Stories by Kristen Thometz

A coalition of Chicago companies has teamed up to provide free grief and trauma counseling services to people who have lost family members to gun violence.

U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam indicated he supports the measure although he is concerned about the possible impact of the Medicaid rollback. “The Medicaid question, particularly for Illinois, is very challenging,” he said.

The latest draft of what will become Illinois' new public education policy plan cleared its first major hurdle Wednesday, earning unanimous support from state education leaders.

Watch the March 14, 2017 full episode of "Chicago Tonight."

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson joins us to discuss his department’s new policies and the challenges facing Chicago.

The Chicago Police Department's controversial use of force policy gets a do-over. 

Chef Rick Bayless is just one of the highlights at this year’s three-day Good Food Festival. We speak with the event’s founder to learn more.

Watch the March 13, 2017 full episode of "Chicago Tonight."

Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes could see a substantial amount of federal funding dry up.

Colorectal cancer is increasing among younger adults despite an overall decrease in the disease in the U.S., according to a new study.  A local doctor talks about the disease and the importance of screening.

Advocates for Illinois’ agriculture industry anticipate new export opportunities if the U.S. relaxes trade barriers with Cuba. 

Artistic responses to the politically pointed term are on display starting this week at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Learn about the “Sanctuary” exhibit.

A place where ducks outnumber people 20 to 1 might not sound like somewhere you’d want to move with your wife and young daughter. But that’s exactly what Chicago author David McAninch did.

Pinball machines and Ed Paschke paintings go side by side as a suburban museum becomes an artful arcade.

United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked for the immediate resignation of 46 remaining U.S. attorneys that were appointed under the previous presidential administration.

A bill prohibiting employers from screening job applicants based on wage or salary history advanced out of the Senate’s Labor Committee this week.

CPS CEO Forrest Claypool and the Board of Education are both named in a civil suit filed Friday by Access Living, a disability advocacy nonprofit, on behalf of the wheelchair-bound student at Drummond Montessori Magnet School in Bucktown.

A weeklong event brings coders and innovators together – both virtually and in person – to build websites and mobile apps to help veterans.

Illinois would get slammed with extra Medicaid costs as Republicans rush to repeal Obamacare. Chicago teachers threaten another one-day walkout. And the Bears cut Jay Cutler. 

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have invented a new sponge that can absorb oil from water and then be wrung out and reused, a potentially game-changing tool for dealing with oil spills.

Had ASPIRA teachers gone through with their threat to go on strike March 17, it would have been the first labor stoppage for charter teachers in U.S. history.

Watch the March 9, 2017 full episode of "Chicago Tonight."

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson testifies in Springfield in favor of tougher sentences for repeat gun offenders. But will his proposed changes actually make the city safer?

Neil deGrasse Tyson joins Chicago Tonight’s Eddie Arruza for an extended conversation about science and our place in the cosmos. 

Visit a Northwest Side high school where a food science lab is growing the next generation of urban farmers.

Meet the founder of the nonprofit group My Block My Hood My City, who believes in the power of change.