Stories by Paul Caine

Maryam Saleh, an entrepreneur and Chicago-based computational neuroscientist, tells us about her new role leading the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Watch the Sept. 22, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

The city’s top lawyer bluntly warned aldermen to be careful when demanding that firms do more to meet goals set by city officials designed to encourage them to work with firms owned by female, Black and Latino Chicagoans.

With Dorothy Brown deciding not to run for a fifth term, Cook County will have a new circuit court clerk this fall for the first time in 20 years. And legal advocates have some recommendations for whoever wins that seat in November.

Wisconsin’s infection rate is now averaging 31 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, per day, over seven days. A minimum of 15 cases per 100,000 residents triggers Chicago’s quarantine order.

Despite an overall drop this spring in felony charges like assault and narcotics possession, Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said his jurisdiction saw a 139% increase in the number of child abuse and neglect cases.

“If you’re not registered to vote, it’s not too late,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Tuesday as she urged people to participate in the November election.

During the fall equinox, the sun rises due east and sets due west, creating an effect dubbed “Chicagohenge” (in reference to Stonehenge), when the sunset is strikingly framed on east-west streets by the city’s skyscrapers.

The Dreadhead Cowboy, a local celebrity whose real name is Adam Hollingsworth, said he rode down the Dan Ryan Expressway in support of the #KidsLivesMatter movement.

Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic, is a federal appellate judge in Chicago who has established herself as a reliable conservative on hot-button legal issues from abortion to gun control. 

Chicago architect Joel Berman is using his love of design to teach the next generation of artists in a new virtual drawing class. We recently joined the students to learn more.

About 200 people took part in a peaceful walk Sunday in Albany Park to bring attention to a recent increase in gun violence in the Northwest Side neighborhood, where last week at least seven people were shot, including two teens.

Chicago’s chief financial officer warned aldermen Monday that taxing big firms and financial transactions would not help dig the city out of a massive budget hole caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

A recent poll found that 17% of households in Chicago can’t afford to pay for both their food and bills. How COVID-19 has impacted food security in Chicago six months into the pandemic.

It might not be the day of your Coppertone dreams, but you can get a little sand between your toes by signing up for one or all of this week’s volunteer beach and shoreline cleanups.

Just 44 days before President Donald Trump’s reelection will be decided, Republicans are looking to a Supreme Court nomination fight to unite a deeply fractured party as it faces the very real possibility of losing the White House.

Could the pandemic affect the Old Post Office’s leases with high-profile tenants? Crain’s Chicago Business reporter Danny Ecker joins us with the stories behind the headlines.

Despite concerns over using public transportation during the coronavirus pandemic, many essential workers and residents without cars have been relying on the Chicago Transit Authority to get around.

People have been leaving notes and flowers outside the Edgewater office of Cedille Records, a classical music label owned by James Ginsburg, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Watch the Sept. 21, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

To mark summer’s official end, city officials on Monday released new guidelines designed to help restaurants and some bars keep serving diners and drinkers outside once temperatures drop.

Chicago Teachers Union leadership and members said CPS needs to better tailor student schedules to reduce screen time and allow clinicians to do more work from home to limit the number of people who are in school buildings on a daily basis.

The Federal Reserve said Monday that Americans’ household net worth jumped nearly 7% in the April-June quarter to $119 trillion. That figure had sunk to $111.3 trillion in the first quarter, when the coronavirus battered the economy.

President Donald Trump said Monday he expects to announce his pick for the Supreme Court on Friday or Saturday, after funeral services for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and just days before the first presidential election debate.

With the nation racing to come to grips with centuries of racial sins, officials plan to remove the Capitol lawn statue of Stephen A. Douglas, whose forceful 19th century politics helped forge modern-day Illinois but who also profited from slavery.

Joe Biden on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump and leading Senate Republicans for trying to jam through a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.