Stories by Nick Blumberg

The family of Issac Martinez and members of Chicago’s cycling community announced plans to gather Saturday to remember the 13-year-old killed last month and to push for safer conditions for cyclists.

Saturday marks the state’s fourth consecutive day in which more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed. After falling below 1,000 new cases per day from June 6 to July 8, this month has so far seen seven days above 1,000.

Activists and elected officials condemned violence by Chicago police and again called on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to remove a Christopher Columbus statue that became the site of a clash between demonstrators and officers Friday evening.

The city is directing residents without air conditioning to its cooling centers and park district splash pads and renewing calls for people to check in on elderly and vulnerable family members, friends and neighbors.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Friday she is receiving chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer, but has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court.

John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, has died. He was 80.

A federal bombshell alleges a massive bribery scheme involving ComEd and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Has Madigan’s political reign come to an end? And Chicago Public Schools announces a hybrid reopening plan for the fall.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed Friday to hold Commonwealth Edison to “account” for its conduct after the state’s largest utility agreed to pay a $200 million fine to resolve federal corruption charges stemming from a “yearslong bribery scheme.” 

Western governments on Thursday accused hackers believed to be part of Russian intelligence of trying to steal valuable private information about a coronavirus vaccine, calling out the Kremlin in an unusually detailed public warning to scientists and medical companies.

Aldermen endorsed a measure Friday that would scale back the power of the Chicago Police Department to impound cars that may have been used to commit a crime, as city lawyers recommended officials settle a lawsuit claiming the program is unconstitutional.

Longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan denies having done anything criminal or improper despite being implicated Friday in court filings that charge utility Commonwealth Edison with bribery.

A northern Illinois woman who subjected her young son to years of physical and emotional abuse culminating in his beating death last year was on Friday sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The movement to rename Douglas Park after Frederick Douglass had hit a bureaucratic brick wall. Recent shifts in the political and social landscape encouraged activists to keep forging ahead with their campaign, which relaunches Saturday.

CPS released its long-awaited reopening framework on Friday. But these plans are just preliminary recommendations, and a final decision on in-person instruction will not be made until late August.

With Illinois’ ban on evictions set to expire in two weeks, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is considering extending the coronavirus-spurred prohibition as state officials work to set up a program to distribute more than $300 million in help to landlords and tenants.

The city of Chicago should pay $500,000 to settle a lawsuit that sought to force the Chicago Police Department to turn over nearly five decades’ worth of secret files detailing allegations of misconduct by officers, city lawyers recommended.

Much of the neighborhood sits in the 60639 ZIP code, which has seen the most COVID-19 cases in the entire state. How businesses are faring and reopening.

COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities, but the opioid crisis is also taking a “devastating toll” on Chicago-area residents this year, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said.

A new set of 75 dispensary licenses, judged in part on social equity factors, was to have been awarded by May 1, but has been indefinitely delayed due to the coronavirus.

As theme parks across the country begin reopening, how are Chicago attractions faring?

They’re rare now, but rooftop water tanks once stood sentinel atop every large building in the city, keeping them safe from threat of fire.

The government reported Thursday that retail sales rose a sharp 7.5% in June, but the positive trend was undercut by more recent data showing that credit card spending has stalled. 

The Chicago Cubs got the green light Thursday to play home games on weekend nights, the “extraordinary circumstances” imposed by the coronavirus pandemic breaking a decadeslong ban on games under lights on Fridays and Saturdays.

Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said Thursday the school district must begin the 2020-21 academic year with remote learning until there are firm guidelines and protocols in place to ensure kids and staff alike are protected from COVID-19.

The CTA’s ambitious Red and Purple Line modernization program will impact service for riders on the North Side for a four-week period starting Friday. And the agency’s plan to relocate a historic building takes a step forward.

After finding arsenic and lead in the soil at the Hegewisch Little League Field, the EPA tested a second a ball diamond in the neighborhood and found manganese. “We fight for every breath we take here,” said one resident.