Brendt Christensen appeared “excited” and laughed when talking about killing Yingying Zhang, his former girlfriend testified Thursday at Christensen’s death-penalty trial.

Recreational marijuana is all but a done deal in Illinois. Late last month, Illinois became the first state in the nation to approve such a measure via a legislative body. On Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to make it final.

Lake Michigan water levels are expected to top the record for June, and there’s a chance they could surpass the all-time record set in 1986. We head to the lakefront, and speak with experts.

The Stonewall riots in New York City started the modern gay rights movement (at least, they did in the popular imagination). A new exhibition at Wrightwood 659 challenges how we think of Stonewall’s place in history.

Fireworks will light up the skies all over the Chicago area in celebration of Independence Day on Thursday, July 4. Here’s where you can watch.

Watch the June 20, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Public officials and environmental advocates are speaking out against the Trump administration’s rollback of an Obama-era effort to shift the U.S. away from coal-fired power plants. 

Attorneys for R. Kelly have one week to respond to a lawsuit alleging sex abuse or face losing the case. Associate Judge Moira Johnson gave Kelly’s lawyers until June 26 to respond.

Airline union leaders and famed former airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger say that Boeing made mistakes while developing the 737 Max, and the biggest was not telling anybody about new flight-control software so that pilots could train for it.

Assessing the political fallout from the federal raid of another longtime alderman’s office. Our politics team tackles that and more in our weekly roundtable.

Federal agents have executed a search warrant at the South Side ward office of Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin. A source close to the matter says Austin has been under federal investigation for several years.

Much of Illinois’ farmland is too wet to seed. Assessing the fallout from excessive rain – and what Gov. J.B. Pritzker plans to do about it.

Does Illinois really have a balanced budget? Local analysts weigh in.

During testimony Wednesday, Terra Bullis described her past relationship with Brendt Christensen and how she came to wear a wire for FBI investigators who believe he is responsible for the disappearance of Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang.

The Trump administration on Wednesday completed one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing the landmark Obama-era Clean Power Plan with a replacement rule.