The annual display gives way to some virtual celebrations in 2020. Not that the holiday will be short of illegal booms, crackles and pops, if recent weeks are any indication. 

Similar in size to the monarch, the regal fritillary is also a stunner in the looks department, but the native prairie butterfly has nearly disappeared from Illinois. To save this pollinator, we need to save the prairie.

Watch the June 24, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Coronavirus-related shutdowns of businesses, schools and community organizations has led to massive cancellations of blood drives, leading to a nearly 60% drop in collections, according to the Illinois Coalition of Community Blood Centers.

The pilot program, approved earlier this month by the Chicago City Council, will expand to Andersonville, Chinatown, Little Italy, Edison Park and Grand Crossing, the mayor’s office announced.

More than 15 million Americans are estimated to travel to Europe each year, and such a decision would underscore flaws in the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic, which has seen the United States record the highest number of infections and virus-related deaths in the world by far.

“As a school community, we champion diversity, inclusion, and understanding, and it's essential that we live up to these ideals in all possible ways," Lane Tech Principal Brian Tennison said in a letter to families Tuesday.

Nearly two years after an audit by the city’s watchdog found significant problems with allowing Chicago police officers to patrol schools, aldermen will hold a hearing on the program at the center of the debate over defunding the police department.

More than 200 Chicago-area residents were nominated this year for the award, and those chosen each receive $50,000 — half of which they can spend however they’d like. 

Oak Park was the first town in Illinois to issue a stay-at-home order when a cluster of COVID-19 cases was found in mid-March, just days before the statewide shutdown. Months later, it has started to come to life again.

It’s been 95 long days since the treadmills and weight benches of Chicago’s fitness centers fell silent thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But this Friday, gyms in Illinois will be allowed to reopen.

When Chicago tattoo parlors shut down in mid-March, the artists at Speakeasy Custom Tattoos were already booked up through June. How they — and their customers — are staying safe during the pandemic.

Chicago voters are on track to break the record for vote-by-mail applications set in March, elections officials said Tuesday.

Teachers, parents and students across Illinois finally have an answer to the question of whether or not classrooms will reopen in the fall — and the answer is yes. But it’s not going to be business as usual.

An effort designed to keep teens who commit minor crimes out of jail is so broken that the city’s social service agency will no longer work with Chicago police to administer the program, officials told aldermen Tuesday.