Stories by Heather Cherone

Armando Serrano and Jose Montanez, who were released in 2016 after serving 23 years in prison for the murder of Rodrigo Vargas, would each get $10.25 million if the settlement is approved by the City Council on Tuesday. 

Yes, but studies indicate they’re less likely than adults to be affected by symptoms that persist, recur or begin a month or more after infection.

At least 60 people were shot in 40 shooting incidents across the city between Friday evening and 11:59 p.m. Sunday. That included a pair of mass shootings and the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Kaden Ingram.

More on the mayor’s proposal to sue gangs. City Council members on pot shops, police contracts and more. The business vaccine mandate debate. Racial equity week for Cook County. And monarch butterflies fly through town.

Treasurer Melissa Conyears Ervin said the measure was a “critical step” to combatting the disparity in mortgage lending in Chicago. 

The average person doesn’t need a COVID-19 booster yet, an international group of scientists — including two top U.S. regulators — wrote Monday in a scientific journal.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and interim Chicago Public Schools CEO Jose Torres on Thursday unveiled a new Chicago Families Forward Fund, which they say will distribute more than $9 million in assistance to CPS families before the end of the fall semester.

Maternal health outcomes for Black women as a Texas law bans nearly all abortions in that state. Plus, a deeply personal book about three girls growing up in Bronzeville. And microgrants for students.

As a Texas law that bans nearly all abortions in that state goes into effect, we take a look at what reproductive health care means for Black women. 

The risk of catching or passing a virus that has infected more than 40 million people in the United States will depend on where the stadium is and whether the game is outdoors, among other factors. 

The documentary is an intimate portrait of a longtime public servant whose notoriety has risen dramatically — and with that, brought heaps of far-right scorn on the veteran of seven White House administrations.

The Taliban raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace Saturday, a spokesman said, as the U.S. and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The document released Saturday, on the 20th anniversary of the attacks, is the first investigative record to be disclosed since President Joe Biden ordered a declassification review of materials that for years have remained out of public view. 

Federal pandemic unemployment benefits end, what it means for Chicago’s labor force. Plus, a new law aimed at helping local immigrants. And La Villita’s iconic arch is up for landmark status. 

Illinois has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. Federal pandemic unemployment benefits ended on Labor Day, cutting off weekly payments to more than 300,000 people in the state. 

Should full landmark status be granted, the arch will become the first symbol of Chicago’s Latino community to receive that honor, as well as the first time an architect of Mexican descent has had a structure landmarked here. 

Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton all gathered at the site where the World Trade Center towers fell two decades ago. 

Nearly 10,000 Afghan evacuees are staying at the base while they undergo medical and security checks before being resettled in the United States. 

The ceremony at ground zero in New York began exactly two decades after the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil started with the first of four hijacked planes crashing into one of the World Trade Center’s twin towers.

An energy bill passes the House. Calls grow to investigate an alderman accused of retaliating against residents. Thousands of CPS students are potentially exposed to COVID-19. And the Chicago Bears kickoff their season Sunday.

Members of the Chicago City Council unanimously endorsed a plan Friday to extend the city’s program that earmarks a portion of city contracts for firms owned by Black, Latino and Asian Chicagoans as well as women for another six years, without expanding its scope.

This 9/11 comes little more than two weeks after a suicide bomber in Kabul killed 13 U.S. service members as the military concluded its withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

CEO Mike Kelly’s announcement reverses the city’s longstanding argument that life rings along the waterfront would encourage people to enter the water and put themselves at risk of injury or death — and make the city liable.

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown on Friday announced that officers serving on the department’s Community Safety Team will be moved into new units centered on gang investigations, homicides, carjackings and narcotics.

The U.S. has halted all U.S.-bound flights of Afghan evacuees from two main bases overseas after discovering a limited measles outbreak among Afghans arriving in the United States, a hitch that American officials warned will have a severe impact on an often-troubled U.S.-run evacuation.

Two decades after the twin towers’ collapse, people are still coming forward to report illnesses that might be related to the attacks.