Stories by Marissa Nelson

Brandis Friedman and a panel of guests discuss the Derek Chauvin verdict, including what it means for racial justice and policing in Chicago and the U.S. Watch it now.

Six public meetings, including one held entirely in Spanish, have been scheduled for the first week in May before CPS officially releases its fiscal year 2022 capital plan later in the summer.

Opponents of the Obama Presidential Center’s location in Jackson Park lost a bid to have their case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The nonprofit Protect Our Parks called the decision disappointing but not surprising. 

A look at the 13 states that will gain or lose political power — and federal money — through the apportionment process because of changes in population over the past decade.

Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be as many as 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to World War II has long been suspected.

After a year that has laid bare persistent inequities in everything from health care outcomes to criminal justice, leaders of philanthropic organizations are reassessing how, and to whom, they are lending their support.

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan held a tight grip on the gavel for 36 years – a term only interrupted by a two-year blip in the ‘90s. His successor, Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, is making headway on fulfilling a promise that would prevent anyone else from a similar reign.

The U.S. poverty rate last month reached its highest point during the pandemic at 11.7%, according to researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame. We discuss the issue as part of WTTW’s Firsthand initiative exploring poverty.

COVID-19 has put some people on disability benefits, but others say the system isn't built for people with the virus. We discuss the obstacles people with long COVID-19 symptoms are facing.

Chicago’s top doctor talks about the resumption of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the latest updates on the Loretto Hospital scandal, declining infection rates in Chicago and more.

After an anxious 24 hours, bird watchers can relax: Monty, one half of Chicago’s beloved piping plover lovebird duo, has arrived at Montrose Beach Dunes, and been reunited with his mate, Rose.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has long complained about the flow of illegal guns into Chicago from Indiana, where gun control laws are much more relaxed than they are in Illinois.

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal to expand gun rights in the United States in a New York case over the right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.

Illinois has now lost a seat in the U.S. House after the past three census counts. The results of the 2020 census continue the steady decline of Illinois’s clout in Washington, D.C., since the size of its House delegation peaked at 27 seats in 1943. In 2022, there will be 17.

Crop prices are expected to surge and spill over onto grocery shelves. Crain’s Chicago Business editor Ann Dwyer takes us behind the headline of that story and more.

A recently passed Illinois law requiring insurance companies to cover donated breast milk and breast milk fortifiers for infants who are premature or critically ill gives them the “best possible chance” for survival, according to a legislator who sponsored the measure.

The Chicago Police Department has taken to social media to criticize a “synthetic and manipulated image” that went viral and claimed to show the CPD had expressed support for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer convicted of killing George Floyd.

One-on-one with the new speaker of the Illinois House. When Chicago may reach herd immunity. Can COVID-19 long-haulers qualify for disability benefits? How the pandemic has impacted poverty.

Work is underway on a yearslong effort to repair Chicago’s crumbling streets, sidewalks, bridges and shoreline with billions of dollars of borrowed money, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Monday. 

While vaccines are helping to curb the pandemic, easier and better treatments are needed, especially as virus variants spread. 

Rose, one half of Chicago’s beloved piping plover duo, was spotted Sunday at Montrose Beach Dunes. The hope is that Monty, winging his way from Texas, won’t be far behind. 

Plans to expand a medical marijuana dispensary on Chicago’s Far Northwest Side are on hold after members of the City Council’s Black Caucus blocked them from advancing over concerns that none of its owners are Black or Latino.

Chicago journalists break down the Derek Chauvin trial and verdict. A new life for the old Michael Reese Hospital site. A throwback to WTTW’s show “Our People.” And a history-making Oscar nominee. 

Our trip down memory lane with the WTTW program “Our People” from the late 1960s and early ‘70s brought back memories for one former Chicagoan. Here is his story.

After a three-week trial, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, a conviction President Joe Biden called “a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America.” We discuss the verdict, the reaction and what comes next with local journalists.

Even as the Derek Chauvin case was fresh in memory — the reading of the verdict in a Minneapolis courtroom, the shackling of the former police officer, the jubilation at what many saw as justice in the death of George Floyd — even then, blood flowed on America’s streets.