Stories by Matt Masterson

Former “Empire” star Jussie Smollett will stand trial on felony disorderly conduct charges beginning Nov. 29, nearly three years after he allegedly orchestrated a hoax attack against himself outside his Streeterville apartment.

Attorney General Merrick Garland directed authorities to hold strategy sessions with law enforcement to address the increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other employees in the nation’s public schools.

Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms are back online after a massive global outage plunged the services and the businesses and people who rely on them into chaos for hours Monday.

With her bravura one-woman performance in “Songs for Nobodies,” Bethany Thomas has clearly found the kind of star turn that can change a career, and a life, while unquestionably generating immense happiness, awe and bravos among her audiences.

Chicago White Sox fans are brimming with excitement as the team heads into the playoffs, cheering on their team at a Monday rally. 

Jacqueline Stewart is a film scholar, archivist and curator who has been honored by the MacArthur Foundation for “ensuring that the contributions of overlooked Black filmmakers and communities of spectators have a place in the public imagination.” 

For more than two decades, the indoor garden has been a cherished escape from bustling city life. But the beloved tropical garden, which has always been free to the public, is set to be replaced with a new paid digital experience.

The future of abortion rights is in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court that is beginning a new term Monday that also includes major cases on gun rights and religion.

“This year we’re on the precipice of something fairly special,” said Chicago White Sox General Manager Rick Hahn, who was the chief architect of the team’s five-yearlong rebuild that saw dozens of strategic trades, draft choices and free agent signings. 

The violent shootout and the lack of felony charges appeared to exacerbate the increasing pressure on Mayor Lightfoot and members of the Chicago City Council to reduce violent crime which has soared to levels last seen in the 1990s.

The president's criticism comes as Congress faces an Oct 18 deadline to allow for more borrowing to keep the government operating after having accrued a total public debt of $28.4 trillion.

The new system for tracking gang members in Chicago was supposed to be up and running last month, but it remains stalled.

Nearly 70,000 Illinoisans said they’re “very likely” to leave their home due to eviction within the next two months, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey.

The Biden administration on Monday reversed a ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics, lifting a Trump-era restriction as political and legal battles over abortion grow sharper from Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves, founded in 2020 to rally support for the state’s protected natural areas, is now launching a major recruitment effort to grow its ranks and muster a corps of volunteers to steward the sites in a race against invasive species and climate change.

The University of Illinois posts its largest-ever endowment return. Crain’s Chicago Business editor Ann Dwyer has details on that story and more.

What’s next for renters and landlords as the eviction moratorium comes to an end. The Supreme Court begins its next term. Talking with a local “genius.” And the White Sox are heading to the playoffs.

The shooting happened Monday morning in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood, according to Chicago Police Department Deputy Chief of Detectives Rahman Muhammad. 

The victims included a 17-year-old boy, who was killed inside a South Side home Saturday evening, according to Chicago police.

A data scientist who was revealed Sunday as the Facebook whistleblower says that whenever there was a conflict between the public good and what benefited the company, the social media giant would choose its own interests.

In a single three-month summer period in Chicago, 1,606 people were shot. That’s the population equivalent to many American small towns. They are numbers — and more significantly, lives — that have become part of a grimly familiar dynamic in the city.

The biggest lottery prize in months grew larger after no ticket matched all five numbers and the Powerball drawn on Saturday night. The estimated jackpot for the next drawing on Monday is $670 million.

The first Women’s March of the Biden administration headed straight for the steps of the Supreme Court on Saturday, part of nationwide protests that drew thousands to Washington to demand continued access to abortion.

For women in the U.S., breast cancer is devastatingly common, with one in eight expected to develop the disease over the course of their lifetimes. And for Black women in the U.S., what comes after the diagnosis is especially worrying.

Mike Moreno Jr. is the third generation to set up shop in the Little Village community. His grandfather, Jose, owned two grocery stores in the neighborhood, and his father, Mike Sr., opened the first Moreno’s Liquors in 1977.

Worker walkouts amid calls for improved conditions continue at the El Milagro tortilla plant in Little Village. We get an update on the situation from Jorge Mújica, a strategic organizer for the community labor advocate organization Arise Chicago.