Happy Fourth of July weekend, Chicago.

Crowds fanned out across the Chicago area Saturday to celebrate the Fourth of July, marking 250 years of American independence with colorful parades, beach days and backyard barbecues.

For many revelers, the milestone added an emotional heft to Saturday’s festivities. Navy Pier planned its “largest and longest” fireworks display in history over Chicago’s skyline, organizers said. A dense fog obscured Navy Pier’s Fourth of July fireworks display. While the show continued as scheduled, spectators could only see colors glowing through the marine fog.

Navy Pier issued a statement on social media early yesterday morning, saying “we are disappointed with the effect fog had on tonight’s Independence Day Fireworks visibility and understand it impacted our guests’ experience.”

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including a plane hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport over the weekend, FIFA lifting US player Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension and photos from NASCAR weekend at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet.

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In Kaskaskia, first capital of Illinois, all that’s left is a church and the congregation keeping it alive

The history in Kaskaskia is as rich as the soil that attracted settlers in the first place and made it, for a time, Illinois’ most important place. There is a Liberty Bell, a gift from King Louis XV of France, that predates the larger and more famous one in Philadelphia, and there’s an American story that predates America’s founding 250 years ago. There’s not much of anything else, aside from the ghosts and the church, its survival a testament to the people who keep it going.

The Immaculate Conception Chapel, a brick Catholic church with a steep spire that has served as a beacon in rising waters, is not dissimilar to the land where it sits. Both exist in spite of the odds, symbols of perseverance and community — memorials to those who fought to establish a new country and a new state, and who happened to do it in a place that proved particularly untamable.

Ticks on the rise in Illinois due to milder winters, scientists say

Illinois’ tick season may be starting earlier, lasting longer and creeping into new corners of the state, scientists and researchers say.

What’s in the Illinois Tollway’s $26.5 billion construction program?

From a seismic interchange redo to an O’Hare International Airport facility, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority’s sprawling new $26.5 billion capital program is a lot of concrete to absorb.

Dubbed “Driving Connections,” the 15-year initiative dedicates more than $14.6 billion to toll road reconstruction and rehab, nearly $3.36 billion for interchange upgrades and about $880 million for widening, a preliminary analysis shows.

3 children dead after boat capsizes in Wisconsin’s Lake Geneva during Friday storms

Three children died and seven others were rescued Friday after a boat capsized in Geneva Lake as a strong storm passed through southern Wisconsin, an official said.

Many injuries were reported in Wisconsin’s Walworth County after the storm toppled trees, knocked down power lines and damaged buildings, said Tom Hausner, undersheriff for the Walworth County Sheriff’s department.

FIFA lifts US player Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension after Trump calls Infantino

President Donald Trump intervened on behalf of American star forward Folarin Balogun, whose red-card suspension was lifted in a decision that allows him to play in a World Cup match against Belgium tonight.

More World Cup coverage:

• England hands Mexico its first tournament loss at Estadio Azteca, winning 3-2 to reach quarterfinals
• Erling Haaland scores twice to beat Brazil, send Norway into quarterfinals for 1st time