Stories by Brandis Friedman

The pandemic has upended how we work and how our children attend school. For one school network, Cristo Rey schools, the students attend school and work. Here’s a look at their model — and how it’s changing.

The gleaming skyline that makes Chicago an architectural wonder is primarily made up of office towers. But those glassy marvels have been largely empty since March. A look at the prospects for downtown commercial real estate.

Chicago’s cultural institutions are beginning to reopen after shutting their doors in mid-March as the coronavirus spread. What you can expect on your next trip.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot says President Donald Trump’s plan to send 150 federal agents to Chicago would do much more harm than good, warning the president in a letter Monday that agents would “foment a wave massive wave of opposition.”

Chicago voters will get a chance to weigh in on three issues of citywide concern during the Nov. 3 election — but they will not get a chance to have their say on the hot-button issues of police accountability or the sale of e-cigarettes.

Aldermen agreed on Monday to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed the city’s impound program was unconstitutional, and made it impossible for Chicagoans to get their cars back after they were towed away.

Through the use of aggressive strategies and widespread testing, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office was able to successfully mitigate the spread of COVID-19 inside the Cook County Jail, according to a new study.

Aldermen on Monday advanced an agreement to settle a lawsuit that sought to force the Chicago Police Department to turn over nearly five decades’ worth of secret files detailing allegations of misconduct by officers.

A talented band of Chicago teens recorded a new album during the pandemic. We met members of Mariachi Herencia de Mexico on a sunny day in Pilsen where they shared their musical heritage.

The war of words between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and President Donald Trump escalated Monday, with the mayor rejecting any suggestion that federal troops should be dispatched as they were in Portland, Oregon, and Trump all but promising to send them.

As Chicago reimposes restrictions to stop a recent uptick in coronavirus cases, Gov. J.B. Pritzker implored residents to wear face coverings to “protect the gains we’ve made” against the virus.

Chicago bars will no longer be able to serve customers indoors starting Friday as part of a rollback ordered by Mayor Lori Lightfoot following an increase in the number of coronavirus cases.

Watch the July 20, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Police Superintendent David Brown said officers faced organized mob action “designed to provoke violent responses” during a protest that started peacefully but turned violent, leaving several officers and protesters injured.

Organizers of a national workers strike say tens of thousands are set to walk off the job Monday in more than two dozen U.S. cities to protest systemic racism and economic inequality that has only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of protesters gathered near Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Logan Square home late Saturday, continuing calls to defund the police, end police presence in Chicago Public Schools and implement remote learning in the fall amid the pandemic.

Married musicians and educators Yakini Ajanaku and Jean-Paul Coffy kicked off the daily concert series in March as a way to help their block stay connected through the long days of quarantine due to COVID-19. 

President Donald Trump is refusing to publicly commit to accepting the results of the upcoming White House election, recalling a similar threat he made weeks before the 2016 vote.

Responding to calls for Trader Joe’s to stop labeling its international food products with ethnic-sounding names, the grocery store chain said it has been in a yearslong process of repackaging those products.

Collective bargaining agreements for officers provide protections that stand in the way of accountability, even when the federal government is overseeing an agency through a consent decree, experts said. 

The family of Issac Martinez and members of Chicago’s cycling community announced plans to gather Saturday to remember the 13-year-old killed last month and to push for safer conditions for cyclists.

Saturday marks the state’s fourth consecutive day in which more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed. After falling below 1,000 new cases per day from June 6 to July 8, this month has so far seen seven days above 1,000.

Activists and elected officials condemned violence by Chicago police and again called on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to remove a Christopher Columbus statue that became the site of a clash between demonstrators and officers Friday evening.

The city is directing residents without air conditioning to its cooling centers and park district splash pads and renewing calls for people to check in on elderly and vulnerable family members, friends and neighbors.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Friday she is receiving chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer, but has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court.

John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, has died. He was 80.