Stories by Heather Cherone

Chicago will not create a commission to study whether — and how — the city should pay reparations to Chicagoans who are the descendants of enslaved African Americans after Mayor Lori Lightfoot objected to the long-in-the-works effort.

The Chicago City Council violated the Open Meetings Act by holding an online conference call with Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the wake of unrest that swept the city following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday that the Illinois State Fair, scheduled for August, will be canceled in 2020 due to risks posed by the coronavirus.

“It is time, actually, it is way past time, for this change in our state,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday, adding that she'd already directed her legal team to begin drafting legislation to be presented in Springfield.

Nine days after Chicago began reopening — and after days of massive protests against police brutality and unrest — the rate of confirmed cases of the coronavirus is still dropping, city health officials said Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the guidelines Friday, along with a second set for organizing and attending big gatherings such as concerts, sporting events, protests and political rallies.

In its semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress, the central bank said Friday that the COVID-19 outbreak was causing “tremendous human and economic hardship across the United States and around the world.”

Jonathan Ballew, a credentialed journalist who has worked with multiple local media outlets, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming he was “assaulted with a chemical agent” during the May 30 protests in River North.

As part of our ongoing series, we speak with local officials and activists about Evanston’s reopening and recent calls for police reform in the near north suburb.

Enrich Chicago has been working to support arts and culture groups dedicated to building diversity, equity and inclusion since 2014. We speak with the organization’s director and others about their work locally.

As those of us who are accustomed to sniffling, coughing and sneezing our way through spring and summer already know, it’s allergy season. But during a pandemic, those coughs could signal something more than a high pollen count.

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have created the most detailed simulation that exists to model the spread of COVID-19 in Chicago — and what it shows is sobering.

A plan to fast-track applications from restaurants and cafes to serve customers outdoors cleared a key city panel Thursday, as city officials vowed to do everything possible to help restaurants stay afloat amid the pandemic.

Angela Tovar, a Chicago native who grew up in the South Chicago community, has been named the city’s chief sustainability officer.

The celebrated nonprofit Misericordia is looking to expand its campus by demolishing a historic building next door. Preservationists have a plan to save that building, but the timeline is tight.

Left out of phase three reopening with no plan for how to move forward, bar owners have had the rug pulled out from under them a second time, they say.

More than a dozen officers lounged, slept and snacked in the burglarized South Side office of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in the early hours of June 1 as unrest swept the city, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday.

The Cook County Department of Public Health will scale up its COVID-19 contact tracing program within the next six months, thanks to a $41 million grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health. 

After six weeks on a ventilator and life-support machine, a 20-year-old woman whose lungs were damaged by COVID-19 received what is believed to be among the first double lung transplants performed on a survivor of the virus.

Oprah. Cubs. White Sox. Blackhawks. “Hamilton.” These are a few of the teams and celebrities who will help send off the class of 2020 during Chicago’s citywide virtual graduation this weekend.

Chicago drag queen Milani Ninja is performing at the National Museum of Mexican Art for its 17th annual Queer Prom, but unlike the five other times she’s performed at the event, this year’s show is pre-recorded for a virtual prom on Friday.

For much of its seven-year existence, the Black Lives Matter movement has been seen by many Americans as a divisive, even radical force. Times have changed.

Young adults have filled streets across the country on a scale not seen since the 1960s to protest for racial justice after the death of George Floyd. But whether that energy translates to increased turnout in November is another question.

Watch the June 11, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

The daughter of Indonesian immigrants, Chasity Kasir said the traits of hard work and respect were instilled in her from a young age. This weekend, she’ll graduate from Richard T. Crane Medical Preparatory High School at the top of her class.

Amid a pandemic that has been linked to the deaths of more than 2,000 people in Chicago, the city is cautiously reopening. But some communities are facing another hurdle: rebuilding.