Stories by Evan Garcia

Eddie Arruza and guests discuss whether the Chicago Sun-Times recent endorsement of Lori Lightfoot in the race for Chicago mayor will help boost the former federal prosecutor’s campaign.

City Hall scandals grow. Mayoral forums heat up. Ford invests in Chicago while Target shutters two South Side stores. Joe Ricketts’ racist emails draw fire. And Portis and Parker are traded for Porter.

A former reading specialist at a Chicago charter school claims she faced retaliation and termination last year after voicing concerns about special education students she believes were illegally denied proper supports.

Lyric Opera’s production of “Elektra,” last seen here in 2012, has found its ideal cast this time around with singers whose spectacular, powerhouse voices are matched by superb acting skills.

A bankruptcy judge has blessed a $5.2 billion plan by Sears chairman and biggest shareholder Eddie Lampert to keep the iconic business going. The approval means roughly 425 stores and 45,000 jobs will be preserved.

Watch the Feb. 7, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

After decades of neglect and decay, Chicago’s historic Uptown Theater is finally being brought back to life. And some of the original light fixtures – painstakingly restored – will soon make their way back to the 1925 movie palace.

When will Gov. J.B. Pritzker release the reports he says will serve as his guides? And why is it taking so long?

The Illinois Senate voted Thursday to hike the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour within six years, quickly advancing a top campaign promise of newly elected Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Prosecutors are building a case, partly on a bloody handprint and the responses of a cadaver-sniffing dog, that a former University of Illinois physics student killed a 26-year-old Chinese scholar in 2017 at his off-campus apartment.

Are Chicago police officers ready for the reforms ordered by a new consent decree? We hear from Kevin Graham, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.  

A new report from the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago recommends a 1-percent increase in the state income tax. 

Blazing speeds are reportedly coming to your devices with 5G. Chicago Tribune technology reporter Ally Marotti tells us what to expect – and when.

We learn the ABCs of jazz with Chicago author and illustrator Neil Shapiro, whose new book is a “work of love” – and an ode to the greats.

The Chicago area’s wastewater treatment agency says it is ahead of schedule in its efforts to combat climate change. 

“I want my mama,” the 9-year-old victim pleaded as he was being beaten with a belt inside his school's bathroom, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. His attacker told him, “I am your mama.”

The harrowing realism of “The Father” finesses a remarkable feat of imagination that makes the audience experience the same disorientation, confusion and anger that accompany the protagonist’s own loss of clarity and memory. 

Chicago aldermen are caught up in some questionable or unscrupulous behavior, as the campaign for mayor gets down and dirty. Carol Marin, Paris Schutz and Amanda Vinicky have details in this week’s roundtable.

There’s been a lot of talk in Chicago about police reform and a police code of silence. Sydney Roberts, the head of the city’s police watchdog agency, weighs in on the newly approved federal consent decree.

Watch the Feb. 6, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Most Chicago-area expressways are littered with billboards. How did one expressway escape the same fate? Geoffrey Baer drives by with the answer to that and other viewer questions in this encore edition of “Ask Geoffrey.”

The season for political messaging is in swing, but how can politicians – especially those running in highly competitive races for Chicago mayor or alderman – break through? 

There’s a new restaurant trend emerging across the U.S.: a surcharge that’s added to customers’ checks. The owners of one local restaurant say it’s the best way to help their workers. Here’s a taste of how it works.

Brawny babes, discount theater tickets, hot rods and cool jazz usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in Chicago.

Illinois is moving away from the PARCC assessment, but students might not notice much of a difference when the Illinois Board of Education rolls out its new federally mandated exam this spring.

State Rep. Will Davis plans to file legislation this week that he says would expand the state’s share of renewable energy to 40 percent of total energy sources by 2030.