Stories by Nick Blumberg

The neighborhood has changed from an industrial hub to an area bustling with bars and restaurants. And more changes are on the way, with huge new developments under consideration, including a Guinness brewery.

A rift between Chicago Bears leadership and the owner of Soldier Field— the Chicago Park District — may be brewing, as speculation swarms over whether the team is planning to relocate. 

We’re live in the West Loop. The future of Soldier Field. A preview of the Bears vs. Browns matchup. The fight over citizenship for immigrants. And to the symphony with Hedy Weiss.

Thousands of immigrant-rights advocates, including some with Illinois organizations, marched in Washington on Thursday to demand congressional leaders create a legal pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. 

A prosecutor in closing arguments at the sex-trafficking trial of R. Kelly urged jurors on Thursday to make the R&B superstar “pay” for his alleged crimes, while a defense lawyer told them they’ve been misled by opportunistic accusers about consensual relationships.

Justin Fields will get his first NFL start against the Browns in Cleveland on Sunday. Can the rookie quarterback and hope for the future of the franchise live up to the hype and high expectations to deliver a win?

Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced he has extended his contract as music director by one year through the 2022-23 season. The 80-year-old Italian became music director of the CSO in 2010, succeeding Daniel Barenboim.

It is the largest single-day volunteer effort in support of environmental stewardship. Here’s how to get involved in National Public Lands Day at Chicago area parks and preserves.

In what officials call a key step to combat climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency is sharply limiting domestic production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

The mayor’s latest push for vaccinations invokes the city’s 77 community areas to encourage Chicagoans from all neighborhoods to get vaccinated — and to enlist those who have already been jabbed with the lifesaving vaccine to help others follow their lead.

Timothy Wynn, 18, was ordered held without bail during a court hearing Thursday, following his arrest on felony charges of home invasion and first-degree murder in the shooting death of 36-year-old Ben Sims.

A new $40 million workforce recovery grant program seeks to help job seekers get back to work, while another $4.4 million program aims to increase access to career training programs for at-risk youth, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Thursday.

Capybaras, native to Central and South America, are the largest members of the rodent family, tipping the scales at 130 pounds. Three of them have just arrived at the Brookfield Zoo.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was discharged from a rehabilitation facility Wednesday following an earlier diagnosis of COVID-19.

The U.S. moved a step closer Wednesday to offering booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to senior citizens and others at high risk from the virus as the Food and Drug Administration signed off on the targeted use of extra shots.

Some Chicago public schools will retain their resource officers, following a split vote by the Board of Education to approve a one-year, $11 million contract with the Chicago Police Department.

The two teams have met each other three times during the regular season, with the Wings taking two of those games. We get game-day predictions from the head coaches of women’s basketball at Loyola University and the University of Chicago.

With efforts well underway to craft new ward boundaries that could shape Chicago politics for the next decade, Chicagoans on Wednesday got a brief glimpse of the heated debate taking shape behind closed doors at City Hall.

It was just before opening night that “American Mariachi” had to close its doors. Now, nearly 18 months later, the cast has returned to the stage. We go behind the scenes of this new musical play set in 1970s Chicago.

An early surge in RSV, a common virus that usually appears in the winter, is driving an unnecessary increase in patients going to the emergency room, doctors say.

The 2022 spending plan relies on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funding to shore up Chicago’s budget gaps, increases police spending and invests in ward-by-ward community programs. Is it too reliant on federal COVID-19 funding?

We dig into the city budget with analysts. Our Spotlight Politics team on that and redrawing the city ward maps. Why pediatric hospital visits are up. And the Chicago Sky are headed to the playoffs.

R. Kelly got away with sexually abusing underage victims for more than two decades by ruling his inner circle enablers with an iron fist, a prosecutor told jurors on Wednesday at the R&B singer’s sex-trafficking trial.

Proposals to list the properties on the National Register of Historic Places cleared a key committee hearing Wednesday and will come before the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in October. 

The mayor said Wednesday she would not delay her order to require all city workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 15 — despite pushback from the unions representing Chicago’s 11,000 police officers.

The former San Antonio Independent School District superintendent now finds himself leading a district that is struggling to execute contact tracing and COVID-19 testing as students resume in-person learning.