Stories by Heather Cherone

The office designed to help aldermen keep tabs on how the city spends tax dollars is set to get a new leader after nearly a year without anyone at the helm.

Illinois has set a new record for the number of coronavirus-related deaths in a single 24-hour period: 192. To date, the 3,792 deaths in Illinois are linked to the virus and 84,698 people have tested positive for it, according to health officials.

In a 12-page ruling, the judge said the Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Albany Park and Logos Baptist Ministries in Niles “provided no evidence” that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order targeted religion.

The global economic shutdown has impacted industries across the board, but hospital supply chains have been hit especially hard — and months into the pandemic, it remains a day-to-day challenge.

After weeks of delay, Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation will begin its street sweeping season on May 18. But residents won’t get tickets for cars parked along cleaning routes as long as the stay-at-home order remains in effect.

The lakefront will not reopen during the third phase of the plan to reopen Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday during a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago. 

Watch the May 13, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle backed an effort Wednesday to give property owners a bit of financial “breathing room” by waiving late fees on second-half property tax bills due Aug. 3.

Members of the Illinois General Assembly will meet May 20 for the first time since the coronavirus hit “to conduct the critical work of state government in this unprecedented pandemic.”

Advice from the top U.S. disease control experts on how to safely reopen businesses and institutions during the coronavirus pandemic was more detailed and restrictive than the plan released by the White House last month.

The COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown has hit hard in Chicago communities that have historically suffered from disinvestment and crime, including the Far South Side communities of Roseland and Pullman.

The U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert issued a blunt warning Tuesday that cities and states could “turn back the clock” if they lift coronavirus stay-at-home orders too fast. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin weighs in.

Over the past year, the 9th Ward alderman has emerged as a staunch critic of Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Now, he says Lightfoot has downplayed the negative impact the pandemic is having on the city’s budget.

Big wedding blowouts aren’t happening, but people are still getting hitched. How some couples are making it happen during the pandemic.

He’s a familiar face, thanks to his PBS program “Mexico: One Plate at a Time.” And his food is familiar too, thanks to his multiple restaurants. Chef Rick Bayless talks about what the industry needs to stomach the pandemic.

Chicago’s Roseland Community Hospital has been on the front lines of the pandemic. But it wasn’t included in Illinois’ recent distribution of remdesivir, a move that’s angered hospital officials.

Watch the May 12, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

An effort to protect 3,200 affordable homes in Chicago from the worst of the economic crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic advanced Tuesday, with aldermen endorsing a plan to create a $3 million fund.

In a 24-hour period from Monday to Tuesday, the state conducted nearly 30,000 coronavirus tests and confirmed another 4,014 cases of COVID-19. “The more you test, the more positive cases you find,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.

The Cook County sheriff is challenging a federal court order that outlines how his office must combat COVID-19 at the Cook County Jail, and called ongoing efforts by activists to get more detainees out of the jail a “waste of resources.”

A 71-year-old man is being held on $1 million bond after he was charged with the criminal sexual assault of his teenage stepdaughter in a home they shared with the girl’s mother, who was working in a COVID-19 clinic.

In the latest sign that the coronavirus pandemic will reshape summer in Chicago, city officials informed aldermen Tuesday that no permits will be issued for block parties through May 31 — banning the popular parties on Memorial Day weekend.

Illinois is seeking to create an “army” of contact tracers, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said earlier this month. A suburban college is hoping to meet that demand.

The impact of the coronavirus is being felt in nearly every aspect of daily life, but it’s not the only health crisis people are facing. “Addiction can kill you as well,” said Aaron Weiner, a local addiction services director.

The Illinois EPA will hold a virtual hearing Thursday to determine whether it should issue a permit allowing General Iron to operate on the city's Southeast Side. 

In the COVID-19 era, the process of cleaning and disinfecting shared spaces is more crucial than ever. A local cleaning company gives us a demonstration of the tools in its arsenal for killing the virus.