It’s another sign that Chicago is returning to normal: Conventions are beginning to return to the city, including the Chicago Auto Show, which is set for mid-July at McCormick Place in the South Loop. We hit the streets as part of our community reporting series.

More than 500 current and former employees of the Cook County jail say they were subject to “vulgar” “and “offensive” misconduct by detainees, and that Sheriff Tom Dart’s office did not do enough to protect them from the constant harassment.

Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans talks courts and crime. Local reaction to the unrest in Haiti. How a local woodworker brings his custom pieces to life. And we’re live from the South Loop. 

Chicago’s indomitable piping plovers have welcomed three chicks, with a fourth still possibly on the way, plover monitors have reported.

A 28-year-old Chicago man who allegedly shot two federal agents and a Chicago police officer as they were driving Wednesday in an unmarked vehicle in Morgan Park apparently believed the victims were members of a rival street gang, according to federal prosecutors.

An Iowa man who was in custody in Chicago after police found a rifle with a laser sight in a hotel room that overlooks a Lake Michigan beach during the July Fourth weekend made bond and then proposed to his girlfriend upon his release.

The lucrative, high-stakes chase for space tourists will unfold on the fringes of space — 55 miles to 66 miles up, pitting Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson against the world’s richest man, Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos.

New research from France adds to evidence that widely used COVID-19 vaccines still offer strong protection against a coronavirus mutant that is spreading rapidly around the world and now is the most prevalent variant in the U.S.

The 34th Ward alderperson is the second-longest serving member of the City Council — and the third sitting member to be charged with federal crimes. She faces one count of bribery conspiracy, two counts of using interstate facilities to promote bribery and one count of lying to the FBI.

The global death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 4 million Wednesday as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant.

President Biden touts his American Families Plan in McHenry County. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on the crime surge. Should the Tokyo Olympics go forward? And fairy houses in Chicago parks.

More than 100 people were shot over the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, one of the city’s deadliest in years. Some officials are blaming the courts for the recent violence. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. respond.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its natural areas, the Chicago Park District, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy of Illinois, has installed 20 fairy houses in parks across the city. Here’s where to find them.

Chicago owes $32.9 billion to its four employee pension funds representing police officers, firefighters, municipal employees and laborers, according to the 2020 Certified Annual Financial Report — an increase of nearly 3.5% from 2019.