Gingerbread cookies and houses are synonymous with Christmas, but one Chicago hotel takes the seasonal staple to the next level with the Gingerbread Express—an elevator dressed head to toe in gingerbread. 

The chef, author, television and radio host talks about his latest cookbook, “Milk Street: Tuesday Nights.” Plus: Get his recipes for orecchiete with sausage and paprika-rubbed pork tenderloin.

Meet Tom Bachtell, a longtime contributor to The New Yorker whose caricatures of famous people in popular culture go around the world.

From amazing new vistas of Mars to a little rover bouncing on a distant asteroid, an exploration of recent achievements in outer space with Adler Planetarium astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz.

Within the past week, the Illinois Department of Public Health has identified six new cases of hepatitis A, including two in suburban Cook County. Health officials say the newly infected individuals are among those at greater risk for the illness.

In a class-action lawsuit, the state’s child welfare agency is accused of keeping children confined to psychiatric hospitals beyond their discharge dates because it doesn’t have the necessary facilities to house them.