Stories by Patty Wetli

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is proposing the creation of a modern-day Civilian Conservation Corps as a way to put Americans to work while also directing resources toward the nation’s long neglected conservation projects.

Chicago Public Schools said 84.2% of its students attended remote learning classes Tuesday, the first day of the new year. That figure is down about 10% over each of the past four school years.

“We need help,” CPD Area One Commander Jarrod Smith said Friday. “So whatever you can do … if you have information, give us a call. There’s no such thing as too much information in a criminal investigation.”

A majority of Americans ages 18 through 34 say they've sometimes felt isolated in the past month, compared with about 4 in 10 older Americans, according to a new COVID Response Tracking Study conducted at the University of Chicago.

In a year when the coronavirus pandemic has reshaped countless American rituals, even the commemoration of 9/11 could not escape unchanged.

The west suburban community is full of history, with monuments to WWI and WWII veterans, and home to a legendary musician. It has struggled with higher rates of poverty and lack of access to health care, making it particularly susceptible to COVID-19.

Will new EPA regulations allow a Wisconsin power plant to dump more toxic metals into Lake Michigan? Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Hawthorne explains.

Alleys serve many purposes, but they’re not typically used as the backdrop for public art. Enter Teresa Parod, who is using house paint to elevate the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Six state representatives – three Democrats and three Republicans – got to work Thursday tackling whether Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan engaged in conduct “unbecoming” of a legislator. 

The mostly party-line vote capped weeks of wrangling that gave way to election-season political combat and name-calling over a fifth relief bill that all sides say they want but are unable to deliver. 

Two famous Germans take up permanent residence in Chicago, only to witness the evolution of a West Side neighborhood. Geoffrey Baer goes long on two enduring Humboldt Park statues.

Football is back. The Chicago Bears are set to kick off the regular season Sunday against the Detroit Lions. It’ll be the first time the Bears face an opponent this year, since the NFL skipped the preseason due to COVID-19.

The kickoff of the NFL season Thursday with 17,000 fans in the stadium illustrates the nation’s determination to resume its most popular sport in the middle of a pandemic that has already killed nearly 200,000 Americans.

A group of states suing over service cuts at the U.S. Postal Service is asking a federal judge to immediately undo some of them, saying the integrity of the upcoming election is at stake.

Police Superintendent David Brown said the so-called “tabletop exercises” involved officers responding to hypothetical looting reports to test the effectiveness and quickness of their response.

Nearly 2,000 new cases of coronavirus and 28-virus related deaths were reported Thursday by state health officials, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker said eight Illinois regions are making progress in slowing the spread of the virus.

A new rail ridership information dashboard, unveiled Thursday, provides data on the average number of seats taken per rail car at each stop along a given line, by time of day and day of the week. 

Watch the Sept. 10, 2020 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday unveiled a plan to replace the lead service lines responsible for contaminating the tap water in thousands of Chicago homes “over multiple decades” that relies on federal and state funds.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Illinois is already months behind in awarding licenses to new marijuana dispensaries. But now, legislators want to further delay the process. 

Attorney General William Barr credits a federal operation with a significant decline in homicides in Chicago, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasts Barr’s “victory lap” as “factually inaccurate.” Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.

President Donald Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed U.S. coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous and that he repeatedly played it down publicly, according to journalist Bob Woodward in his new book “Rage.”

In a win for nature lovers and fans of open space, the Chicago City Council voted on Wednesday to keep 100-plus acres in North Park protected from development, permanently.

Chicago Public Schools students are back in the classroom this week — virtually, that is. CPS CEO Janice Jackson tells us more about that and the results of the district’s “Learn. Plan. Succeed.” program. 

This weekend, we’re premiering two new shows focused on amplifying the voices of Chicago’s Black and Latino communities. We talk with the hosts of our new shows “Black Voices” and “Latino Voices.”

We speak with Protect Our Parks founder and president Herb Caplan about the latest in the legal battle over the $500 million project planned for Chicago’s South Side.