Stories by Heather Cherone

The first payments began to flow nearly nine months after the Chicago City Council approved the program’s funding as part of its 2022 budget.

Two more people were killed in separate shootings early Monday morning and another man was wounded in a shootout inside a South Loop parking garage.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office will host three “budget engagement forums” on July 21, July 23 and July 30 to give Chicago residents a chance to “share their priorities regarding city services” and “have a dialogue” with the mayor, budget director and other city officials.

Healing in the aftermath of the Highland Park mass shooting. Plus, the demand local food pantries are seeing. The push for transit-accessible housing. And a psychedelic soul band. 

The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline plunged 19 cents over the past two weeks to $4.86 per gallon.

The 2-block by 3-block area consists largely of small shops and restaurants. It had been blocked off with crime scene tape, barricades and uniformed officers since Monday as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies processed evidence.

A new revelation in the decades-old lynching of Emmett Till, what advocates are calling for. Plus, the nation's first Black attorney general joins us. And the Last Word on Africa and innovation.

Highlighting African innovation is the goal of the Field Museum’s new assistant curator of African anthropology, Foreman Bandama. 

In the basement of a Mississippi courthouse in late June members of the Minnesota-based Emmett Till Legacy Foundation discovered an unserved warrant. Now the foundation, which includes members of Till’s family, is demanding that the warrant be served.

A new ballet production made its debut at the Navy Pier Lake Stage. “Rita Finds Home” is a family-friendly production resulting from a collaboration between the Joffrey and Miami City Ballet telling the story of a young artist who is swept from her tropical island home by a hurricane and must make a new life for herself.

Eduardo Uvaldo, who would have turned 70 on Friday, was a native of Mexico who first moved to the United States when he was 15. In an obituary, he was remembered for his love of his large family — he was survived by his wife, Maria, four daughters, four siblings, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The Sones de Mexico Ensemble wants your children to learn all about the richness of Mexico’s musical traditions.Through a partnership, the Grammy-nominated musicians are offering an immersive music and cultural experience for children in their week-long Fiesta Mexicana camp next month.

As anyone who’s gone grocery shopping recently knows, food prices are on the rise. In Chicago, 28% of Latino families with kids are facing food insecurity according to a study done in 2020. And, families that rely on schools to provide meals for their children are feeling an extra pinch with kids at home during the summer break.

Local band Late Nite Laundry’s uniquely intimate sound combines dreamy vocals with elements of pop and Latin jazz. At a recording session in Belmont Cragin’s Bim Bom Studios, the foursome explained how for them, delivering that intimate feeling to a live audience starts with taking one deep breath.

The fourth of July shooting shook the north shore and beyond, including the area’s Spanish-speaking community. Two of the seven victims who died were Latino. Neighboring Highwood has a large Latino population and held a vigil earlier this week to remember those who were lost, and those who begin the healing process.

In Chicago, many of the areas with the most public transportation options are also the most expensive to live in. The proposed Connected Communities Ordinance introduced to City Council aims to make public transit options more accessible to all. 

Processing, mourning, and pushing for change as suburban Highland Park reels from a Fourth of July mass shooting. Plus, what’s next for gun control this election year?

Time to head to the polls once again, Chicagoans. Online voting is now open through Tuesday in the annual Bungalow Garden Contest.

Mourners on Friday remembered 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim as a woman who worked tirelessly at her synagogue, and 88-year-old Stephen Straus as a gentle man who loved art in the first formal services to be held for the seven people killed by the gunman who opened fire on a July Fourth parade.

The Museum Campus working group released its report Thursday and among the big wins for nature is a vision that includes establishing a Great Lakes Climate Lab on the city’s shoreline, positioning Chicago as a global leader in developing resilient solutions for urban areas. 

A combination of admiration, disillusionment, guilt and pain drives “Life After,” the musical with a book, music and lyrics by the young Canadian-bred Britta Johnson. The 90-minute show is now running at the Goodman Theatre.

Sports-loving Cooper Roberts and his 8-year-old twin brother, Luke, loved the Fourth of July parade. But now the family is envisioning a “new normal” for Cooper who was struck in the chest in a hail of gunfire that left dozens of others wounded and seven dead when a gunman opened fire on the parade in Highland Park.

As vigils to remember the victims of the Highland Park mass shooting take place, organizers call for changes in gun laws. Former Attorney General Eric Holder on the Jan. 6 hearings. And how to avoid monkeypox.

Just under a month ago, the Highland Park chapter of March for our Lives organized an anti-gun violence rally at Sunset Woods Park – the same location of a Thursday candlelight vigil – following mass shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Tulsa among others. Attendees then marched through Highland Park, including right through the site of this past weekend’s shooting.

A University of Chicago initiative aims to modernize and strengthen the nation’s 911 system – and they’ve just published a blueprint for how to do it.

The administration said it was expanding the pool of people who are advised to get vaccinated to include those who may realize on their own that they could have been infected. That includes men who who have recently had sex with men at parties or in other gatherings in cities where monkeypox cases have been identified.