Archer Heights, Chicago

The murder of Laquan McDonald took place on October 20, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois. McDonald was a 17-year-old African American youth who was fatally shot by a white Chicago Police Officer, Jason Van Dyke. Police had initially reported that McDonald was behaving erratically while walking down the street, refusing to put down a knife, and that he had lunged at officers. Preliminary internal police reports described the incident similarly, leading to the shooting being judged as justifiable, and Van Dyke not being charged at the time. This was later disproven after the video of the murder was released, showing that McDonald was walking away. On November 24, 2015, thirteen months after the shooting, a court ordered the police to release a dash cam video of the shooting. It showed that McDonald was walking away from the police when he was shot 16 times by Officer Van Dyke. That same day, Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder, and was initially held without bail at the Cook County Jail. He was released on bail on November 30. The city reached a settlement with McDonald's family for $5 million in April 2015. On October 5, 2018, Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder, as well as 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.Protests followed the murder of McDonald, demanding changes in police and judicial procedure, and for the dismissal or resignation of city and county officials. Rahm Emanuel won a second term in 2015 as Mayor of Chicago (prior to the release of the dash cam video), but Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez lost her bid for reelection in 2016. At the request of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the United States Department of Justice initiated a civil rights investigation into McDonald's murder and the activities of the Chicago Police Department. It released its report in January 2017, describing the police as having a culture of "excessive violence", especially against minority suspects, and of having poor training and supervision. DOJ and city officials signed a consent decree for a plan for improvement to be overseen by the courts. Moreover, three Chicago police officers were tried for allegedly attempting to cover up events related to the murder, and were found not guilty by the Cook County Circuit Court on January 17, 2019.

The Chicago Electrical Trauma Rehabilitation Institute (CETRI), located in Chicago, Illinois, was founded in 2009 by a group of scientists and physicians that had collaborated for more than 20 years to better understand and treat electrical injury patients. These collaborators were members of the faculty of four major medical centers in Chicago. Over the years, this multi-institution research team have published more than 120 scientific articles and three textbooks on the topic of electrical injury and have evaluated many electrical shock survivors. Some important discoveries made by this team are that electrical shock injury is mediated by multiple mechanisms including non-thermal electrical forces, which many electrical shock survivors develop neuropsychological problems even if the current never passed through the brain and progressive peripheral pain and sleeplessness often adds to the disability. However, some electrical shock survivors do not manifest these problems.

Pulaski is an 'L' station on the CTA's Orange Line, which runs between Midway Airport and The Loop; it is situated between Midway and Kedzie stations. Pulaski is located at Pulaski Road and 51st Street on the Southwest Side of Chicago, Illinois. The station is within the Archer Heights neighborhood, which is both residential and commercial, and the station itself is in a commercial district on Pulaski Road. Pulaski opened on October 31, 1993, the opening date of the Orange Line. The Pulaski station was proposed in 1980 and constructed from 1987 to 1993. When the station opened in 1993, it spurred commercial development in the surrounding area and led to a parking controversy on nearby residential streets. Pulaski consists of an elevated island platform above a station house which is set back from Pulaski Road. The station also includes a bus terminal and a park and ride lot. Nearly 1.4 million passengers boarded Orange Line trains at Pulaski in 2010. Trains serve Pulaski approximately every ten minutes during rush hour but are less frequent at other times. In addition to offering train service, Pulaski also connects to several CTA bus routes.

Corwith Yards, a railroad intermodal freight terminal located at Pershing Road (39th Street) & Kedzie Avenue in the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, in the neighborhood of Brighton Park, is a landmark in the history of railroad freight transport. At the time it was built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1888, it was the world's largest railway yard (nowadays, that title belongs to Bailey Yard, another freight railroad yard owned and operated by BNSF's rival, the Union Pacific Railroad). With adjacent parking and buildings it covers nearly a square mile of land. In the late 19th century Corwith Yards was the end of the line for trains of livestock loaded at AT&SF stations such as Dodge City, Kansas, and bound for the Union Stock Yards, as well as grain and other cargo from the western United States. Now called the Corwith Intermodal Facility, it now handles much more freight than it did in its 19th-century heyday, for the BNSF Railway, mostly in the form of shipping containers. Corwith container cranes load approximately 1900 containers per day. Human Intelligence systems are used to sort & route the containers.

Phoebe A. Hearst Fine Arts Magnet School is located at 4640 S. Lamon Ave in Chicago, Illinois. The school's colors are navy blue and gold. The principal of the school as of 2013 is Teresa Chrobak-Prince. The school has a uniform policy, students shall wear a navy blue shirt and navy blue pants. 8th Grade students shall wear a white shirt and navy blue pants. The school also have a motto which is, "Hearst Warriors RESPECTFUL, RESPONSIBLE, and always do their BEST!"

Uplift Community High School (commonly known as simply Uplift) is a public four–year high school located in the Uptown neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Established in 2005, Uplift is a part of the Chicago Public Schools system. As of the 2019–2020 school year, the school has 121 students.

John Hancock College Prep High School (commonly known as Hancock High School) is a public four–year selective enrollment high school located in the West Elsdon neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Hancock is named for American Revolution patriot and statesman John Hancock. The school is a part of the Chicago Public Schools district.

Crawford Generating Station was a coal−fired power plant built in 1924. It was located in the South Lawndale community of Chicago, Illinois. It was closed in 2012 after a long battle with the community over pollution, like the nearby Fisk Generating Station. Both stations were owned and operated by Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of Edison International. Crawford and Fisk Stations were among the last standing coal generating facilities within a major U.S. city at their time of retirement. Demolition of the plant began in 2019.

The Midway Yard is a CTA rail yard in the Southwest side of Chicago, Illinois which stores cars from the Orange Line of the Chicago Transit Authority. Currently, 2600-series railcars are stored here. It is adjacent to Midway station at Midway International Airport.

Hawthorne Race Course is a racetrack for horse racing in Stickney/Cicero, Illinois, near Chicago. The oldest continually run family-owned racetrack in North America, in 2009 the Horseplayers Association of North America introduced a rating system for 65 Thoroughbred racetracks in North America. Of the top ten, Hawthorne was ranked No. 8.

West Elsdon, one of the 77 official community areas, is located on the southwest side of the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is noted as a twin neighborhood of West Lawn. It has a population which includes a mix of dwindling Polish-American residents and increasing Mexican-American residents who currently constitute a clear majority. It has its own association, "West Elsdon Civic Association," which privately organizes the neighborhood. St. Turibius grade school, a Roman Catholic elementary school, located at 57th and Karlov, closed in 2013 and is currently inactive though the building remains and is adjacent to St. Turibius Roman Catholic church. The former Lourdes Roman Catholic girls' high school located from 55th to 56th street from Komensky to Karlov Avenue is now a Chicago Public Schools magnet high school, John Hancock High School.

Eric Solorio Academy High School is a public 4-year high school located in the Gage Park neighborhood on the Southwest side of Chicago, IL. Solorio is part of the Chicago Public Schools district and is managed by the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL).