Stories by Patty Wetli

Sanitation crews have been seeing a surge in coronavirus-related items placed in recycling bins. They belong in the trash.

The Little Village community has already been hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19. Now, residents are fuming about the demolition of a smokestack that gave rise to a plume of dust and particulate matter that wafted through the neighborhood.

Between March 1 and April 4, the state received 513,173 initial unemployment claims, surpassing the total number of claims filed in 2019, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

What Illinois social service agencies are doing to mitigate the risks seniors face during the pandemic.

It makes sense that a veteran Chicago blues and jazz musician is on the city’s oldest blues and jazz record label. We visit Dave Specter and Delmark Records for a look back — and forward.

Patients who have recovered from the coronavirus can help those struggling to fight the disease, as part of a clinical trial just launched by University of Chicago Medicine – the first trial of its kind in the area.

Chicago Public Schools has just started its remote learning program, but schools in other cities have been holding virtual classes for weeks. We speak with a Palatine native who is the vice principal at a school nearly 8,000 miles away.

Chicago Public Schools students are now back in the classroom — virtually, that is. Students officially began remote learning Monday, but many people argue that nothing can replace time in the classroom.

Chicago is investigating the demolition of a former coal plant in Little Village and halting additional work at the site following an uproar over the smokestack’s implosion, which sent a plume of fine powder all over the neighborhood.

An influx of visitors has made social distancing difficult, so the preserve was padlocked over the weekend. Nearby, Rosehill Cemetery has also closed its grounds to the general public.

Watch the April 13, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

When We All Vote, a nonpartisan voting initiative, says Americans should have greater access to voting by mail, early in-person voting and online voter registration.

The coronavirus outbreak has fueled attempts to ban abortions in some states, but providers where the procedure remains available report increased demand, often from women distraught over economic stress and health concerns linked to the pandemic.

Apollo 13’s astronauts never gave a thought to their mission number as they blasted off for the moon 50 years ago. Even when their oxygen tank ruptured two days later — on April 13.

An active community of sewers in Chicago and across the U.S. has stepped up to the challenge of making cloth masks to help combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Illinois eclipsed the 20,000 mark Sunday, but Gov. J.B. Pritkzer said there’s evidence the state may be “stabilizing” or “bending” the curve.

As Chicagoans hunker down amid the pandemic, we check in with some familiar faces on how they’re weathering the storm and celebrating the holidays this weekend.

Sharing a meal, attending a funeral and celebrating a birthday. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, these otherwise innocuous activities can result in the spread of the highly contagious virus, according to a new report.

The $2.2 trillion package that Congress approved to offer financial help during the coronavirus pandemic has one major exclusion: millions of immigrants who do not have legal status in the U.S. but work here and pay taxes.

Blood tests for the coronavirus  could play a key role in deciding whether millions of Americans can safely return to work and school. But public health officials warn that the current “Wild West” of unregulated tests is creating confusion.

Three weeks into a mandatory statewide order to stay at home, Illinois is offering two new programs to help people reeling from the coronavirus, whether physically fighting the disease or fighting off the mental demons it has unleashed.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Saturday introduced Dr. Rachel Rubin as incident commander and Dr. Kiran Joshi as the assistant incident commander of the Cook County Department of Public Health’s operations

As large American cities try various strategies to keep people home to limit the coronavirus's spread, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has balanced a blend of stern – and occasionally scolding – news conferences with lighthearted social media to drive home her point.

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus briefly overtook Italy's for the highest in the world Saturday, according to the running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Deaths have been declining in recent days in Italy while rising rapidly in the U.S.

CPD Sgt. Clifford Martin, a father of three, died this week. He first experienced symptoms on March 20, stopped working on March 22, and that he’d then been hospitalized for two weeks.

In Chicago, drug arrests have plummeted 42% in the weeks since the city shut down. Part of that decrease, some criminal lawyers say, is that drug dealers have no choice but to wait out the economic slump.