Stories by Heather Cherone

Former Ald. Danny Solis caused “generational” harm to Chicago and residents of the 25th Ward, his successor told the judge overseeing the criminal case facing the disgraced former alderperson.

Piping plovers are winging their way north and one has already been spotted at Rainbow Beach. Word is that Monty could be en route to Chicago.

Attorneys for the 57-year-old inmate had sought a stay, citing pending litigation in another court challenging the constitutionality of South Carolina’s execution methods, which also include the electric chair. 

Kim Foxx’s office on Friday will present 214 marijuana cases to be automatically expunged, bringing the total number of low-level convictions erased since Dec. 2019 up to 15,191.

The narrow margin of the committee’s vote sets up what could be a nailbiter at the City Council meeting set for April 27.

The DuPage Forest Preserve District board, which operates and funds the center, approved a plan for a new clinic that meets 21st century needs and standards and promises to be the district's first net-zero building. 

Art shows, doughnuts, circus acts and dance performances usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in Chicago this weekend.

Changes to state mask guidelines. Gov. Pritzker signs the state budget into law. Alderpeople on the ward remap process and the city’s casino plans. Starbucks workers unionize. And Winnie the Pooh.

It’s a classic story that has withstood the test of time, now, the Mercury Theater is bringing that story to its stage in a new musical adaptation.

In December, a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York became the first of the company’s thousands of U.S. locations to vote for unionization. Just weeks later, workers at Chicago’s Randolph and Wabash location moved to join the effort.

The CTA passes and gas cards with Mayor Lori Lightfoot's name would be sent to voters approximately 10 months before the next mayoral election.

Chicago has not always had the most cordial relationship with democracy over decades of machine-style politics. A new book from longtime Chicago political observer Dick Simpson aims to diagnose what’s wrong and offer prescriptions to fix it.

The $46 billion budget Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Tuesday includes $1.8 billion in largely temporary tax relief, including $50 rebate checks to adult taxpayers, a one-time increase for property owners worth up to $500, and lifting for a year a 1% sales tax on groceries, meaning that shoppers will save $1 on $100 worth of food.

WTTW News is partnering with 22 other newsrooms in the Chicago area to find out how our communities are living through the long-term effects of COVID through a survey and community conversations.

Brianna Gibbs, 28, has been charged with first-degree murder in the Sunday morning killing of 27-year-old Tyrone Pittman following a physical altercation in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

A certification and bidding process opened Tuesday for a civil nuclear credit program that is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors, the U.S. Department of Energy told The Associated Press exclusively, shortly before the official announcement. 

In the Chicago region, there are scores of ways for people to take part in the global movement not just April 22 but throughout Earth Week and beyond.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued the revised executive order hours after Chicago health and transportation officials told riders a state order required them to keep masking up.

A rule finalized Tuesday will restore key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law designed to ensure community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions, the White House said.

Cancer cells develop in nearly all prostates as men age, and most prostate cancers are harmless. About 34,000 Americans die from prostate cancer annually, but treating the disease can lead to sexual dysfunction and incontinence.

Down to the wire on a new city ward map, and some alderpeople are starting to speak out against casino locations. Plus, fallout from the RNC’s decision to avoid presidential debates, and the city’s top cop on ghost guns.

Chicago-area birds are nesting and laying eggs earlier than ever before. A mysterious meteor burns up over Papua New Guinea. A fossil could rewrite the history of the evolution of life on Earth. And a disturbing finding about microplastics.

An alderperson comes out against one of the three Chicago Casino finalists; developers plan new apartments for the Magnificent Mile; and a series of ads hopes to showcase Illinois as “the middle of everything.”

Tracie Hall, executive director of the American Library Association, says the books that are being banned in the past year target topics like racism, sexuality and sexual orientation.

The Republican National Committee has unanimously voted to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has officially been sponsoring and producing general election presidential debates since 1987. 

A federal judge in Florida struck down the national mask mandate covering airlines and other public transportation Monday, and the Biden administration said the rule would not be enforced while federal agencies decide how to respond to the judge’s order.