Stories by WTTW News

Watch the May 18, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

As part of Illinois’ push to create an “army” of contact tracers to identify people at risk of developing COVID-19, the state is launching pilot programs in two counties that have seen a combined 7,430 cases of the virus.

Amid warnings that 20% of Chicago restaurants will not reopen after the coronavirus pandemic, aldermen Monday turned up the heat on delivery apps that critics say are hurting already-struggling restaurants.

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday he has been taking hydroxychloroquine and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half now.” The drug not been shown to combat the new coronavirus.

The Illinois Supreme Court officially disbarred former Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Monday, two months after a state panel recommended that the disgraced politician lose his law license. 

In honor of “The Last Dance,” the 10-part ESPN documentary about the Chicago Bulls championship years, we revisit an interview from the “Chicago Tonight” archives.

The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has added “in excess of $500 million” to the city of Chicago’s projected budget deficit for 2021, Chief Financial Officer Jennie Bennett told aldermen Monday.

Memorial Day is traditionally one of the busiest weekends in the Forest Preserves, but because of COVID-19, people are being encouraged to hold cookouts, picnics and other holiday activities at home this year.

General Iron ceased shredding operations at its Lincoln Park facility after an explosion Monday morning rocked the neighborhood, prompting residents and the local alderman to call for the facility to be permanently closed.

Chicago’s effort to beat back the coronavirus pandemic got a boost from two celebrities Monday, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city was making “good steady progress” toward the next phase of reopening.

Early Monday morning, the North Branch Chicago River gauge at Pulaski Road showed the waterway at 17.87 feet, inches away from the river's "minor" flood level at 18 feet, according to National Weather Service data.

Through a nonprofit effort dubbed Initiative 77(3)12, friends Bill Phan and Kevin Yoo are feeding hundreds of health care workers each week across Chicago – and they hope to keep it going as long as the need continues.

The electronics company is collaborating with the university to produce the FlexVent, a gas-operated ventilator “based on the Illinois RapidVent concept” that was developed in response to COVID-19.

The Anti-Defamation League says some of the activity at rallies protesting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order is “vile” and racist, including posters equating Pritkzer, who is Jewish, with Adolf Hitler.

Sunday brought another uptick in coronavirus cases in Illinois. Another 1,734 new cases of COVID-19 brings the statewide total of confirmed cases to 94,191, with 4,177 deaths.

Skin doctors suddenly are looking at a lot of toes — whether by emailed picture or video visit — as concern grows that for some people, a sign of COVID-19 may pop up in an unusual spot.

Under an emergency rule quietly filed Friday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, bars, restaurants and other businesses that open to customers in defiance of Illinois’ stay-at-home order now risk being charged with a misdemeanor.

In an online commencement address Saturday, former President Barack Obama told college graduates that the pandemic shows many officials “aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

Michael McCaskey, who led the Chicago Bears for nearly three decades following the death of his grandfather George Halas, died Saturday after a lengthy battle with cancer, the team said. He was 76.

Illinois saw its coronavirus caseload increase Saturday by 2,088, but the percentage of positive cases among those tested, known as the “positivity rate,” fell to 15% statewide, down a percentage point from a day earlier.

In Chicago and around the world, people are creating photographs, paintings, emails, journals and social media posts that will shape how the world remembers the coronavirus pandemic for years and centuries to come. 

Across the United States, masks have become more and more prevalent. And people with masks – as well as latex gloves – have found their way into more and more crime reports.

More than 4,000 have died from COVID-19 in Illinois as Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushes the state’s estimated peak to mid-June. Chicago is on pace to move to the next phase at the end of the month, but the lakefront will remain closed. 

Employees of the Chicago Public Library will head back to work on Wednesday, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot tossed cold water on Library Commissioner Andrea Telli’s suggestion that libraries could reopen as soon as June 1.

With O’Hare and Midway airports deserted amid the coronavirus pandemic, stores, restaurants and rental car companies are set to get a two-month break on most of the rent they owe to the city under a proposal that cleared a key city panel Friday.

COVID-19 can mimic labor symptoms and can cause additional complications for women following birth, according to Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who called for increased testing of pregnant women.