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.
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A mysterious company abandoned 603 oil wells, costing Illinois millions. Here’s how they did it.
A Tribune investigation reveals how Fireball evaded its legal responsibility, exposing communities to contaminants and saddling the state with millions in clean-up costs.

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

Route 66 road trip: One last strawberry harvest in Rancho Cucamonga, California
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: Photos from the ‘Main Street of America’
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.

Route 66 road trip: A ghost town finds its saviors — and they sell weed — in Glenrio, New Mexico
Glenrio, New Mexico, is a ghost town. The owners of a local weed dispensary hope their business can change that.

Meet the people keeping iconic Route 66 motels alive: ‘Highly endangered properties’
Motel owners form the backbone of Route 66. Beyond hosts, the innkeepers are plumbers and landscapers, housekeepers and historians, preservationists and tour guides.

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

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

At one time, Illinois was a top oil producer. Today, that legacy is a $160M problem.
Abandoned oil and gas wells pose environmental and public health risks. For three decades, the state has mismanaged funds earmarked for minimizing the threat.
