During the winter holidays, the demand on food pantries spikes, and this year, the COVID-19 pandemic has already exacerbated hunger around the U.S. How food pantries are keeping their clients and volunteers safe.

A nonprofit on Chicago’s Lower West Side is getting creative this holiday season. We check out the 2020 Pilsen Christmas Window Walk.

He is a crafty artist who uses a gas-powered paintbrush and tree trunks as his canvas. Meet Eric Widitz, a Chicago-area entrepreneur who has been using chainsaws to make wood sculptures for nearly 40 years.

A recent investigation finds immigrant teenagers are illegally employed working night shifts in suburban factories. ProPublica reporter Melissa Sanchez joins us with the story.

Aldermen on Tuesday advanced a scaled-back effort to test whether Chicago’s affordable housing crisis could be eased by permitting basement, attic and coach house dwellings in five areas of the city.

Facing a nearly $4 billion budget hole, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday outlined millions in cuts that he called a “first step” toward balancing the state’s budget.

Travelers coming to Chicago from nearly every U.S. state, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, must quarantine for 10 days or record a negative test for COVID-19, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office announced Tuesday.

The unanimous opinion issued Monday is the first public enforcement of rules governing the use of social media by elected officials in Chicago. In keeping with the ethics board’s rules, the official was not named.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the monarch butterfly warrants inclusion on the endangered species list but due to a lack of resources is being wait-listed behind higher-priority plants and animals.

U.S. government agencies and private companies rushed to secure their computer networks following the disclosure of a sophisticated and long-running cyber-espionage intrusion suspected of being carried out by Russian hackers. 

The first home test for COVID-19 that doesn’t require a prescription will soon be on U.S. store shelves.

Watch the Dec. 15, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

The state’s first round of COVID-19 vaccinations outside of Chicago took place Tuesday morning in Peoria, where five health care workers rolled up their sleeves to get their first dose.

In all, 80 men and women, who were sentenced to 256 total years in prison across more than 100 cases tied to ex-CPD Sgt. Ronald Watts, have had their convictions dismissed over the past three years.

A COVID-19 vaccination was administered for the first time Tuesday morning in Austin, a Chicago neighborhood ravaged by the virus. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it “history in the making.”