Mayor Lightfoot and indicted 50-year Ald. Ed Burke get standing ovations on their final City Council meetings. Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson visits Springfield. And community members weigh in on a new police superintendent.

From Stevie Wonder and high-fashion models to everyday people, photographer Kwame Brathwaite documented Black culture across the globe. “He’s essentially synonymous with the Black is Beautiful movement,” said Grace Deveney of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot declined to address the City Council at her last meeting as mayor, passing up the chance to begin shaping her legacy as the city’s leader during four of the most tumultuous years in Chicago history.

Commissioners heard comments on a range of issues. There were multiple calls for a new superintendent to come from within the ranks of CPD, and many community members said they wanted someone who will instill a culture of respect for residents.

Ald. Ed Burke, 79, is likely to complete his 54 years as a City Council member without any of the pomp and circumstance that once would have greeted his departure from his beloved City Hall, which he ruled with an iron fist for decades.

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, who got his start as an aide to Senate President Don Harmon, traveled to Springfield to declare his election marks a “new day” in Illinois politics – and to serve notice that he would govern boldly as a progressive and supporter of organized labor.

City leaders talk solutions to this weekend’s unrest in the Loop. A warehouse that houses Cook County criminal records dating back to the Chicago Fire. And where the “great resignation” has been felt the most in state government.

In all, fifteen people were arrested in connection with the unrest, which included crowds of young people jumping on CTA buses and fighting. Now downtown residents, city leaders and community organizers are looking for solutions.

Criminal history in Cook County is long and sordid — from Al Capone to Leopold and Loeb to John Wayne Gacy. The historical figures may be long gone, but the physical documents and evidence pertaining to their cases are still around.

According to a new survey, there’s been a shift in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are the primary driver of climate change as opposed to natural changes in the environment.

A new exhibition of his photographs at the Wrightwood 659 gallery in Lincoln Park is an evocative look at gay Black men in Chicago during a pivotal decade — and a window into a community that’s often been overlooked and stereotyped.

Officials search for answers after unruly teenage behavior downtown. Why several dozen county employees were busted for alleged fraud. And the former CEO of Com Ed testifies in the bribery case tied to Michael Madigan.

The employees were found to have defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program designed to help businesses stay afloat amid the COVID-19 pandemic.