Stories by WTTW News

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

The hearing is expected to end on Friday with McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt sentencing 37-year-old JoAnn Cunningham. She has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the beating death of her son, Andrew “AJ” Freund.

Inspector General Joseph Ferguson released a report Thursday that concluded Former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson lied repeatedly about the incident and what happened afterward.

Museums and aquariums can now reopen their doors — with restrictions — but few of them have, and at least one Chicago institution says it will remain closed until phase five of Illinois’ reopening plan.

Will an uptick in COVID-19 cases lead to more restrictions across the city and state? Our politics team takes on that story and more in this week’s roundtable.

Even if you practice safe habits, there’s always a chance you’ll come into contact with someone who has COVID-19. There’s no guarantee you’ll get it too, but there’s also no guarantee you won’t. So what then?

A one-on-one discussion with Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth on the possibility of being Joe Biden’s running mate, the federal response to COVID-19, whether schools should reopen in the fall and more.

Pastor T. L. Barrett wrote and recorded soul-infused gospel music in the 1970s with his youth choir. Forty years later, his music is reaching new generations — via some star-studded names.

Chicago bars have been open since the middle of June, and since that time, new coronavirus cases in young people are spiking. How are bar owners and managers handling their business — and the safety of customers and employees?

A record 121,000 Chicagoans have sent in applications to vote by mail in the November election. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump claims without evidence the 2020 election will be “the most rigged.”

Aldermen advanced an agreement that will allow anonymous complaints against police sergeants, lieutenants and captains to be investigated, despite concerns that it does not go far enough to hold police brass accountable for misconduct.

With the number of coronavirus cases rising in Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday announced a new COVID-19 mitigation plan to combat a possible resurgence of the virus.

Chicago Public Schools is recommending school leaders schedule community town hall meetings as more and more local school councils consider votes to eliminate their resource officer programs.

Some 10,000 scooters will be scattered throughout Chicago when the city’s second pilot program starts next month. It’s designed to settle once and for all the question of whether scooters should be allowed on Chicago’s streets.

With temperatures set to soar in Chicago in the coming days, Dr. Allison Arwady reassured residents that it’s “safe and appropriate” to use air conditioning in their apartments and homes without risking the spread of COVID-19.

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

Chicago’s top cop says his department is heading into the “next generation” of policing as two of its most senior leaders head into retirement and more than a dozen others have been promoted into command staff positions.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday delivered a blunt warning to young adults in Chicago: you are spreading the coronavirus, and threatening the tentative progress Chicago has made in fighting the pandemic.

The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people’s immune systems just the way scientists had hoped, researchers reported Tuesday -- as the shots are poised to begin key final testing.

The decision was announced at the start of a hearing in a federal lawsuit in Boston brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Anthony Riccio, the Chicago Police Department’s second-in-command, is retiring. The move comes as police departments nationwide are under the microscope — including in Chicago.

An effort to ease Chicago’s affordable housing crisis by permitting coach house dwellings stalled Friday amid opposition from aldermen concerned they would not be able to stop unwanted units from being built in their wards.

The comet has been delighting sky gazers across the globe. Catch it now, because it won’t swing back our way for another 6,800 years.

While the Chicago Police Department is increasing its community policing efforts, a new behavioral health task force on the West Side is convening to address trauma as a root cause of violence.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools leadership say the decision to remove police officers from schools should lie with individual local school councils. Now, some schools are taking action.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography is rolling out resistance. That’s the theme of their long-delayed show that just opened on the Columbia College campus in the Loop. We go for a look.