A Chicago woman and her adult daughter were formally charged Wednesday in the killing of a pregnant teenager whose baby was cut from her womb with a butcher knife.

“Brendt Christensen is responsible for the death of Yingying Zhang,” federal defender George Taseff told a packed court Wednesday inside the Peoria federal courthouse. Despite the admission, Christensen is not changing his not guilty plea. 

Plans to build Barack Obama’s $500 million presidential center on Chicago’s lakefront can move forward, a federal judge said Tuesday in dismissing an advocacy group’s lawsuit objecting to the use of historic public parkland.

The Chicago-based company has 4,550 unfilled orders for the Max but stopped deliveries after regulators around the world grounded the plane following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.

It’s a colorful sign of summer: brightly colored butterflies floating on the wind. From nature museums to forest preserves to beachfront parks, Chicago has plenty of spots to see these beautiful insects. Here are 10 of the best. 

The just-completed spring legislative session produced a slew of initiatives championed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration. What Illinoisans can expect from those initiatives, the new state budget and more.

Cirque du Soleil has visited Chicago every other year since 1989. This year, for the first time, the internationally minded “Circus of the Sun” features a performer with local roots. Meet Kevin Beverley.

Watch the June 11, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

The federal lawsuit claims university social workers should have done more to address the “homicidal ideations” of Brendt Christensen, who is charged in the kidnapping and death of Yingying Zhang.

Terrance Finley, 24, was charged Tuesday with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI after he allegedly drove into an Auburn Gresham neighborhood restaurant, killing a 35-year-old woman.

Three former employees of a large northwestern Indiana dairy have been charged with animal cruelty following the release of undercover video showing workers kicking and throwing young calves, officials said Monday.

More than a century after Upton Sinclair described a stretch of the Chicago River as “a great open sewer,” Bubbly Creek is still plagued by waste – and the restoration process has been mired in its own political muck.

Did the Chicago police union instruct cops not to police during the violent Memorial Day weekend? Mayor Lori Lightfoot clarifies a rumor she says she heard in this wide-ranging, one-on-one interview.

An attractive yet potentially dangerous plant identified near the North Avenue Bridge will be removed this week, a spokesperson for Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation said Monday.

Brandis Friedman will be off the air for the next few weeks as she welcomes a new addition to her family. The “Chicago Tonight” host and correspondent has been with WTTW since 2013.