Lauren Fitzpatrick

1 week ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Brett Chase |Lauren FitzPatrick |Lauren Fitzpatrick

When the 50 outdoor pools run by the Chicago Park District open Saturday they will offer 7-day access for the first time in six years, but the season will end mid-August — when the city is usually hit with extreme heat. With a planned Aug. 17 closure, the swimming season will be its shortest since 2022 when only half the pools were open following the COVID-19 pandemic. Park pools have operated on shortened seasons with limited hours or days and reduced capacities since 2021, records show.

2 weeks ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lauren FitzPatrick |Lauren Fitzpatrick

El mejor lugar para cobertura de noticias y cultura latina en Chicago. Los ocho niños pequeños inscritos en la guardería Growing Up Green conocen a Patricia Anaya como su maestra. Ella también se desempeña como enfermera y directora, además de chef, jardinera y conserje en la escuela y centro de cuidado infantil del lado suroeste que dirige desde su acogedora casa estilo bungalow de ladrillo como parte del programa federal Head Start.

2 weeks ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lauren FitzPatrick |Lauren Fitzpatrick

The eight young children enrolled at the Growing Up Green Daycare know Patricia Anaya as their teacher. She also steps in as their nurse and principal — plus, chef, gardener and janitor at the Southwest Side preschool and childcare center she runs in her welcoming brick bungalow as part of the federal Head Start program. But the 60-year program providing early childhood education for kids from low-income families has come under attack in the Trump administration’s year one proposed budget.

1 month ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lauren FitzPatrick |Lauren Fitzpatrick |Violet Miller

When a young Robert Francis Prevost set off in the early 1980s for Rome to take his vows as a priest, his hometown of Dolton was on the precipice of fundamental changes. As the future Pope Leo XIV was being ordained and earning a doctorate in church law, the steel mills in Chicago were closing, instigating the decline of Dolton and its neighbors. Good paying jobs disappeared. Household income fell. Waves of white families left and Black families moved into the village named for an abolitionist.

1 month ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lauren FitzPatrick |Lauren Fitzpatrick

The oldest brother of the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV has written and shared a series of vulgar posts and memes on social media. Among the accusations: anyone with a transgender child is “a sh—ty parent,” former House Speaker and fellow Catholic Nancy Pelosi is a “drunken c—-” and “anti-Trump Democrats” should “be arrested and tried for subversion and even treason against the U.S.A.”The tone of the posts appears to be nothing new, dating well back into President Joe Biden’s administration.