WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Emergency crews searched an Oklahoma City suburb Tuesday for survivors of a tornado that flattened homes and demolished a school. At least 24 people were killed, including at least nine children, and those numbers were expected to climb.

The biggest reason Chicago’s school district says it’s closing 53 grammar schools is to give students a better education. But how “better” is defined has become a point of contention in a heated debate.

Ecologists have long known of buckthorn’s ability to push out native plants, but two new studies from Chicago scientists suggest the woody shrub also changes the distribution of large mammals like coyotes, and even causes spinal defects in unborn frogs.

What made two rich young intellectuals murder a neighbor boy in cold blood? Clarence Darrow had an answer.