A collective groan may or may not have been heard around Chicago when the city awoke to find it was snowing — again. Geoffrey Baer explains how this recent blast of snowy weather stacks up against Chicago’s most infamous winter storms.

Twenty-two more cases of a COVID-19 variant first discovered in the United Kingdom that is believed to be more transmissible have been discovered in Illinois in the past seven days, according to data released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Volunteering looks different during the pandemic, but organizations still need support. The Chicago Volunteer Expo is moving forward with its annual event, where people can learn about opportunities at scores of nonprofits, but has shifted to a virtual platform.

Humans are making Earth a broken and increasingly unlivable planet through climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. So the world must make dramatic changes to society, economics and daily life, a new United Nations report says.

Progressive aldermen and community groups slammed Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday for using $281.5 million in COVID-19 federal relief funds to cover the cost of salaries and benefits for Chicago Police Department officers.

Watch the Feb. 18, 2021 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Inspectors found 27 people in the Chinese restaurant on the day before Valentine’s Day not wearing masks or following social distancing rules, according to a statement from the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Scientists widely agree that the U.S. simply doesn’t have enough of a handle on the variants to roll back public health measures and is at risk of fumbling yet another phase of the pandemic after letting the virus rage through the country over the last year.

Michael Madigan, who has represented the 22nd District on Chicago’s South Side since 1971 and steadily amassed political capital, is exiting the Illinois House at the end of February. The announcement comes a month after Madigan lost the reigns as speaker.

The Chicago Police Department was “under-prepared and ill-equipped, and thus critically disserved both its own front-line members and members of the public,” according to the inspector general’s report, the first in-depth examination of the police department’s response to the unrest. 

Before the virus erupted in the United States last March, weekly applications for unemployment benefits had never topped 700,000, even during the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

The pandemic-era budget proposed Wednesday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker relies heavily on businesses to bring an additional $932 million into state coffers through what the Democrat describes as closing corporate tax loopholes. We get reaction from state lawmakers.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker takes aim at Republicans during his budget address. Our politics team breaks that down and more.

NASA prepares to land a rover on Mars designed specifically to detect signs of ancient life. Local astronomer and space exploration enthusiast Mark Hammergren tells us more about the mission.

As of last month, the transgender military ban was repealed. We talk with retired Col. Jennifer Pritzker about the importance of this move.