Jonathan Bullington

Jonathan Bullington is a Chicago Tribune senior reporter. A Chicago-area native, he previously worked at the Tribune as well as The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and The Courier Journal in Louisville, where he was part of the team that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.

The Rev. Allen Threatt III in the Threatt Filling Station on Route 66 near Luther, Oklahoma, on June 15, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Route 66 road trip: One family preserves a piece of Black history in Luther, Oklahoma

April 26, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Route 66 has been called America’s Main Street, a moniker that fuels nostalgics who like to talk about simpler times and good days gone by. Of course, that wasn’t always...

Kyle Nicolson stands among strawberry plants on his farm on Route 66 in Rancho Cucamonga, California, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Route 66 road trip: One last strawberry harvest in Rancho Cucamonga, California

April 26, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

California’s fertile farm fields once enticed thousands of Dust Bowl refugees fleeing along Route 66. It lost more than 330,000 acres of agricultural land between 2017 and 2022.

Route 66, also known as Ogden Avenue, travels through Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Route 66: Photos from the ‘Main Street of America’

April 26, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Route 66 was created to connect us, a 2,448-mile gateway to vast lands that previously existed only in the collective imagination. Each mile promised freedom and escape, opportunity and adventure.

Gabi Tuschak, co-owner of the Glenrio Smoke Stop dispensary, stands outside it on Route 66 in Glenrio, New Mexico, on June 12, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Route 66 road trip: A ghost town finds its saviors — and they sell weed — in Glenrio, New Mexico

April 26, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Glenrio, New Mexico, is a ghost town. The owners of a local weed dispensary hope their business can change that.

A vintage Buick sits at the historic Blue Swallow Motel on Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico. It opened in 1940. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Meet the people keeping iconic Route 66 motels alive: ‘Highly endangered properties’

April 26, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Motel owners form the backbone of Route 66. Beyond hosts, the innkeepers are plumbers and landscapers, housekeepers and historians, preservationists and tour guides.

State Rep. Margaret Croke celebrates her lead in the race to be the Democratic nominee for comptroller with her daughter, Hattie Croke, 2, in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood on March 17, 2026. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)

‘This election is not over’: Democratic race for Illinois comptroller still undecided as Croke holds slim lead

March 18, 2026 at 6:49 p.m.

The Democratic primary for Illinois comptroller remained too close to call as state Rep. Margaret Croke maintained a slim lead over state Sen. Karina Villa.

State Rep. Croke holds narrow lead in the Democratic race for Illinois comptroller

March 18, 2026 at 10:27 a.m.

State Rep. Margaret Croke said she was confident late Tuesday that she would prevail in a tightly contested race to become the Democratic nominee for Illinois comptroller.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition lead a protest through the Loop on Dec. 6, 2015, in response to the police shooting of Laquan McDonald. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Rev. Jesse Jackson was a ‘giant figure in the world,’ but he stayed rooted in Illinois

February 27, 2026 at 1:16 p.m.

Rev. Jesse Jackson’s career as a civil rights leader and politician took him across the country and around the world, yet he remained close to Illinois.

Jon Rosborough inspects an abandoned oil well, Dec. 15, 2025, which was drilled in 1916 on land his family farms in Crawford County near Oblong. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

At one time, Illinois was a top oil producer. Today, that legacy is a $160M problem.

January 26, 2026 at 4:31 p.m.

Abandoned oil and gas wells pose environmental and public health risks. For three decades, the state has mismanaged funds earmarked for minimizing the threat.

Interior of the multilevel main dome of the Sam and Ruth Van Sickle Ford House, by architect Bruce Goff, in Aurora on Oct. 9, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Architect Bruce Goff is having a moment as Route 66 turns 100

November 29, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Bruce Goff is often considered to be the greatest architect you've never heard of. But Chicago's going to be hearing a lot more about him in the coming months.

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