Stories by Erica Demarest

“He was always there for us, always the best listener, always the best cheerleader, always setting the best example,” Nell Minow said. “He was a great, great, great father.”

Newton Minow left a permanent stamp on the broadcasting industry through government steps to foster satellite communications, the passage of a law mandating UHF reception on TV sets and his outspoken advocacy for quality in television.

The U.S. public health emergency ends May 11. For the first time in three years, the CDC will stop posting a national count of COVID-19 cases, among other changes.

Chicago’s new process for picking a police superintendent is underway. Providing hope to new moms. And how an artist with thousands of red tulips is addressing systemic racism.

South Shore residents sound off on a city plan to shelter migrants. How the Kennedy construction is impacting unhoused people. And a mariachi Mother’s Day performance. 

Project Hope supports young mothers through their pregnancies and beyond. Doulas give prenatal support, and care countinues with parenting classes, intervention screenings and peer groups.

With a pandemic-related dip in business, Furry Paws Dog Day Care owner Carolina Ayala began looking for small business support options.

More than 8,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since last summer when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott first started sending migrants to the city. However, citywide efforts are reaching a tipping point with limited resources and shelters at capacity.

Trumpets sounded inside the medieval abbey at a service attended by more than 2,000 guests, including world leaders, aristocrats and celebrities. Outside, thousands of troops, tens of thousands of spectators and a smattering of protesters converged.

The Kennedy Expressway construction project that kicked off earlier this year had an unexpected effect on some of the 35th Ward’s unhoused residents: the scope of the work endangered those living in viaducts under the expressway.

All eyes on Michael Madigan as jury convicts the “ComEd Four.” Brandon Johnson names an interim police superintendent. South Shore residents tussle over migrant shelter. And Matt Mervis makes his debut for the Cubs.

Latin Grammy Award-nominated Mariachi Herencia de Mexico will be performing a Mother’s Day concert at Thalia Hall on May 14.

The Mercury Theater production of this show, with its tragi-comic book by William Hauptman drawn straight from the Mark Twain classic and a wonderfully varied score by country music master Roger Miller, is ideally realized on every front.

Millions of birds will pass over the Chicago region this weekend as migration kicks into high gear. Want to be a good host? Turn off your lights.

Artist Amanda Williams and a small army of friends and neighbors participated in an act of faith and reclamation in Washington Park. In the footprint of nearly two dozen lost buildings, they planted 100,000 red tulip bulbs.

The search is underway for Chicago’s next police superintendent. The city’s Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability is in charge of recommending three candidates to Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson by July 14.

Sam Bell, 44, was struck and killed by a driver while biking along Milwaukee Avenue in River West last September. He was remembered as a dedicated mentor and organizer for the Midtown Educational Foundation, which works with low-income, underserved students in Chicago. 

Summer doesn’t officially begin until June, but the Chicago Police Department and Office of Emergency Management and Communications on Friday announced they’re activating what they call the “nucleus” for citywide deployment of safety personnel and resources: the Summer Operations Center.

The four former Commonwealth Edison executives and officials convicted on bribery and other charges this week in the so-called “ComEd Four” case will be sentenced early next year.

The U.N. health agency’s officials said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn’t ended, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

The unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, matching a 54-year low, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate fell in part, though, because 43,000 people left the labor force, the first drop since November, and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The two unidentified plovers — one male, one female — that had joined Imani at Montrose have flown the coop, temporarily dashing the hopes of plover monitors for a love match and successful nesting season in Chicago.

Dozens of residents from the area and neighboring communities attended the capacity event. According to the city, the plan is to use the first floor of the former high school, giving 500 asylum seekers a space to stay temporarily as local efforts continue to find shelter for them.

What South Shore residents think about a plan to move migrants to a local high school. One on one with newly elected U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson. And the challenges facing the city’s Edgewater community.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, who succeeded longtime U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in Illinois’ 1st Congressional District, said the debt ceiling debate has already gone on too long and threatens the standing of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

Construction often means disruption. That’s certainly been true in Edgewater and Uptown as the CTA’s been working to rebuild century-old tracks and stations. And with that project kicking off just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the challenges have been felt even more acutely.