Stories by Matt Masterson

Anthony Lorenzi was held without bail Friday following his arrest earlier this month in San Diego. He has since been extradited back to Cook County on a charge of first-degree murder in the killing of 24-year-old Gyovanny Arzuaga.

The Chicago Bungalow Association has announced the winners of its fifth annual garden contest, with winners spread across the city’s extensive bungalow belt.

The New York Yankees acquired Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo for two minor leaguers Thursday in their second major trade this week for desperately needed left-handed bats.

Can you still get COVID-19 after you’ve been fully vaccinated? Does the vaccine affect fertility? And does the vaccine alter DNA? Dr. John Segreti, hospital epidemiologist and medical director of infection control and prevention at Rush University Medical Center, weighs in.

The quintessential TV pitchman and inventor known to generations of viewers for hawking products including the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr. Microphone and the Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ, has died, his family said.

The Old World meets the new at a legendary Cicero restaurant that’s long served as an anchor for Chicago’s expansive Czech community. But now, its legacy is under threat.

The City Council has unanimously approved an ordinance to create an Urban Forestry Advisory Board — charged with strategically caring for Chicago's urban tree canopy.

As thousands of music lovers flocked to Grant Park for the first day of Lollapalooza, a surge of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Chicago and the suburbs prompted Gov. J.B. Pritzker to reimpose a mask mandate in state facilities for everyone, regardless of their vaccination status.

A look inside Lollapalooza, where the show goes on despite a COVID-19 surge. How the global chip shortage impacts everything from cars to cellphones. A new city board charged with caring for trees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the disruption of supply chains and manufacturing the world over. Manufacturers of computer chips in Asia have been especially hard hit. And that means companies that make products that rely on such chips are feeling the pinch.

It’s official: The Chicago Board of Education will transition from being an appointed body to an elected one — over the objections of Mayor Lori Lightfoot. 

The parent company of General Iron, which wants to operate a metal shredding and recycling operation on Chicago’s Southeast Side, failed to notify city officials that a vacant building collapsed on the site of the proposed facility, officials said Thursday.

Chicago hit two firms — including global snack food giant Mondelez International — with $935,000 in back pay and fines for running afoul of the city’s sick leave law, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed Thursday to step up efforts to protect workers.

As the massive four-day music festival gets underway in Grant Park, event organizers announced the launch of a fund that will support arts education over the next five years for more than 100,000 students within Chicago Public Schools.

The big reveal will take place at a beachside ceremony with representatives from the Chicago Piping Plovers Team and members of its name-selection committee. Find out how you can tune in virtually.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation Thursday that creates new resources and incentives to finance affordable housing across the state and helps low-income residents access assistance for heat and other utilities.

The Biden administration announced Thursday it will allow a nationwide ban on evictions to expire Saturday, arguing that its hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled the moratorium would only be extended until the end of the month.

An American finished atop the podium in the women’s Olympic gymnastics all-around, just like always. Sunisa Lee became the fifth straight American woman to claim the Olympic title on Thursday while defending champion Simone Biles watched from the stands.

Are you eligible for a lead water line replacement? COVID-19 rates tread risky territory. New laws boost Illinois’ LGBTQ rights. Frida Kahlo’s untold stories in a new exhibit, and more.

For transgender and gender non-conforming people, the process of changing your name and getting documents to reflect those changes can be a burden. How two new laws in Illinois aim to ease that process.

We check out a new show at the Chicago Cultural Center that makes the case that the comic strip was born and raised in Chicago. Our tour guides? Artist Chris Ware and cultural historian Tim Samuelson.

Lead service lines connect approximately 400,000 Chicago homes with water mains buried under city streets, and can leach a brain-damaging chemical into drinking water. 

Consider wearing a mask indoors, even if you’re fully vaccinated. That’s the newest recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and some experts say they expect mask mandates, not just recommendations, to return in Chicago and elsewhere.

By pulling on her white sweatsuit in the middle of Tuesday night’s Olympic gymnastics meet, and by doing it with a gold medal hanging in the balance, Simone Biles might very well have redefined the mental health discussion that’s been coursing through sports for the past year.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol held its first hearing on Tuesday with harrowing testimony from four officers who shared their stories of being attacked by the rioters.

Speaking Wednesday at his first Board of Education meeting since he was appointed as interim Chicago Public Schools CEO, Jose Torres said the district’s “true north” goal before reopening schools must be to make sure at-risk students are prepared to return to CPS.