After numerous winter storms this month left much of the Chicago area blanketed in an entire season’s worth of snowfall and ushered in dangerously cold wind chills, warmer temperatures are expected in the coming days. But first: more snow.

We expect love to have an emotional impact on us, but a new report released by the Federal Trade Commission revealed it’s also hurting wallets. A record $304 million was reported lost to romance scams in 2020.

Debris from a United Airlines plane fell onto Denver suburbs during an emergency landing Saturday after one of its engines suffered a catastrophic failure and rained pieces of the engine casing on a neighborhood where it narrowly missed a home. 

Chicago has launched a COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan that partners with community organizations to get vaccinations to people in the 15 communities most impacted by the pandemic. Carmen Vergara of Esperanza Health Centers tells us more.

How Chicagoans are stepping up to help the homeless in their communities. Getting the COVID-19 vaccine to the hardest-hit communities. Remembering the Cuban Comet in this week’s throwback.

Chef Rafael Esparza has worked in some of Chicago’s most storied kitchens. As part of our series, he gives us the last word on how works of mutual aid give cover to failures of public policy.

This month’s deep freeze has left Chicago’s homeless residents in deadly peril. But housing insecurity is not just an extreme-weather problem, some advocates say, and the city needs to take a bolder approach to housing policy.

Protesters are urging the city to stop a metal-scrapping company from opening on the Southeast Side. What both sides have to say.

A Democratic senator is calling for federal investigations into possible price gouging of natural gas in the Midwest and other regions following severe winter storms that plunged Texas and other states into a deep freeze.

You’re fully vaccinated against the coronavirus — now what? Don’t expect to shed your mask and get back to normal activities right away. That’s going to be a disappointment, if not a shock, to many people. 

The improbable story began during the winter of 1973, when Karen Autenrieth lost her wedding band at her grandmother’s house in Chicago. It’s a memory she clearly recalls decades later.

First came the big chill, then the big dig, and now officials are warning Chicagoans to prepare for the big melt. With temperatures on the rise, the snow that’s accumulated over the past three weeks is about to turn into a river. 

A political era ends. A report slams the police response to summer unrest. Gov. Pritzker’s budget has no income tax hike but some pain for business. Vaccination rates lag in Black and Brown communities.

This week’s killer freeze in the U.S. was no surprise. Government and private meteorologists saw it coming, some nearly three weeks in advance. And yet catastrophe happened. At least 20 people have died and 4 million homes at some point lost power, heat or water.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired back Friday at critics who blasted her for using $281.5 million in COVID-19 federal relief funds to cover the cost of salaries and benefits for Chicago Police Department officers. “Criticism comes with the job of mayor but this one’s just dumb,” Lightfoot said.