Stories by Heather Cherone

Twenty-two more cases of a COVID-19 variant first discovered in the United Kingdom that is believed to be more transmissible have been discovered in Illinois in the past seven days, according to data released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Volunteering looks different during the pandemic, but organizations still need support. The Chicago Volunteer Expo is moving forward with its annual event, where people can learn about opportunities at scores of nonprofits, but has shifted to a virtual platform.

Humans are making Earth a broken and increasingly unlivable planet through climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. So the world must make dramatic changes to society, economics and daily life, a new United Nations report says.

Progressive aldermen and community groups slammed Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday for using $281.5 million in COVID-19 federal relief funds to cover the cost of salaries and benefits for Chicago Police Department officers.

Watch the Feb. 18, 2021 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Inspectors found 27 people in the Chinese restaurant on the day before Valentine’s Day not wearing masks or following social distancing rules, according to a statement from the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Scientists widely agree that the U.S. simply doesn’t have enough of a handle on the variants to roll back public health measures and is at risk of fumbling yet another phase of the pandemic after letting the virus rage through the country over the last year.

Michael Madigan, who has represented the 22nd District on Chicago’s South Side since 1971 and steadily amassed political capital, is exiting the Illinois House at the end of February. The announcement comes a month after Madigan lost the reigns as speaker.

The Chicago Police Department was “under-prepared and ill-equipped, and thus critically disserved both its own front-line members and members of the public,” according to the inspector general’s report, the first in-depth examination of the police department’s response to the unrest. 

Before the virus erupted in the United States last March, weekly applications for unemployment benefits had never topped 700,000, even during the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

The pandemic-era budget proposed Wednesday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker relies heavily on businesses to bring an additional $932 million into state coffers through what the Democrat describes as closing corporate tax loopholes. We get reaction from state lawmakers.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker takes aim at Republicans during his budget address. Our politics team breaks that down and more.

NASA prepares to land a rover on Mars designed specifically to detect signs of ancient life. Local astronomer and space exploration enthusiast Mark Hammergren tells us more about the mission.

As of last month, the transgender military ban was repealed. We talk with retired Col. Jennifer Pritzker about the importance of this move.

The lack of affordable and nutritious food in North Chicago has made the city a food desert, but soon it'll get its first full-service grocery store in 20 years.

President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office.

A Chicago man allegedly pushed a woman out of her vehicle as he was attempting to escape during a carjacking before getting stuck in the heavy snowfall that blanketed the city Tuesday morning.

Students from across Chicago voted on the name for the Shedd’s 5-month old Pacific white-sided dolphin calf.

Watch the Feb. 17, 2021 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host who ripped into liberals and laid waste to political correctness with a merry brand of malice that made him one of the most powerful voices on the American right, influencing the rightward push of conservatism and the rise of Donald Trump, died Wednesday. He was 70.

If winter 2021 feels epic, that’s because it has been. According to the National Weather Service, it’s been 40 years since Chicago has seen so much snow in such a short span of time.

The sworn accounts by executioners raise questions about whether officials misled courts to ensure the executions scheduled from July to mid-January were done before death penalty opponent Joe Biden became president.

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on people’s lives, and also on government budgets. On Wednesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker will propose his ideas for getting Illinois through it. Here’s a preview of that address.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol.

Bars and restaurants in Chicago can now expand their capacity for indoor service. We discuss that and other COVID-19 developments with Dr. Susan Bleasdale, medical director of infection prevention and control at University of Illinois Health.

President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package could include canceling some student loan debt. What that could mean for borrowers — and the economy.