Stories by Heather Cherone

Facing criticism from aldermen and progressive groups, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown on Monday defended the department’s handling of a protest downtown Saturday evening after officers and demonstrators clashed.

Led by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a new plan for police reform from the U.S. Conference of Mayors calls for sweeping changes to agreements with police unions in order to allow officers to be held accountable for misconduct.

More 230,000 Chicago voters have applied to vote by mail in November, shattering the record set during this year’s primary election with more than 80 days left until Election Day, officials said Thursday.

City officials will restrict access to downtown Chicago through the weekend, even though the city has not seen widespread looting in two days.

The Chicago Police Department is struggling to reform the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers. What’s being done to address the slow pace of reforms.

After protests forced Mayor Lori Lightfoot to remove the city’s statues of Christopher Columbus, the city will launch an effort to “provide a vehicle to address the hard truths of Chicago’s racial history,” the mayor’s office announced Wednesday. 

Lawmakers on Tuesday approved new rules crafted by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to reduce the spread of the coronavirus despite opposition from Illinois Republicans and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

The growing share of city property taxes sent to tax increment finance districts is sure to fuel the argument over whether the districts actually spur redevelopment and eradicate blight or exacerbate growing inequality in Chicago.

Access to downtown Chicago will be restricted “for the foreseeable future,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know.

“We can't have people out on the street interfacing with the public without body cameras,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday, just days after officers responded to a call about a man with a gun that led to a shooting and touched off unrest across the city.

Visitors to Chicago from Iowa, Kansas and Utah will no longer have to quarantine for two weeks, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Tuesday. The three states are the first to be removed from Chicago’s quarantine order.

City officials will “temporarily restrict” access to downtown Chicago beginning at 8 p.m. Monday and ending at 6 a.m. Tuesday, officials said. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has not issued an official city curfew order.

Decrying “blame games” in the wake of widespread destruction, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx says her office would prosecute people accused of looting — but not those arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights. 

Amid a continuing outcry over the decision to allow Chicago police officers to patrol schools, Chicago Public Schools officials announced Monday they would slash spending on the program at the center of the debate over defunding the police department by more than half.

Caravans of cars headed to the Loop and North Side to loot stores after a police officer shot and wounded a 20-year-old man in Englewood, causing widespread destruction and mayhem, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday.

Superstar Kanye West fell short of qualifying for the Illinois ballot as an independent presidential candidate by 1,300 signatures, according to the official review on Friday of the nominating petitions submitted by the Illinois native.

With the state’s ban on evictions set to expire in two weeks, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced a $20 million rental assistance fund to help residents of suburban Cook County impacted by the pandemic.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has tested negative for the coronavirus after appearing at a Wednesday news conference alongside Ald. Michael Scott Jr., who announced about 24 hours later that he had been diagnosed with the virus.

“This is a make or break moment for the state of Illinois, for making sure people are doing everything they can to mitigate, to reduce the spread,” the governor said. “This is a moment for us to enforce the masking requirement across the state.”

Chicago officials have begun using the state’s method to calculate the single most important benchmark for tracking the spread of the coronavirus — positivity rates — as confirmed cases of the virus continue to rise statewide.

Chicago Public Schools will start the school year on Sept. 8 the same way they ended the last academic year — with all students taking classes remotely, officials announced Wednesday.

A plan to transform a long-vacant lot in Jefferson Park into an apartment complex has reignited the furious debate surrounding Chicago’s massive affordable housing shortfall.

Visitors to Chicago from Puerto Rico will be required to quarantine for two weeks starting Friday in an effort to stop the increasing spread of the coronavirus in Chicago, city officials announced Tuesday.

The Illinois State Board of Elections is scheduled to finalize the Nov. 3 ballot on Aug. 21. Will superstar Kanye West be on the ballot in his home state as an independent candidate for president?

Inspectors shut down an illegal party at a Humboldt Park warehouse where revelers were not wearing masks or following social distancing rules, city officials said Monday.

Chicago bars ordered to stop serving customers indoors as part of a rollback ordered by Mayor Lori Lightfoot following an increase in the number of coronavirus cases can apply to open a sidewalk cafe, city officials announced Friday.