The latest in our series WTTW News: A Safer City takes a look at simple ways to make public spaces safer. How some youth are leading anti-violence efforts. And teenagers and young adults on the importance of summer jobs.

Public safety isn’t just about addressing the root causes of crime or stopping people from picking up a gun. Sometimes, making a neighborhood safer is as simple as a water balloon or a bounce house.

Northwestern athletics program reeling after firing of football and now baseball coach. The search for a new top cop is down to three finalists. And multiple tornadoes rock the area with more severe weather in the forecast.

Renault Robinson, co-founder of the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League who served in various roles under Mayor Jane Byrne and Mayor Harold Washington, died on July 8 at age 80.

The region cleans up after a night of multiple reported tornadoes. Chicago’s one step closer to having a new police chief. And the FDA approves the country’s first-ever over-the-counter birth control pill.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it cleared Perrigo’s once-a-day Opill to be sold without a prescription, making it the first such medication to be moved out from behind the pharmacy counter.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch until 10 p.m. Wednesday for the Chicago area. Tornado warnings were issued for several regions.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability recommended two veterans of the beleaguered Chicago Police Department and one outsider.

Chicago gets another round of heavy rain. The latest on allegations of CPD sexual abuse against migrants. New details in the Madigan corruption case. And Montrose Beach’s piping plover spreads its wings.

New efforts from Michael Madigan’s attorneys to suppress key evidence in his upcoming bribery trial. A battle among Chicago’s democrats for political power on the city’s Northwest Side. And fallout from allegations of hazing and racism in Northwestern University’s football team.

Local organizations are demanding answers from the Chicago Police Department amid allegations that officers at the Ogden (10th) Police District headquarters had sexual relations with migrants.

Longtime Chicago resident Elena Diadenko uses her talents to teach a traditional form of folk art and raise awareness about the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Three endangered piping plover chicks were released into the wild Wednesday at a protected site at Montrose Beach in an effort to aid in its species recovery. It marks the first time plovers have been released in the state.