Stories by Marc Vitali

The historic Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall is currently undergoing a vigorous restoration. We toured the site and caught up with the city’s cultural historian to learn more.

A “reimagined” series of pop-up food and music events will take place across the city in July, including a one-day reuniting of Taste of Chicago stalwarts, Eli’s Cheesecake and Robinson’s No. 1 Ribs.

Jose Torres, a former Chicago Public Schools official who previously led the second-largest school district in Illinois, will serve as interim CEO once Janice Jackson’s contract expires at the end of June.

Good news for employees as air travel rebounds. Crain’s Chicago Business editor Ann Dwyer takes us behind the headline of that story and more.

Beautiful weather, but no rain: What the drought conditions mean for the climate. Spotting fakes in the art world. No more furloughs for United Airlines workers. A bombshell report from ProPublica.

The approaching 600,000 mark, as tracked by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Baltimore or Milwaukee. It is about equal to the number of Americans who died of cancer in 2019. And as bad as that is, the true toll is believed to be significantly higher.

Rockford’s weather station recorded a record-setting number of days reaching temperatures of 90 degrees or above in early June. Chicago’s average temperature for the month is more than 8 degrees above normal. 

The Novavax vaccine, which is easy to store and transport, is expected to play an important role in boosting vaccine supplies in the developing world.

As the nation marks the fifth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando on Saturday, it has a staggering and grim new statistic to contend with for 2021.

The airline industry’s recovery from the pandemic passed a milestone as more than 2 million people streamed through U.S. airport security checkpoints on Friday for the first time since early March 2020.

At the group’s first face-to-face meeting in two years, the leaders dangled promises of support for global health, green energy, infrastructure and education.

Dan O’Conor said he started jumping into the lake at Montrose Harbor on the city’s North Side last year to relieve stress.

Two people were killed and at least 30 others wounded in mass shootings overnight in three states, authorities said Saturday, stoking concerns that a spike in U.S. gun violence could continue into summer as coronavirus restrictions ease and more people are free to socialize.

Leaders of the world’s largest economies unveiled an infrastructure plan Saturday for the developing world to compete with China’s global initiatives, but they were searching for a consensus on how to forcefully to call out Beijing over human rights abuses.

In response to a push for culturally responsive teaching, Republican lawmakers and governors have championed legislation to limit the teaching of material that explores how race and racism influence American politics, culture and law.

The Biden administration said Friday it has dismantled a Trump-era government office to help victims of crimes committed by immigrants, a move that symbolizes President Joe Biden’s rejection of former President Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to link immigrants to crime.

The nation’s largest, most influential doctors’ group is holding its annual policymaking meeting amid backlash over its most ambitious plan ever — to help dismantle centuries-old racism and bias in all realms of the medical establishment.

The city and state are fully reopened after a long 15 months. The remap fights heat up. A former alderman may have secretly recorded former House Speaker Michael Madigan. And an elected school board is on the agenda in Springfield.

Chicago gets high marks for access, with 98% of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park versus the national average of 55%.

“Overture,” the final entry in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s springtime series of three different programs was performed live in Orchestra Hall on Thursday.  Remaining performances are Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. 

As state lawmakers prepare to return to Springfield for a pivotal vote on whether Chicago Public Schools should be run by an elected school board, Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked members of the Illinois House to delay a vote approved by the Illinois Senate.

Diego Vargas, 26, entered a guilty plea on Thursday on a single count of maliciously attempting to damage and destroy a building by means of an explosive device, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

The towering sculpture, constructed near the site of this weekend’s G-7 summit, sounds the alarm about the growing problem of electronic waste.

While celebrating the full reopening of Chicago on Friday morning as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she does not support the push to rename Lake Shore Drive, again calling it an “iconic” name with national recognition.

Karol Chwiesiuk is facing five misdemeanor charges, including disorderly conduct, disrupting government business and entering a restricted building, according to a federal complaint filed Friday.

Illinois would become the first state to require public schools to teach Asian American studies if the governor signs a bill that cleared the state Legislature. Lawmakers have proposed similar mandates this year in Connecticut, New York and Wisconsin.