WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

First of a two-part report.Here's a startling figure: The typical white family has 20 times the wealth of the median black family. That's the largest gap in 25 years.

In his jobs speech last week, President Obama also took time to say he wants to help more Americans save money on their mortgages."

The towering brick buildings that cluster around where Cermak Road crosses the Chicago River in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, on the city’s near Southwest Side, once hosted everything from cloth manufacturers to food warehouses.There’s still an industrial feel in the area, with barges floating up a

The nation's poverty rate rose last year to 15.1 percent, the highest level in 17 years, according to new data from the Census Bureau.

Tuesday's hearing in the supercommittee was supposed to be about the history of the current debt crisis. Almost nothing causes more partisan bickering than that.

It's been nearly four months since a tornado slammed into Joplin, Mo., destroying about one-third of the city.

The idea that America's 35 percent corporate tax rate is stifling U.S. economic growth is almost an article of faith among some politicians.The sound bites from Republican presidential debates to campaign stops are basically interchangeable: "We need to bring that corporate tax rate down."