Interest in houseplants has grown during the pandemic and is helping plant parents new and old thrive during a difficult year. We visit the Plant Salon in Noble Square for a look.

State officials announced Sunday that Chicago is ready to relax some restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. See what is and is not changing under the new set of rules.

As the city begins to stir from its COVID-19 slumber, we talk with local journalists about how the reopening is impacting Latino communities.

The Democratic push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour has emerged as an early flashpoint in the fight for a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, testing President Joe Biden’s ability to bridge Washington’s partisan divides as he pursues his first major legislative victory.

Another bout of selling gripped the U.S. stock market Friday, as anxiety mounts over whether the frenzy behind a swift, meteoric rise in GameStop and a handful of other stocks will damage Wall Street overall.

“I am optimistic that we will be able to increase capacity soon, but it would be irresponsible and dangerous to rush our reopening and undo the incredible progress we have made as a city,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement.

The Northwest Side community of Jefferson Park is known as the gateway to Chicago, in part because it’s a transit hub. The area’s thought of by some as typical “bungalow belt” Chicago. It’s predominantly middle class, but recently there’s been an uptick in homelessness. 

The struggling video game retailer’s stock has been making stupefying moves this month, wild enough to raise concerns from professional investors on Wall Street to the hallways of regulators and the White House in Washington. 

GameStop stock has rocketed from below $20 earlier this month to close around $350 Wednesday as a volunteer army of investors on social media challenged big institutions who had placed market bets that the stock would fall.

Thursday's report from the government estimated that the nation's gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — slowed sharply in the October-December quarter from a record 33.4% surge in the July-September quarter.

Last week’s claims dropped by 67,000, from 914,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday. Before the virus hit the United States hard last March, weekly applications for jobless aid had never topped 700,000.

It’s been one year since recreational marijuana became legal in Illinois. Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s senior adviser for cannabis control talks about how Illinois aims to expand access to marijuana dispensary licenses after intense criticism from equity advocates. 

Blair Kamin, Phil Vettel and Howard Reich have taken voluntary buyouts at the Chicago Tribune after decadeslong careers at the newspaper. They discuss their experiences at the paper and what comes next.

Indoor dining and drinking is again allowed at bars and restaurants in Chicago and Cook County. The move could bring businesses much-needed cash during the pandemic, but some in the industry think the risks outweigh the benefits.

The Loop has been eerily quiet over the past year. COVID-19 has forced thousands of downtown office workers to stay home, while performing arts venues have retreated into hibernation. But many of the Loop’s small businesses and cultural institutions are still kicking. 

Five years after acquiring a block of properties on Bryn Mawr Avenue through eminent domain, Northeastern Illinois University has officially scrapped its plan to build student housing on the site and is casting about for other uses.