Stories by Amanda Vinicky

The pandemic-era budget proposed Wednesday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker relies heavily on businesses to bring an additional $932 million into state coffers through what the Democrat describes as closing corporate tax loopholes. We get reaction from state lawmakers.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker takes aim at Republicans during his budget address. Our politics team breaks that down and more.

NASA prepares to land a rover on Mars designed specifically to detect signs of ancient life. Local astronomer and space exploration enthusiast Mark Hammergren tells us more about the mission.

As of last month, the transgender military ban was repealed. We talk with retired Col. Jennifer Pritzker about the importance of this move.

The lack of affordable and nutritious food in North Chicago has made the city a food desert, but soon it'll get its first full-service grocery store in 20 years.

President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office.

A Chicago man allegedly pushed a woman out of her vehicle as he was attempting to escape during a carjacking before getting stuck in the heavy snowfall that blanketed the city Tuesday morning.

Students from across Chicago voted on the name for the Shedd’s 5-month old Pacific white-sided dolphin calf.

Watch the Feb. 17, 2021 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host who ripped into liberals and laid waste to political correctness with a merry brand of malice that made him one of the most powerful voices on the American right, influencing the rightward push of conservatism and the rise of Donald Trump, died Wednesday. He was 70.

If winter 2021 feels epic, that’s because it has been. According to the National Weather Service, it’s been 40 years since Chicago has seen so much snow in such a short span of time.

The sworn accounts by executioners raise questions about whether officials misled courts to ensure the executions scheduled from July to mid-January were done before death penalty opponent Joe Biden became president.

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on people’s lives, and also on government budgets. On Wednesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker will propose his ideas for getting Illinois through it. Here’s a preview of that address.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol.

Bars and restaurants in Chicago can now expand their capacity for indoor service. We discuss that and other COVID-19 developments with Dr. Susan Bleasdale, medical director of infection prevention and control at University of Illinois Health.

President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package could include canceling some student loan debt. What that could mean for borrowers — and the economy.

A group of young women are changing the narrative of gospel music — and who it’s for. We meet a band of sisters who are on a mission. 

Thousands of preschool and special education students will resume in-person learning Wednesday, a day after all Chicago Public Schools students worked from home following a mammoth snowfall across the city.

A Democratic-led effort to pass a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package has passed its latest challenge with House committees advancing measures that will soon be combined into a single bill expected to clear the full House by the end of February.

“Sole e Amore,” Enrique Mazzola’s newest project, will include two dozen songs by seven of the most beloved Italian opera composers of the 19th century, performed by 11 members of the Ryan Opera Center, Lyric’s renowned artist development program.

As Chicago digs out from yet another major snowfall, with accumulation piling on top of previous storm totals, the Department of Streets and Sanitation is activating its plan to relocate snow to pre-determined sites. Plows could shift to residential streets Tuesday evening, officials said. 

Acquitted by the Senate of inciting last month’s U.S. Capitol insurrection, former President Donald Trump faces more fallout from the unrest, including a lawsuit from a congressman Tuesday. But his biggest legal problems might be the ones that go much further back.

Chicago officials announced Tuesday they will allow indoor dining and drinking at bars and restaurants to operate at 40% of their normal capacity, or no more than 50 people.

Watch the Feb. 16, 2021 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Snow dampens other sounds, but it makes plenty of noise itself, especially in colder temperatures. Here’s why. 

President Joe Biden is extending a ban on housing foreclosures to June 30 to help homeowners struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. The moratorium on foreclosures of federally guaranteed mortgages had been set to expire on March 31.