Stories by Associated Press

With experts saying the coronavirus is likely spreading in India’s northeastern state of Assam faster than anywhere else in the country, authorities were preparing Monday for a surge in infections by converting a massive stadium and a university into hospitals.

A Cook County judge has scheduled a hearing this summer to determine if an attorney that actor Jussie Smollett has hired will be allowed to represent him following allegations of a possible conflict of interest involving that attorney and the two brothers Smollett allegedly hired to carry out a hoax attack.

The federal government will protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care, the Biden administration declared Monday, reversing a Trump-era policy that narrowed rights at the intersection of changing social mores and sensitive medical decisions. 

Jim Mabie, a noted Chicago businessman, philanthropist and civic leader who served as a WTTW and WFMT trustee for more than 20 years, died Saturday surrounded by his family.

The Transportation Security Administration said that slightly more than 1.7 million people were screened at airport checkpoints on Sunday, the highest number since March 2020, when travel was collapsing because of the coronavirus outbreak.

COVID-19 vaccines are on their way to downtown office buildings. What to do about vaccine allergies. The debate over a mega-development near Soldier Field. Newton Minow on TV as a “vast wasteland.”

Chicagoans notched a whopping 12,000 observations of plants, animals and fungi in the 2021 City Nature Challenge, coming in well ahead of Moscow, Prague, London and Tokyo.

Vaccination clinics will open in office buildings in downtown Chicago and across the state as officials continue to get as many people vaccinated against COVID-19 as quickly as possible. The vaccines will allow the city to put “the pandemic in the rearview mirror,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday.

The project’s many delays – some due to unexpected maintenance, some to funding availability – became a source of both frustration and humor for trail users and observers, who joked about the flyover taking longer than engineering marvels like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sears Tower. 

Eager to the turn the page on the Trump years, the Biden White House is launching an effort to unearth past problems with the politicization of science within government and to tighten scientific integrity rules for the future.

Critics of the Chicago Police Department’s use of ShotSpotter technology question its value. The head of Chicago Public Schools announces her departure. A trip to the Hampton House. And fabulous fabrics.

A new study by Northwestern University’s MacArthur Justice Center found that 86% of ShotSpotter alerts resulted in no report of any crime, leading to questions of the gunfire detection system’s value in violence reduction.

It’s a story many Chicagoans know, but since the Oscar-nominated film “Judas and the Black Messiah” was released, more people are learning about the life and death of Fred Hampton. We talk with his widow and his son. 

This world premiere, feverishly choreographed by Nicolas Blanc and performed by 15 of the company’s emotionally fiery dancers, is a work of such beauty and dynamic intensity that it can and should easily endure as part of the standard ballet rep for years to come.

The cyberextortion attempt that has forced the shutdown of a vital U.S. pipeline was carried out by a criminal gang known as DarkSide that cultivates a Robin Hood image of stealing from corporations and giving a cut to charity, a person close to the investigation said Sunday.

Joyous reunions among vaccinated parents and children across the country marked this year’s Mother’s Day, the second one celebrated during the coronavirus pandemic.

Helmut Jahn, a prominent German architect who designed an Illinois state government building and worked on the design of the FBI headquarters in Washington, was killed when two vehicles struck the bicycle he was riding outside Chicago.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on everyone, but one group in particular has had an especially heavy lift: mothers, who have taken on the majority of caregiving responsibilities over the last year.

Four families separated under former President Donald Trump’s immigration policy were this week the first to be reunited by organizations working with the Biden administration’s Family Reunification Task Force.

U.S. census figures are out — do Illinois Latinos warrant more representation in Congress? Reuniting migrant parents and children at the border. Plus, the gifts of motherhood.

With a Democratic governor and supermajorities in the state Senate and House, Democrats are in the driver’s seat to redraw the state’s political boundaries. Do Illinois Latinos now warrant more representation in Congress than they currently have?

Singer-songwriter Lloyd Price, an early rock ’n roll star and enduring maverick whose hits included such up-tempo favorites as “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” “Personality” and the semi-forbidden “Stagger Lee,” has died. 

The Justice Department is sending a strong message about its priorities these days. In just over the past two weeks, it has opened investigations of police in Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis.

Even as restrictions relax across much of the United States, colleges and universities have taken new steps to police campus life as the virus spreads through students who are among the last adults to get access to vaccines.

Tawny Kitaen, the sultry red-haired actress who appeared in rock music videos during the heyday of MTV and starred opposite Tom Hanks in the 1984 comedy “Bachelor Party,” has died. She was 59.

Illinois is on track to open fully in June. Cultural institutions prepare for their return. High-profile political corruption cases heat up in court. And bombshell resignations both at CPS and COPA.