Stories by Associated Press

It’s been 120 years since New York ornithologist Frank Chapman launched his Christmas Bird Count as a bold new alternative to what had been a longtime Christmas tradition of hunting birds.

A push to delay pot sales in Chicago fails. President Trump is impeached by the House, but Senate trial details are uncertain. Former Assessor Joe Berrios is reportedly under federal investigation. And the Bears play on with the playoff out of reach.

Health officials now blame vitamin E acetate for the “vast majority” of cases in the U.S. outbreak of vaping illnesses and they say doctors should monitor patients more closely after they go home from the hospital.

President Donald Trump blasted a prominent Christian magazine on Friday, a day after it published an editorial arguing that he should be removed from office  because of his “blackened moral record.”

Talk about ending the year with a bang. Just a few weeks before the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is to embark on a whirlwind tour of Europe, the orchestra, under the direction of guest conductor Edo de Waart, is performing an altogether thrilling program.

Brendan Dassey was 16 years old when he confessed to assisting his uncle, Steven Avery, with the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach. His case and subsequent appeals were made famous in the 2015 Netflix series “Making a Murderer.”

The NBA said Thursday night that the Grammy winners will be headline performers at the All-Star Game in Chicago on Feb. 16.

Democratic presidential candidates offered two very different debates during their final forum of 2019. And while they jousted cordially over the economy, climate change and foreign policy, it was a wine cave that opened up the fault lines.

Last year, 86% of the nearly 490,000 traffic stops made by Chicago police involved a driver of color, according to the ACLU of Illinois. Of those, 300,000 stops involved a black driver.

When a woman snatched a newborn from its mother’s arms in 1946, the case made headlines nationwide. And though the mystery seemed solved two years later, recent media reports say a man living in rural Michigan may be that very child.

Just seven Democrats will take the stage for the sixth and final round of presidential debates in 2019. That’s down from 20 candidates six months ago. The field may be winnowing, but the primary contest remains deeply unsettled. 

Health officials believe puppies purchased from pet stores are the likely source of an outbreak that has sickened 30 people across more than a dozen states, including Illinois. What you need to know about the outbreak.

Depending whom you ask in this deeply polarized country, Americans saw the House vote Wednesday night as a just expression of the nation’s founding document, or a gross distortion of it. How people reacted across the country.

Based on Studs Terkel’s 1974 best-selling book of oral history, this musical is now in a wonderfully realized, sweat-and-dreams production at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, where six actors portray the many and varied attitudes about work.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down “Obamacare’s” now-toothless requirement that Americans carry health insurance but sidestepped a ruling on the law’s overall constitutionality. The decision means the law remains in effect for now.

The top Senate Republican on Thursday denounced the “unfair” House impeachment of President Donald Trump and reassured Trump and his supporters that “moments like this are why the United States Senate exists.”

President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday night, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.

A new Chicago mayor and Illinois governor. A massive teachers strike. A Hollywood actor who put the city’s criminal justice system on the world stage. Those and more top stories of the year from our “Chicago Tonight” reporters.

A notorious hedge fund becomes the largest shareholder of Tribune Publishing. Two other news outlets are going by the wayside. But the local media landscape includes some possible bright spots, too.

With the Bears’ playoff hopes dashed, can they at least end their final home game on a high note? Former Bears offensive lineman James “Big Cat” Williams gives us his take.

The measure to stall recreational marijuana sales in Chicago was defeated by a 29-19 vote Wednesday, but not before the proceedings devolved into a chaotic fight over the rules and rounds of political one-upmanship.

Singer R. Kelly pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he schemed with others to pay for a fake ID for an unnamed female a day before he married R&B singer Aaliyah, then 15 years old, in a secret ceremony in 1994.

Cook County’s public guardian filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against a Chicago psychiatric facility that treated children in state care, alleging troubling claims of sexual abuse and improper medication at the “hospital of horrors.’’

Boeing’s 737 Max headaches continued Wednesday with news that an Irish company that buys and leases airplanes is suing the Chicago-based aerospace giant.

Holiday trees, Christmas tubas, Hanukkah goblins and a winter solstice bonfire usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in and around Chicago.

Dwright Boone-Doty and Corey Morgan were convicted in October of first-degree murder for the killing of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee. The two will each spend multiple decades behind bars for the slaying, which prosecutors called a “dark day” in the city of Chicago.