Stories by WTTW News

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

The government said 5.2 million more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the four-week total to about 22 million out of a work force of 159 million — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record. 

Chicago-area public transportation got $1.43 billion in CARES Act funding, which the revenue-strapped agencies hope arrives soon. But the Regional Transportation Authority warns they shouldn’t plan on another round of federal bailout money.

As federal officials weigh how and when to reopen the country, experts worry that the United States does not have enough public health workers to suppress another outbreak, especially those qualified to do contact tracing.

The nonprofit Urban Growers Collective operates community farms on Chicago’s South Side, providing fresh produce to underserved neighborhoods with few to no nutritional food options.

Garden centers are juggling an anticipated increase in demand with social distancing concerns. Now, many are offering online ordering, no-contact delivery and curbside pickup as options.

The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting new challenges to communities across Chicago that are already struggling. We visit Albany Park as part of our reporting series.

President Donald Trump has halted funding to the World Health Organization until a review can be conducted of its pandemic response. U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Jan Schakowsky weigh in on that and other recent moves by Trump.

As part of an ongoing series on how professional musicians are responding to a changing landscape, we meet a few aspiring young musicians, who tell us the downside – and the upside – of studying music during the pandemic.

The pandemic has made it even harder to do the things that some of us already had a hard time doing, like eating well and exercising. But with some planning and creativity, staying active and healthy while staying at home is totally doable.

Twenty weeks after he took over as the Chicago Police Department’s interim superintendent, Charlie Beck officially stepped down from his post Wednesday, handing over a badge to the city’s new top cop David Brown.

Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood is home to immigrants from all over the world. But the area is now seeing an uptick in gun violence and threats to housing stability, the area alderman says.

The novel coronavirus has closed schools, restaurants, bars and businesses throughout the state, and on Wednesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker revealed how the pandemic will cause a $2.7 billion shortfall this year and a $4.6 billion shortfall next year.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot called on the city’s watchdog to complete his probe into what happened before — and after — former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was discovered asleep in his running car after a night of drinking.

Michael Grice has used a wheelchair since he was a young man. He lives on his own in an apartment and gets help from assistants daily. This makes social distancing difficult, but his biggest concern right now is for people living in group settings.

Defending his office’s COVID-19 testing and isolation procedures, the Cook County sheriff said Wednesday he took action to prevent the spread of the virus earlier than any other sheriff in the country.

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

“We have just been crushed” by the coronavirus, said Metra CFO Tom Farmer. The agency has seen ridership drop as much as 97% during the pandemic.

When the governor issued a stay-at-home order last month, cases of COVID-19 were more than doubling every three days in Chicago. Had that rate held steady, approximately 64,500 Chicagoans would have been sickened by now, according to new data.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot presided over the city’s first virtual meeting Wednesday morning from her office on the 5th floor of City Hall, with 48 aldermen connected via Zoom.

The United States is WHO’s largest single donor, contributing between $400 million and $500 million annually to the Geneva-based agency in recent years.

Portions of a Chicago expressway left icy by a wintry blast that brought overnight snowfall led to a pileup involving of dozens of vehicles early Wednesday, sending 14 people to hospitals, officials said.

Could this year get any worse? Well yeah, it could. It once snowed in June, according to the National Weather Service.

The City Council will write a new chapter in the history books Wednesday by meeting virtually to keep from spreading the coronavirus. The meeting will follow an “abbreviated agenda” and is designed “primarily to adopt rules addressing meetings by videoconference.”

A drug that has the potential to heal, or even prevent, the coronavirus is in high demand. And that’s a problem for patients with autoimmune diseases who know the drug works for them. 

The West Side neighborhood of Austin has become a hot spot for COVID-19 cases. According to the city, it falls into a zip code that has recorded a COVID-19 case rate of between 431-720 people per 100,000.