This summer marks the 20-year anniversary of a brutal heat wave that hit Chicago and left more than 700 people dead. Tonight, WGN chief meteorologist Tom Skilling and Northeastern Illinois University professor emeritus Robert Starks join us to remember the summer of 1995.

We sit down with local author Gioia Diliberto to discuss her sweeping new biography of a fashion icon and trailblazer. Join us to learn about her just-released book, Diane von Furstenberg: A Life Unwrapped.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and from both chambers talk about the emergency one-month budget the Senate will vote on this week, and whether there will be any negotiations or attempts to pass a full budget for the coming fiscal year when the House returns to Springfied on Wednesday.

We share what you had to say about our story on TransTech Social Enterprises and the ongoing battle over pensions in Springfield. 

Chicago Public Schools principals are finally getting a look at their budgets for the school year that starts in September. The district says, altogether, it is releasing $31 million less to schools this year, because of declining enrollment.

President Barack Obama has proposed a change in overtime regulations that could make an additional 5 million Americans eligible for overtime pay. Join Chicago Tonight for a conversation about who this will affect, when the proposed change might go through, and where the rules stand currently.

Lawmakers in the Illinois House on Thursday approved an emergency one-month budget which passed on July 1 in the Senate with no Republican support. But a pass in the House may not resolve the budget impasse, as Gov. Bruce Rauner has vowed to veto the temporary spending plan.

The City of Chicago will have to wait two more weeks before a judge's ruling on whether pension legislation supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel is constitutional. Lawyers representing city workers, as well as the city and the employee pension funds made their cases to Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak Thursday morning. Novak said she will issue a ruling on Friday, July 24.

Is Gov. Bruce Rauner's newest pension proposal constitutional? How will it impact city and state employees? John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, and Ralph Martire, executive director for the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, analyze the plan.

Experts from the American Security Project are in Chicago to sound the alarm that inaction on climate change weakens the United States' national security position. We'll talk with retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Lee Gunn and Andrew Holland, senior fellow with the American Security Project and a former aide to ex-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during Hagel's time in the Senate.

In April, Chicago Tonight got a behind-the-scenes look at a school of comic book and sequential art that started in Italy in 1979. When Italy's International School of Comics opened its first North American location, they chose a quiet block of Hubbard Street on the near West Side.  We revisit that story.

Chicago-based rock critic Jessica Hopper has earned a reputation as a sharp observer and a fearless firebrand of the form. She joins us to discuss her newest book, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic.