Stories by Erica Gunderson

This year, Juan Mendoza was named a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which funds efforts to bring more scientists from diverse backgrounds into scientific institutions. Mendoza said he got right to work on recruiting.

A report from the Century Foundation shows that without pandemic-era federal funding, thousands of providers would no longer be able to hire and pay staff, meaning rapid shutdowns in families with small children fending for themselves.

Chicagoans and tourists feeling lucky can play 800 slot games and 56 table games in the century-old Shriner’s temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave., with its distinctive domed ceilings and stained-glass windows.

After photographer Jose Refugio “Fugie” Almanza tragically lost his 12-year-old son, Almanza sought to turn his pain into purpose. He founded the Joseph Jr. Scholarship Foundation, which aims to help Latinos fund their college educations.

The National Black Restaurant Weeks campaign is returning to Chicago with two full weeks of specials and events at 35 Black-owned eateries.

In her book “Homecoming: El Viaje a Mi Hogar,” Margarita Quiñones Peña describes the migrant journey to Chicago through her own eyes as a child coming to her new home of Chicago in 1993.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted every facet of our lives and left many people feeling disconnected. At a North Park studio, owner and instructor Ogi Merzier-Emiabata brings people together with candle-making classes.

Since May, organizers with the volunteer collective Todo Para Todos said they’ve hosted 260 residents and have found permanent housing for more than 150 of them. The shelter ended its operations this past weekend.

A community-run shelter for migrants closes its doors. Getting more Latinos in STEM. And the migrant experience from the point of view of a child.

Child care is heading for a cliff as pandemic-era funding dries up. Pull up a seat at the table for Black Restaurant Week. And bringing in the light with a local candle maker.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and his top aides did not identify where they planned to build the massive tents that could shelter and feed as many as 1,000 migrants, or precisely how much it would cost Chicago taxpayers, sources told WTTW News.

The Folded Map action kit aims to help Chicagoans explore the effects of segregation in the city and how it continues to perpetuate racial inequities.

The mayor’s pick for police superintendent meets the public. CPS employees ousted over charges of loan fraud. City officials eye new housing for migrants. And Bally’s gears up to open its temporary casino.

The roughly $2 billion project is set to create 2,600 jobs and begin production in 2024. The plant will produce battery cells, battery packs like the kinds used in electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage systems.

In a letter sent this week, Reinberg Elementary principal Edwin Loch informed parents and families that a staffer has been pulled from the school following an allegation that they “engaged inappropriately with a student.”

Chicagoans and tourists feeling lucky can play 800 slot games and 56 table games in the century-old Shriner’s temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave., with its distinctive domed ceilings and stained-glass windows.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said a $3.6 billion plan to build 5.6 miles of new train tracks, as well as four stations, would “right a historic wrong” and provide a “critical connection that has been missing for half a century.”

An autopsy shows a bacterial infection and other factors caused the death of a 3-year-old girl on a bus carrying immigrants from Texas to Chicago last month, an Illinois coroner said Thursday.

The zoo’s three-week-old baby giraffe is making her debut Friday and can now be seen daily, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Snelling vowed to rebuild trust between Chicagoans and the Police Department, which is struggling to reduce crime and implement court-ordered reforms designed to ensure officers no longer routinely violate the constitutional rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans.

Meet the next top cop: a community forum for Larry Snelling, the man selected to be CPD superintendent. A preview of the Bears match-up against the Packers this weekend. And accessible art at Navy Pier.

The Women’s Live Artist Studio is a permanent art exhibition that opened earlier this summer at Navy Pier. It consists of work by primarily Black and Brown female artists from the Chicagoland area.

The Chicago Bears kick off the season Sunday by taking on the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. Former Bears tight end Emery Moorehead, a member of the 1985 Super Bowl championship team, joined “Chicago Tonight” to preview the season.

The unanimous vote by the interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability caps an effort that began in 2017 to stop the Chicago Police Department from using databases to track Chicagoans they believe to be in a gang.

Dumplings, fossils and a 5K usher in the weekend. Here are five things to do in Chicago.

The verdict came after a short trial for Peter Navarro, who served as a White House trade adviser under President Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election he lost.