Stories by Alex Ruppenthal

The 151-year-old zoo will continue to offer free admission for the next 30-plus years after agreeing to an extended contract with the city.

Attorneys for the former “Empire” actor continue to proclaim their client’s innocence, and say a judge’s recent decision to allow a special prosecutor to review criminal charges against the actor is a “travesty of justice.”

Pools are a popular way to beat the heat during the summer months, but a new federal report warns of the dangers they pose to children. 

Public housing officials in Chicago were planning well-being checks on residents as the heat and humidity are expected to mount to dangerous levels.

The Chicago Police Board on Thursday fired four police officers for allegedly covering up a white officer’s 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald.

It is possible to keep your garden alive when the weather shifts from extreme rain to extreme heat? The Chicago Botanic Garden’s Eliza Fournier has some tips for combatting common problems.

This weekend is the 14th annual Pitchfork Music Festival – a homegrown stage for adventurous music from around the world, including Chicago. We visit a pair of young local artists as they prepare for their Pitchfork debut.

Earlier this month, we took you on a tour of a distillery that produces Malort, the Chicago-born liquor that inspires devotion – and disgust. This week, we pour out a hefty helping of the stuff and stick it in the fryer.

A medical sterilization plant in west suburban Willowbrook that’s been shuttered since February would reopen under a proposed court order, but not if residents who leave near the facility have their way.

A new documentary from Chicago’s Kartemquin Films revisits an extreme weather event that killed more than 700 people – most of them poor and black. We discuss “Cooked: Survival by Zip Code” with producer Fenell Doremus.

The CTA, Metra and Pace might be running a little more efficiently going forward. After a 10-year drought, Chicago’s public transit system is set to receive billions in state capital funding.

You’re not crazy. A local expert says people are seeing “substantially more flashing activity in the evening.” He tells us why there are so many of our favorite summertime bug – and why they light up.

A 12-person jury deliberated for more than eight hours over the course of two days in Peoria’s federal courthouse, but failed to reach a unanimous decision in the death-penalty case. 

Watch the July 18, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday posted data showing nearly 68,000 drug overdose deaths were reported last year. Overdose deaths had been climbing each year since 1990, topping 70,000 in 2017.

Scientists are often the foremost experts in their fields of study, but they aren’t necessarily well versed in the tricky science of collaboration.

Rising temperatures this week could lead to unhealthy air quality, particularly for people with respiratory conditions, as the heat combines with pollution from vehicle emissions and other sources, says the American Lung Association. 

More than 100 local heat records are expected to fall Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Most won’t be record-daily highs but record-high nighttime lows, and that lack of cooling can be dangerous, meteorologists say. 

Why the federal probe into a former Chicago alderman could spell trouble for House Speaker Michael Madigan. Our politics team takes on that story and more in our weekly roundtable.

John Paul Stevens was a born-and-bred Chicagoan who rose to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Local legal scholars, historians and attorneys who worked with Stevens reflect on his life.

A new deal could be worth up to $100 million for the giant Port of Chicago on the city’s Southeast Side.

A youth basketball league from the 1940s and ‘50s is a reminder of Japanese American internment during World War II. Geoffrey Baer has that story and more in this edition of Ask Geoffrey.

New analysis of Chicago homicide data by the Erikson Institute underscores the effect violent crime can have on young children.

Watch the July 17, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

A bold plan to get hundreds of people into the Chicago River for a 2.4-mile swim remains docked for a year or so after organizers struggled to secure permits and coordinate with a number of city agencies.

A 12-person jury is in the process of deciding whether the former Ph.D. candidate will live out the rest of his natural life behind bars or if he’ll be put to death for the kidnapping and killing of Yingying Zhang.