Another Illinois politician pleads guilty. The Cook County Democratic Party turns its back on a long-serving judge. Our politics team weighs in on those stories and more.

How some Gage Park residents are giving back to their community during the pandemic.

Previous plans have largely targeted Chicago’s North and Northwest sides. However, officials say this plan will focus on bringing equitable transit-oriented developments to the South and West sides.

According to census numbers, Chicago is currently performing at a 59% response rate. But the city risks an undercount, especially in predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods.

“State and municipal budgets across the nation and here in Illinois are being decimated,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday. “It’s not a blue state problem or a red state problem.”

Pritzker has extended the ban on evictions three times since he lifted the stay-at-home order at the end of May, when the state began to make significant progress in slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

In a report to Congress and an accompanying “playbook” for states and localities, federal health agencies sketched out complex plans for a vaccination campaign to begin gradually in January or even late this year.

Chicagoans are raising chickens, growing food and experimenting with all sorts of sustainable-living practices — all in their urban backyards. See how it’s done during this weekend’s annual Windy City Coop and Eco-Yards Tour. 

While initial demand is lower than last year’s pilot program, city officials say they are encouraged by data and anecdotal accounts that the lock-to-cable requirement has reduced the number of instances of scooters blocking sidewalks. 

Citing a lack of widespread safety protocols and limited COVID-19 testing capacity, the governor on Wednesday doubled down on his stance that it’s not yet safe for youth athletes to begin playing football or other fall sports.

Watch the Sept. 16, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

The EPA has completed cleanup of the Hegewisch Little League Field after discovering alarming levels of lead and arsenic in the soil. 

Less than five weeks after pushing football and other fall sports to spring in the name of player safety during the pandemic, the conference changed course Wednesday and said it plans to begin its season the weekend of Oct. 24. 

Going to a bar. Dining at a restaurant. Sending children to school. What’s the risk of these activities in terms of COVID-19 exposure? In a new survey, more than 100 physicians weigh in.

A conversation with Kwame Amoaku, director of the Chicago Film Office.