Stories by Amanda Vinicky

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been upfront recently that city residents should expect to pay more in taxes to help fill persistent budget holes. One she’s eyeing? A tax on services.

Geoffrey Baer investigates an early attempt at a Chicago baseball crosstown classic – that may or may not have actually happened.

For the past two weeks, electric scooters have been zipping around Chicago’s West Side. An update on how the pilot program is going.

As states prepare to draw new election boundaries after the 2020 census, what can be done to ensure those maps give equal weight to all votes? Behind the practice of gerrymandering and the movement to curb it.

Meet Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, the first woman in the 200-year history of Chicago’s federal court to become chief judge.

We visit a career-spanning show of work by Marvin E. Newman, a still-working photographer who captured Chicago and its people in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Watch the July 2, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

The disease known as sudden oak death has killed large numbers of oak trees and native plant species in California, Oregon and Europe. The pathogen behind it has now been identified in Illinois.

If you plan on hitting the road Friday afternoon, be warned: it’s projected to be the worst time for travelers in Chicago, according to AAA, with delays as much as two times the normal commute. 

Federal defenders are seeking a four-week delay to review and translate videos of Yingying Zhang and her family if that evidence is allowed at sentencing.

For all it’s polish and ambition I can’t say the show has turned me into a fan of the operetta style. But “The Flower of Hawaii” is unquestionably an artifact of musical theater interest, and this might just be the only chance you will ever have to experience it.

A Chicago native is returning home to cover the city’s vibrant arts scene for “Chicago Tonight.”

More than 200 corporations, including many of America’s best-known companies, are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that federal civil rights law bans job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Police say charges are currently pending against six adults and one possible juvenile accused of spray-painting the Bean and Cancer Survivor Wall in Maggie Daley Park.

The chief of the Transportation Security Administration says travelers should see only a slight increase in checkpoint wait times over the four-day July 4 holiday weekend.

If you filled up your gas tank Monday, you may have noticed it got pricier. What’s behind that bump, and what other new laws are going into effect at the start of Illinois’ new fiscal year.

In 2017, digital news publication The Triibe launched with the goal of reshaping the media narrative of black Chicago. Now, the outlet is venturing into print media with the release of the 2019 Triibe Guide. 

If Chicago wants to ease its pension problems, it’ll need $1 billion in new taxes over the next three years. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot reportedly has another plan up her sleeve.

After four years of conversations with the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Chicago Tribune jazz and classical music critic wrote a book. Howard Reich joins us to discuss “The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has appointed the city’s first “chief risk officer.” What exactly does that job entail – and how will it save Chicago millions of dollars a year?

If you want to see wildflowers in and around Chicago, photographer Mike MacDonald will tell you where to go – and when – for the most glorious blooms.

Watch the July 1, 2019 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Iran acknowledged Monday it had broken the limit set on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by the 2015 nuclear deal, marking its first major departure from the unraveling agreement a year after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the accord.

There were more than 50 shootings this past weekend in Chicago. Despite that, the total number of shootings in the city is at its lowest point since 2015, police say.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush said Kamala Harris was “the only candidate prepared to fight for all Americans against a Trump administration that has left them behind.”

A partnership between Google and the University of Chicago resulted in a violation of patients’ privacy rights, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by a former patient of the University of Chicago Medical Center.