Stories by Matt Masterson

“As a dad ... I struggle to make sense of the reckless gun violence that continues to take the lives of our young people throughout the city,” Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said after 14 people were killed over the weekend.

Watch the June 29, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

A divided Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, reasserting a commitment to abortion rights over fierce opposition from dissenting conservative justices in the first big abortion case of the Trump era.

Black Lives Matter is a burgeoning cultural and political movement — and it appears that people are ready to cash in on it.

The Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability are investigating hundreds of complaints filed against officers for their response to recent protests, records show.

By the time parents notice anything out of the ordinary – their baby is “floppy” or isn’t able to roll – it’s too late to reverse the damage done by spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA.

They’ve become a nightly nuisance ringing out from Connecticut to California, angering sleep-deprived residents and alarming elected officials. All of them want to know: Why the fascination with fireworks?

President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted approvingly of a video showing one of his supporters chanting “white power,” a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. He later deleted the tweet.

Activists and local leaders called for more state and federal support Sunday as weekend shootings across Chicago left three children dead, including a 10-year-old who was struck by a stray bullet that came through an apartment window. 

Chicago’s 51st annual Pride Parade was canceled, but LBGTQ activists and allies took over the streets of Boystown on Sunday for a community-driven march organizers described as a “protest, not a party.”

A local health center is giving COVID-19 patients tools to monitor their blood oxygen levels as they recover at home. 

Many are new to organizing, but have seen a drumbeat of deaths of police-brutality cases captured on video since they were children. 

In another sign that Chicago has passed the peak of the pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will not move to extend the emergency powers she used to respond to the coronavirus without the approval of the City Council. 

U.S. officials estimate that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible. 

The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday revamped its list of which Americans are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness, adding pregnant women and removing age alone as a factor.

The Friday briefing at the Department of Health and Human Services was held as the number of confirmed new coronavirus infections per day in the U.S. soared to an all-time high of 40,000 — higher even than during the deadliest stretch in April and May. 

The Chicago Board of Education votes to keep police in schools for now. Chicago and the state enter phase four of reopening. Rumors the city’s top cop is leaving amid spikes in gun violence. 

The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has blown a $280 million hole in Cook County’s budget for 2020, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Friday.

"We believe in the future of Chicago," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said.

Chicago’s annual summer jobs program will include a new youth service corps charged with helping the city respond to the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Friday.

American Airlines will start booking flights to full capacity next week, ending any effort to promote social distancing on its planes while the United States sets records for new reported cases of the coronavirus.

Two brothers who admitted helping actor Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago last year are again willing to help in the case after initially saying they were done cooperating with prosecutors, their attorney said Thursday.

“He is a clear and present danger to all of society and all members of the community,” Judge Susana Ortiz said before denying bond Friday for 19-year-old Laroy Battle.

Forty million locusts are winding their way through Argentina and a massive dust cloud has crossed the Atlantic from the Sahara. What else could 2020 possibly have in store for us?

Those who believe they have witnessed misconduct by Chicago Police Department sergeants, lieutenants and captains can submit a complaint anonymously under the city’s new contract with their union, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

A Champaign County judge dismissed the lawsuit against a pair of University of Illinois social workers, each of whom interviewed Brendt Christensen weeks before he kidnapped Zhang and killed her inside his Champaign apartment in June 2017.