Stories by Heather Cherone

The board reduced the fine it levied against Ald. Carrie Austin (34th Ward) by more than 96% after considering “after considering the equities of the situation," officials said.

President Joe Biden wants Congress to know he’s sincere about cutting a deal on infrastructure, but the White House is also highlighting needed repairs and upgrades state-by-state that cost far more than what Republicans are willing to spend.

The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates on Sunday evening voted to keep high school staffers out of schools beginning Wednesday as the union continues negotiating with CPS over how to safely reopen those schools.

Determined to close a loophole in a seven-year-old city law, aldermen advanced a measure Monday that would ban pet stores from selling dogs, cats and rabbits at a profit.

A Black football player at a northwest Illinois high school is seen on video sitting down in a locker littered with banana peels after a teammate threatens to break his knees if he doesn’t comply.

The push to get high school students back into classrooms. How colleges are handling student vaccinations. What you need to know about redistricting. The holy month of Ramadan begins.

The Illinois Department of Corrections will resume in-person visits at its facilities statewide over the next month, giving prisoners a chance to see their loved ones for the first time in more than a year.

The Chicago Tribune newspaper could become a nonprofit. Crain’s Chicago Business editor Ann Dwyer takes us behind the headline of that story and more.

The vaccines currently being rolled out across the U.S. offer strong protection against variants. But new studies of experimental updates to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines mark a critical first step toward an alternative if the virus eventually outsmarts today’s shots.

The expansion of vaccine eligibility to any Illinois adult regardless of their age, health or employment does not include the city of Chicago. However, Chicagoans can travel outside of the city to be vaccinated, officials said, though supplies are still limited.

About 40% of all abortions in the U.S. are now done through medication — rather than surgery — and that option has become all the more pivotal during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

When city leaders and developers discuss new plans for major real estate projects, some groups are often left out of the discussion. What’s being done to bring more Black and Latino developers into the industry. 

Urban historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas gives us the last word on how knowing the city’s past can change the energy of its future.

What’s being done to bring more Black and Latino developers into the real estate industry. Cook County’s new public defender. A call for more big brothers and sisters. Bringing energy to history. 

Derek Chauvin’s defense attorney appears to be making a series of moves aimed at undermining a dominant narrative of George Floyd’s death — established through bystander video — of a reckless, arrogant cop ignoring a man’s “I can’t breathe” cries as his life is snuffed out.

Calls to reform the police department’s foot pursuit policy. Community organizers lead the charge in getting Latinos vaccinated. A Pilsen mural highlights neighborhood residents. And La Última Palabra.

Why women should take their ideas and aspirations off the back burner.

The Little Village Community Council wants to meet with Mayor Lori Lightfoot about policing policy changes. They also want to meet with the police department about the shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo.

In neighborhoods like La Villita and Back of the Yards, outreach workers are taking a ground-up approach to registering residents for vaccinations by meeting them in grocery stores and taquerias, and through texts and social media.

Campaigns aimed at Black communities across the U.S. are making headway in the effort to persuade people that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. 

Despite the strongest public support and the most sympathetic president in years, the American labor movement just suffered a stinging defeat -- again.

The Supreme Court is telling California that it can’t enforce coronavirus-related restrictions that have limited home-based religious worship including Bible studies and prayer meetings.

Kayden Swann, a toddler shot in the head while riding in a car on Lake Shore Drive, has been removed from a medically induced coma but remains in critical condition, a doctor said Saturday.

Migrant families will be held at hotels in the Phoenix area in response to a growing number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said Friday, another step in the Biden administration's rush to set up temporary space for them.

President Joe Biden released a $1.5 trillion wish list for his first federal budget Friday, asking for substantial gains for Democratic priorities including education, health care, housing and environmental protection.

Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker’s testimony could be crucial, as Baker ruled Floyd’s death last May a homicide and identified the cause as “cardiopulmonary arrest” that occurred during “law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”