Stories by Heather Cherone

Ald. Carrie Austin’s resignation as chair of the City Council’s Committee on Contracting and Oversight Equity comes nine days after WTTW News reported that the committee spent more in 2020 than nearly all other City Council committees while meeting only three times.

The parent company of a now-shuttered metal recycler on the North Side will pay a fine as part of an agreement to resolve charges that the firm’s operation violated the Clean Air Act, Environmental Protection Agency officials announced Wednesday.

Grammy-winning rock band Wilco hit the road this month for the first time since the pandemic shutdown. We caught up with Tweedy from the Wilco tour bus before the sound check for Tuesday’s show in Boston, and ahead of the band’s return to Chicago for a show at Millennium Park on Saturday. 

The Chicago Police Department’s crime-fighting technology is called into question. Controversy over a new sex education law. And we talk with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy.

Many people had big plans for summer: travel, concerts, gatherings with family and friends. But now, the more transmissible delta variant of COVID-19 is delaying, once again, a full reopening in Chicago and beyond. How to move past the feeling of being stuck.

Fewer than 1 in 10 ShotSpotter alerts between 2020 and 2021 resulted in evidence of a gun-related criminal offense being found, according to a new report from Chicago’s independent watchdog.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed into law a pair of bills that update sex education for K-12 schools in Illinois. Supporters say the move will offer students age-appropriate information, but critics say the new standards go too far.

Jerry Harkness was inspired by Jackie Robinson to take up the game of basketball. He ended up becoming a civil rights trailblazer in his own right.

As Chicago inches toward the replacement of its lead service lines, officials need help identifying where those pipes are. Here’s a simple way to determine whether you’ve got lead, steel or copper lines running into your home.

Striking a deal with moderates, House Democratic leaders muscled President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint over a key hurdle Tuesday, ending a risky standoff and putting the party’s domestic infrastructure agenda back on track.

As the COVID-19 surge continues across the state and more people are hospitalized by the virus, Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned new mitigations could be on the horizon.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Tuesday that he’s feeling “fairly well” and receiving great care at a Chicago hospital after a breakthrough COVID-19 infection.

A small group of Boeing engineers who perform key safety tasks are raising concerns about their ability to work free of pressure from supervisors, and their comments are prompting federal regulators to take a broader look into the company’s safety culture.

Federal health officials are investigating multistate salmonella outbreaks linked to Italian-style meats, including salami and prosciutto, that have sickened 36 people across the country, including four in Illinois.

Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections and used his “day job” to support his enduring love of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.

Chicago officials added four states to the city’s COVID-19 travel advisory on Tuesday as the number of cases continues to spike with the spread of the delta variant of the virus.

A controlling R. Kelly barred his live-in girlfriends from watching a documentary series that portrayed him as a sexual predator and kept watch over them during an interview with Gayle King, one of the women testified Tuesday at the R&B singer’s sex-trafficking trial. 

The director of the CIA met with the Taliban’s top political leader in Kabul, an official said Tuesday, as more reports emerged of abuses in areas held by the fighters, fueling concerns about Afghanistan’s future and the fate of those racing to leave the country.

In 2019, Tamara Clayton was driving to work along I-57 when she was shot and killed. Years later, a law passed in her honor that allows cameras to go up along certain Illinois expressways is taking effect — as expressway shootings are skyrocketing.

A firefight outside Kabul’s international airport killed an Afghan soldier early Monday, highlighting the perils of evacuation efforts as the Taliban warned that any attempt by U.S. troops to delay their withdrawal to give people more time to flee would “provoke a reaction.”

To open or not to open: That's been the question for Chicago’s performing arts community over the last year and a half. Now, the League of Chicago Theatres has announced new COVID-19 restrictions and safety measures as productions are set to fill up stages once again.

President Joe Biden says people who have been waiting for the FDA to formally approve a COVID-19 vaccine should get their shot now to stem what he calls a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Dr. Michael Angarone of Northwestern Medicine weighs in on that and more.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday declined to demand that indicted Ald. Carrie Austin (34th Ward) step down as chair of the City Council’s Contracting Oversight and Equity Committee or resign from the City Council. The committee is poised to convene a subject-matter hearing at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

City workers will “absolutely” have to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday, promising a formal announcement in “days.”

Portions of Albany Park, Lincoln Square, Irving Park and North Center are slated for mosquito spraying Wednesday to protect residents against West Nile virus, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. 

Chicago home sales continue to rise, but there’s a twist in that fire-hot streak. Crain’s Chicago Business editor Ann Dwyer takes us behind the headline of that story and more.