Stories by Paris Schutz

Chicago police officials have long admitted they struggle solving homicides, but a city just west of Chicago has seen an almost miraculous improvement in its homicide clearance rate – and it coincides with a different approach to policing.

Toni Preckwinkle has just entered her 10th year as president of the Cook County Board. She joins us to discuss a new plan to spur economic growth in the south suburbs, questions over her security detail and a longtime political ally.

After months of bad PR, public floggings on Capitol Hill and a global grounding of the most important model in its commercial aviation fleet, Boeing has given CEO Dennis Muilenburg his walking papers.

Mark Galli, editor-in-chief of the influential evangelical Christian publication Christianity Today, joins us to discuss his recent editorial that fired up the president.

A group of aldermen have introduced a long-discussed ordinance directing the city’s Transportation Department to install noise monitors along Lake Shore Drive, with an eye toward cracking down on illegally modified motorcycles that race up and down the highway.

They appear to be marbled, speckled, dipped and dyed, with names like “Red Glitter” and “Jingle Bell Rock.” We visit a poinsettia farm and learn what it takes to cultivate the crop in time for the holidays.

If you find yourself snowed in this winter (or you just feel like hibernating by the fire), how about reaching for a good book? Three book lovers join us with their top picks.

Watch the Dec. 23, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg resigned Monday over the deadly 737 Max debacle that has plunged the aircraft maker into crisis and damaged its reputation as one of the stalwarts of American industry.

Patrick Mahomes outplayed Mitchell Trubisky, throwing for two touchdowns and running for another score, and the Chiefs beat the Chicago Bears 26-3 Sunday night for their fifth straight win.

One person has been charged in connection with a shooting early Sunday at a house party that left 13 people wounded, four of them critically, Chicago police said.

There’s no way to sugarcoat this news: Nearly half of American adults will be obese within a decade and one-quarter will be severely so, a new report predicts.

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.