A federally funded joke machine? We talk with the Northwestern professor behind the controversy that's garnered national attention.

With Labor Day right around the corner, unemployment numbers are still discouraging. We sit down with the new President of the Chicago Federation of Labor.

We have President Obama speaking live from the Oval Office about America's combat mission in Iraq, which formally ended today.

And we'll see some of the amazing murals scattered about the Chicago Park District's fieldhouses.

An old world tradition lives on with Chicago's Noble Horse Theatre. Eddie Arruza pays a visit to the equestrian arts troupe in the Old Town neighborhood on a site that's been home to horses for 140 years.

The Chicago area has the worst heroin problem in the nation, according to a study tracking heroin-related visits to emergency rooms. The new head of the Chicago Drug Enforcement Administration tells us what law enforcement is doing about it. Watch part one of Chicago Tonight's 2009 story on the heroin crisis in the suburbs Watch part two

A gruesome photo leads Jay Shefsky on a quest to understand a century-old murder.

One of our viewers remembers visiting this bronze elk as a child in southwest Chicago; he called it Bambi. Learn the real story behind the monument in this week's edition of Ask Geoffrey.

Chicago Botanic Garden's Eliza Fournier tells us how to tend to a garden in late summer, and take it from August..to autumn.

Fall is in the air! Check, Please! host and Master Sommelier Alpana Singh is here with some fall beer recommendations perfect for getting cozy with friends.

Acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns discusses his latest work, The Tenth Inning (coming to WTTW in late September), which takes a swing at baseball's steroid era.

The Week in Review with Joel Weisman

What has been the impact of Twitter and Facebook on the publishing industry? We talk to one of the authors of the so-called "Bible of the Publishing World, The Chicago Manual of Style.

We visit a farm on the roof of a North Side restaurant, and other gardens high above the streets of Chicago. Chicago Botanic Garden Plant Conservation Science Center Gary Comer Youth Center Uncommon Ground Chicago Specialty Gardens

The modern-day equivalent of the World's Fair is in Shanghai this year. NPR's Edward Lifson was there, but the United States almost wasn't. Lifson is back in Chicago to tell us what he saw. Expo 2010 China