Stories by Alex Ruppenthal

Save a horse, ride a bike. That’s the message some Chicago animal welfare advocates are looking to send by sponsoring one of the pedicabs that shuttles riders along Michigan Avenue.

Dave Malloy’s time-warping web of a song cycle deals with competing sisters, strange parents, a photographer’s guilt, a subway murder, an astronomer, spirits (of the alcoholic variety), and the quest for love, revenge, stardom and truth over many centuries.

Chicago police say three thieves smashed a display window of a high-end department store and stole three mannequins dressed from head to feet in designer clothes.

The fine is the largest the Federal Trade Commission has levied on a tech company, though it won’t make much of a dent for a company that had nearly $56 billion in revenue last year.

The network announced Tuesday that it has ordered “Surviving R. Kelly: The Aftermath,” a four-part series that includes interviews with new survivors and experts on the case.

Could Jeff Bezos’ vision of giant rotating habitats one day support millions of people in space? We speak with two experts about humankind’s future in space. 

Alds. Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward), Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward) and Jason Ervin (28th Ward) discuss casino locations and other pressing City Council news.

Getting a parking ticket is an annoying part of city life for most Chicago residents and visitors. But for some people, it can be life-altering.

Erin Aleman doesn’t have a crystal ball, but she has a pretty good idea of what Chicago and the surrounding area will look like 30 years from now.

Comic book lovers, pop culture fanatics and art and tech enthusiasts are flocking to McCormick Place this weekend for the Afro-futuristic celebration Wakandacon. We get a preview of this year’s fest.

A new report raises some red flags about the potential health risks associated with swimming at local beaches.

A recently completed design competition is now working with a developer to take its winning entry from concept to construction in two vacant, city-owned lots.

A statewide coalition says it will focus its efforts on health care policies that increase children’s access to care and mental health services and address underlying social factors that impact health.

A judge has agreed to make public the details of a plea agreement reached this week between Cook County prosecutors and a former Oxford University staffer who says he’ll testify against an ex-Northwestern University professor at his upcoming murder trial.

The NCAA suspended DePaul men’s basketball coach Dave Leitao for the first three games of the regular season Tuesday, saying he should have done more to prevent recruiting violations by his staff.

Watch the July 23, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

America in the summer of 1919 ran red with blood from racial violence, and yet today, 100 years later, not many people know it even happened. It was branded “Red Summer” because of the bloodshed and amounted to some of the worst white-on-black violence in U.S. history.

The 99-year-old former Supreme Court justice died last week in Florida. He served on the high court for nearly 35 years, retiring in 2010.

The new netting in Chicago will be 30 feet high above the dugouts and reach a maximum height of 45 feet down the lines.

From President Donald Trump’s tweets to a Facebook post on the page of the Illinois Republican County Chairmen’s Association, we discuss the widening political divide and what constitutes racism.

Should larger Chicago companies be required to let employees know of their work schedules two weeks ahead of time?

Chicago has the largest life expectancy gap of any big city in America. We speak with a researcher who says that while “there’s no easy answer” to the disparity, the city’s high degree of racial segregation clearly plays a role.

“Molly of Denali” is making headlines as the first national children’s series to feature a Native American lead character. We speak with Chicago-based writer and actor June Thiele, who’s contributing to the show.

As the popularity of a photo-transforming app has skyrocketed, so has new concern over privacy. Derek Eder of Chicago-based company DataMade weighs in.

The 2001 musical with a soaring, intensely poetic score delivers both a rare emotional punch and a winning sense of forgiveness, redemption and love. It is uncannily timely.

More than two years after a grizzly slaying that led authorities on a nationwide manhunt, a former Oxford University staffer has pleaded guilty to murder and agreed to testify against his co-defendant, a former Northwestern University associate professor.