Stories by Heather Cherone

Full-capacity block parties will return to the city’s streets starting July 5 as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wane — but bounce houses will not be allowed, officials announced Thursday. Applications for the street gatherings will be accepted starting June 6.

Chicago’s top doctor on new mask guidelines. A look inside President Biden’s expanded child tax credit. The Joffrey Ballet preps for its debut at the Lyric Opera. The politics of Black hair.

The government’s new guidance on masks for vaccinated people has left some Americans confused and sent businesses and states scrambling to adjust their rules. 

The Treasury Department said Monday that 39 million families are set to receive monthly child payments beginning on July 15.

After 15 months of dark theaters and livestreamed performances, two of Chicago’s most famous performing arts companies announce they are returning to the stage for live performances — this time under one roof.

The Illinois State Board of Education on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution in support of an upcoming declaration that will make it a requirement that schools reopen their doors in the fall, with only limited options for remote learning.

Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, talks about the city’s updated mask guidance and what’s now safe for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

When a member of Chicago’s theater community was racially profiled, he turned the experience into a short film with the help of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Here’s a look at a one-man, one-puppet show about the consequences of “walking while Black.”

President Joe Biden’s efforts to persuade Benjamin Netanyahu to halt military strikes against Hamas in Gaza are plunging the two leaders into a difficult early test of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

The measure would give the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection the authority to license tow trucks in Chicago in an effort to crack down on the kind of operators immortalized in song by Steve Goodman as “Lincoln Park Pirates.”

Summer is just around the corner and with it comes the return of neighborhood street festivals, art shows and outdoor concerts, including Lollapalooza. We asked some local organizers for their take on the 2021 summer festival season.

Independent journalist Jamie Kalven called the revised plan for the database “nothing more an exercise in smoke and mirrors.” The city's watchdog hammered the plan as “significantly smaller step, in scope and scale” than the one presented to aldermen in April.

Top Republicans in Congress are working to stop the formation of an independent commission into the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, aligning themselves with former President Donald Trump ahead of a Wednesday House vote on the proposal.

A gunman killed one central Illinois police officer and wounded another before he was fatally shot during a shootout at an apartment complex early Wednesday, authorities said.

President Joe Biden and progressive Democrats have proposed to lower Medicare’s eligibility age to 60, to help older adults get affordable coverage. But a new study finds that Medicare can be more expensive than other options, particularly for many people of modest means.

Bernard Barry has been charged with first-degree murder and other gun charges for the fatal shooting of 42-year-old Tyran Evans on Monday afternoon. He was ordered held without bond during a court hearing Wednesday.

While expectant parents Monty and Rose do the heavy lifting of incubating their clutch of eggs, the rest of us can help prep for the little ones by submitting suggestions for names.

One of the weekend’s youngest victims of gun violence, 13-year-old Eric Crawford, who was shot in the head while riding his bike Sunday morning on Chicago’s South Side, has died.

The state’s eviction moratorium is set to end. What will it mean? Inside the politically charged remap fight. A look at cases before the Supreme Court. And new life for the Jackson 5 home in Gary.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signaled Monday that he’ll lift the statewide ban on evictions in August, prompting widespread concern that the move will lead to a sudden burst of evictions.

As child care centers and schools closed at the height of the pandemic, parents were left balancing work and caretaking responsibilities while also navigating economic uncertainty. But as child care centers reopen, some families appear slow to enroll their children.

Abortion. Guns. Religion. A Trump-fortified conservative majority is making its presence felt at the Supreme Court by quickly wading into high-profile social issues that have been a goal of the right for decades.

The celebration was in full force May 13 at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana, as the city marked the home of the Jackson 5 with official highway signage. We visit the historic site and speak to Marlon and Tito Jackson about their childhood home.

Forty-eight people were shot across Chicago over the weekend, including a 2-year-old girl, a 13-year-old boy and two police officers, as the city continues to outpace last year’s shooting and homicide totals so far in 2021.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Monday that the state’s ban on evictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will be phased out during the next three months before expiring in August.

In “Nicholas, Anna & Sergei,” Hershey Felder fully captures the “history, pride and melancholy of the Russians” with the fervor Sergei Rachmaninoff carried with him to the end. And he plays the composer’s sweeping music to magnificent effect.