, with the combined force of the bulldozer pushing and the excavator pulling, they got the boulder out of the ground.
Knowing that the massive find at O’Hare could easily be 300 to 400 million years old, Pitelka asked the construction superintendent to fight for the behemoth’s preservation.
When the airport announced a naming contest for the rock, Pitelka learned the boulder had been saved and was destined for greater things.
“I was so excited to hear that the right people got involved,” he said. “I’m absolutely ecstatic it’s going to be on display. For me, as an (excavator) who loves boulders, it’s the coolest thing that people understand its historical significance and appreciate it.”
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Sponsor Message
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On Tuesday, September 22nd, 5 pm to 8 pm, join Full Spectrum Education, Northeastern Illinois University’s Goodwin College of Education, and NEIU Libraries for the launch of “Reckoning with Redress,” a cinematic digital history project on the Japanese American Redress Movement.
The event also commemorates the 45th anniversary of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians hearings held on Northeastern Illinois University’s Main Campus. Refreshments, Taiko drumming performance, film screenings of “Enough” and “Reckonings,” and a panel discussion are scheduled.
This free event is part of the “Reckoning with Redress” exhibition, ongoing through October 31st.
RSVP at NEIU.edu/reckoning-redress.
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(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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A key Chicago City Council panel advanced Mayor Brandon Johnson’s scaled-back effort to rewrite a 40-year-old law to add new protections for renters and additional ways to hold “slum lords” accountable.
The Committee on Housing and Real Estate voted 12-9 Wednesday to advance the revised measure designed by Johnson to shift the balance of power toward renters from landlords, who have profited from the sky-high demand for apartments in Chicago, allowing them to impose new fees and steep rent increases.
The proposal will now head to the full City Council for a final vote on Sept. 23. However, just two alderpeople can block a vote on the proposal at that meeting, according to the City Council’s rules.
Complicating the measure’s path to passage, the City Council’s Zoning Committee is scheduled to consider and vote on a rival proposal Thursday. That measure was crafted by Johnson’s critics on the City Council and is supported by landlord groups and the city’s business community.
“Go ahead and pass yours today and we’ll pass ours tomorrow and then we’ll see,” said Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward), the lead sponsor of the rival proposal.
Johnson called Wednesday’s vote, which was scheduled with just minutes to spare to comply with the state’s open meeting requirements, “a momentous step forward in the decades-long struggle to make safe, stable, and affordable housing a right for every Chicagoan.”
“Our fight is not over,” Johnson said in a statement. “Renters in our city have been waiting for relief for 40 years, we cannot wait any longer.”
More context:
The fight over the city’s rules governing landlords and tenants is now central to the 2027 mayoral and aldermanic contests. It is likely the last chance for Johnson and his allies to pass new legislation demanded by the progressive organizations that fueled their rise to power.
The average rent in Chicago jumped to $1,956 a month at the end of 2025, rising 9.5% since 2023, the biggest increase of any major city in the country, according to real estate data provider CoStar.
Approximately 622,000 Chicagoans lease their homes, and 40% spend more than a third of their take-home pay on rent.
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(WTTW News)
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Drivers who blocked bicycle and bus lanes have racked up nearly $4.5 million in fines since November 2024, when an effort to use automated cameras to make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians launched downtown, according to city data unveiled Tuesday.
While most of the drivers who got a ticket in the mail did not commit another infraction, commercial vehicles were among the most consistent scofflaws, said Sean Wiedel, deputy commissioner for the Chicago Department of Transportation.
In all, the city has banked approximately $2.6 million in revenue from the tickets, records show.
Too often delivery giants see the tickets as an unavoidable cost of doing business, Wiedel said.
The cameras issue citations for seven violations, including $250 fines for blocking bicycle lanes, $90 tickets for obstructing bus lanes and $140 for parking in a loading zone, records show.
Members of the Chicago City Council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee said Tuesday that the data proves that the pilot program, dubbed Smart Streets by city officials, set to expire in December, should be made permanent and expanded.
What to know:
Eight city vehicles have the license plate readers and cameras, while six buses on the CTA’s No. 20, No. 36 and No. 66 bus routes have cameras.
Cameras will be installed on more than 50 CTA buses by the end of the month, said Molly Poppe, the CTA’s chief planning and innovation officer.
Approved by the Chicago City Council in 2023 under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the program did not launch until late 2024.
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More From WTTW News:
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Back in the Day: September 17, 1961 - Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 Crashes, Kills 37
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On this day 65 years ago, a Northwest Orient Lockheed L-188 Electra was scheduled to depart from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and land at Tampa International Airport. Takeoff went normally, but things changed as the aircraft climbed past 200 feet. The engine began to make a strange sound and the plane began to bank to the right before crashing to the ground in a fireball. All 37 occupants were killed in a disaster that took two minutes from takeoff to crash. A Civil Aeronautics
Board investigation found that a cable had disconnected on the first officer’s control wheel, causing the banking motion and preventing the pilots from correcting it.
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This Week’s Arts and Culture Events
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Every Thursday, WTTW News newsletter producer Josh Terry highlights his picks for the week’s must-see cultural events.
We had our first taste of brisk fall weather to start the week. It was a welcome shift, but rain is on the horizon this weekend. If you’re like me, you’re not going to let a little precipitation ruin your plans. Below, WTTW News has curated a small selection of what’s on offer this weekend.
Art: Karla Wong: Journeys of Being — Intuit Art Museum
Before Mexico native Karla Wong became an acclaimed artist, she worked as a forensic and witness sketch artist. Compared to the straightforward assignments of her early job, she's become known for her fantastical, vibrant and folkloric paintings that blend surrealism with a deep love for her Oaxacan heritage. Her latest collection, “Journeys of Being,” is now on display at the Intuit Art Museum and tonight, there’s an opening reception. The event, which starts at 5 p.m., is free, but registration is encouraged.
Film: Reeling 2026: The 44th Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival — Multiple Theaters
Reeling, the long-running Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival, celebrates its 44th production with a packed slate of acclaimed cinema tonight through Sept. 27. It’ll be held at the Music Box Theatre, the Landmark Centura Cinema and Chicago Filmmakers. Check here for festival passes, schedule, film guide and more.
Theater: “Dirty Dancing - The Musical” — Nederlander Theatre
This 1987 romantic dance movie starring Patrick Swayze is probably a comfort watch in your household, but it’s also a touring musical that makes its stop in Chicago from now until Sunday at the Nederlander Theatre. Directed by Lonny Price, this version has gotten solid reviews from the Tribune. Buy tickets here.
Comedy: Atsuko Okatsuka — Chicago Theatre
This Taiwanese-Japanese American comedian boasts an energetic, endearing and unique brand of stand-up that's led to acclaimed specials that premiered on Hulu and HBO. She’s been interviewed on NPR’s “This American Life” and PBS’ “NewsHour” for her “interesting, sometimes tumultuous, life story” and will take her latest routine to the Chicago Theatre this weekend across two shows on Friday and Saturday. Buy tickets here.
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
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