Tony Briscoe

Tony Briscoe is a former reporter for the Tribune.

People gather for a Youth Climate Strike in Grant Park with a march to Federal Plaza on March 15, 2019, in Chicago.

Chicago-area students skip school to call attention to climate change

May 23, 2019 at 6:52 a.m.

Some Chicago-area students missed school Friday and flocked downtown to protest the perceived inaction of lawmakers to develop a plan to stave off the most dire effects from climate change....

Fencing and a "no trespassing" sign at condominiums along West Rosemont Avenue in Chicago block public access to the Lake Michigan shore on Feb. 28, 2019.

Indiana has the most generous rules for public beach access. Where does Illinois fall?

March 15, 2019 at 11:48 a.m.

Illinois Who owns what? Private ownership extends to the edge of “water at a quiet state.” The state owns all land submerged in water. Where is the public allowed? The...

Fencing from condominiums along the 900 block of West Rosemont Avenue in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood block public access to the Lake Michigan shoreline on Feb. 28, 2019.

Where can you walk on a Lake Michigan beach? It depends on which state you’re in.

March 16, 2019 at 12:02 a.m.

When Ray Cahnman bought a beachfront home in Porter, Ind., a decade ago, he envisioned it as a place to escape the hustle and bustle of Chicago where he could...

Assuming Lake Michigan's overall water level stays the same, Chicago's lakefront — shown at the North Avenue Beach breakwater — will be about 4 inches higher in the next century.

Chicago is sinking. Here’s what that means for Lake Michigan and the Midwest.

August 22, 2019 at 3:33 p.m.

The sightlines at Wrigley Field, the panorama from Navy Pier, the vantage points at the Adler Planetarium observatory — all structures built more than 100 years ago — are at...

A stone wall separates street level and a downslope to Glencoe Beach on Feb. 9, 2019, in Glencoe. The bluff overlooking Lake Michigan at Glencoe Beach is a land formation from the last ice age when glaciers deposited soil at the end of their reach.

The massive glacier that formed the Great Lakes is disappearing — and greenhouse gases are to blame for its untimely demise

August 22, 2019 at 3:30 p.m.

From a boardwalk overlooking a deserted Ohio Street Beach in the throes of winter, it's not hard to imagine the last ice age. A blanket of fresh snow covers the...

Mary E. Burke protests Sterigenics at Spring Road and Commerce Drive in Oak Brook on Dec. 15, 2018.

U.S. EPA records highest level of cancer-causing gas in Willowbrook since it began testing near Sterigenics

May 23, 2019 at 6:47 a.m.

The levels of ethylene oxide detected by air monitors near Sterigenics in Willowbook in January were the highest readings since the federal government began testing, according to the U.S. Environmental...

CAPS personnel get ready to canvass the Park Manor neighborhood, distributing flyers looking for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the fatal shooting of Chicago police Officer Michael Bailey on July 24, 2010.

Judge in cop killing trial lifts gag order and unseals documents, but they stay hidden

May 23, 2019 at 6:45 a.m.

The Cook County judge poised to oversee the murder trial of a man accused of fatally shooting Chicago police Officer Michael Bailey in 2010 on Friday overturned an earlier decision...

Missing Northwestern University student found in Chicago

May 23, 2019 at 6:44 a.m.

Four days after Northwestern University student Gabriel Corona went missing, authorities found him alive and in good condition Saturday in Chicago, according to the Evanston Police Department. Chicago police officers...

Two people brave a walk along Promontory Point in Chicago on Jan. 30, 2019, during a brutal two-day-plus stretch of subzero cold.

At 52 hours, cold stretch was Chicago’s 4th-longest stint below zero on record

May 22, 2019 at 11:49 a.m.

After 52 consecutive hours of subzero weather, Chicago temperatures climbed into positive territory early Friday, according to the National Weather Service. About 6 p.m. Tuesday, temperatures dropped below zero as...

Firefighters work at the scene of a fire on the 100 block of North Green Street late Jan. 30, 2019, in Chicago.

As face-freezing weather subsides, Chicagoans ready for a break: ‘Zero is going to feel warm’

August 25, 2019 at 4:33 a.m.

It wasn’t an all-time record, and it wasn’t even as cold as the day before, but the polar vortex that held northern Illinois in an icy grip for the second...

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