Stories by Erica Gunderson

When Diane McCoy Lee was named “Top Teen in Public Housing” in a 1962 Chicago Housing Authority contest, she was a straight-A student. But just a few years later, she was a college dropout in an abusive marriage.

As Illinois nears the 2 million mark in total COVID-19 tests conducted since the start of the pandemic, health officials reported an additional 954 cases of the virus on Sunday — and a record number of specimens tested in a single day.

On Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood, reflections on race and racism adorn bright yellow ribbons that rustle in the breeze across from Facility, the creative space and gallery behind a community-based art project.

President Donald Trump wore a mask during a visit to a military hospital on Saturday, the first time he has been seen in public with the type of facial covering recommended by health officials during the pandemic.

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Saturday reported an additional 1,195 confirmed cases of the coronavirus since Friday, and 24 more deaths. The positivity rate in Illinois remains relatively stable at 3%.

President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of his longtime political confidant Roger Stone, intervening in extraordinary fashion in a criminal case that was central to the Russia investigation and that concerned the president’s own conduct.

Chicagoans will get their yearly fix of cinema under the stars despite the coronavirus, the Chicago Park District announced late Friday. The city’s annual “Movies in the Parks” series is a go, with some key public health restrictions in place.

An uptick in COVID-19 cases. Will public schools open in the fall? Who Chicago’s top cop is blaming for rising violent crime rates. And Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth takes heat from President Trump.

Health experts have warned of a looming mental health crisis linked to the coronavirus outbreak, and the federal government rolled out a broad anti-suicide campaign. But doctors and researchers say the issues reverberate deeper among Black people.

July is National Bison Month — who knew? Here’s where you can catch buffalo roaming, close to home, in Illinois and Indiana.

Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said she “broadly” feels confident that schools will be able to offer “some” in-person classes starting in September.

The Trump administration has agreed to invest more than half a billion in tax dollars in ApiJect Systems America, but its injector is not approved by federal health authorities and the company hasn’t yet set up a factory to manufacture the devices.

Most of Wall Street is drifting higher Friday, though a rare pullback for some of the year's biggest winners in the stock market is tamping down the gains.

Since 2014, the Chicago Tree Project has commissioned more than two dozen sculptures across the city, bringing new life to dead ash trees. The latest is a work by artist Gary Keenan.

The new restrictions, which aim to reduce a slight increase in the number of coronavirus cases among young Chicagoans, took effect immediately, the Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office announced Friday morning. 

Geoffrey Baer has the scoop on some Chicago ice cream history.

Summer education enrichment programs have taken to Zoom. Are they working?

The North Side neighborhood gets its name from the 16th president, but much of its community’s cultural heritage comes from the German immigrants who founded the area in the 1840s.

July in Chicago brings scorching summer heat to the city, and often with it, poor air quality.

“These victims, I’m just going to classify them as good community members who were trying to do the right thing,” Chicago police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said of the three men who were shot on May 31.

While at an estate sale last September, Chicago artist Shannon Downey found an unfinished quilt and knew she had to complete it, but would need help. 

The home of the Chicago Architecture Center is both a gallery and a hub for dozens of tours. The space recently reopened to visitors – how you can explore Chicago architecture – and get a tour – from home. 

Federal health officials won’t revise their coronavirus guidelines for reopening schools despite criticism from President Donald Trump, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. 

More than 100 Chicago artists and stars who got their start in the Windy City perform the blues anthem, “Sweet Home Chicago.”

In a change to its previous thinking, WHO noted on Thursday that studies evaluating COVID-19 outbreaks in restaurants, choir practices and fitness classes suggested the virus might have been spread in the air.

Dujuan Randle, 41, was held without bond Thursday on charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, two days after allegedly carrying out the fatal attack in broad daylight in front of neighbors.