It’s a new week and a new month. Ease into March with these stories from WTTW News. (WTTW News) Approximately 250 positions charged with implementing a court order that requires the Chicago Police Department to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights are vacant, even as Chicago officials are facing increasing pressure from a federal judge to “accelerate” the reform effort, records show. A department spokesperson told WTTW News police officials are “actively” working to fill the vacant positions charged with implementing the court order known as the consent decree and reforming CPD, which has faced decades of scandals, misconduct and brutality. What the mayor says: Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged the reform effort, which began in earnest when the consent decree took effect six years ago, remains a work in progress. “Are we moving in the right direction? Yes,” Johnson said Feb. 25. “Are we moving faster? Yes. Do we still have a long way to go? Yes. All those things are true.” Some background: The wide-ranging roadmap for reform stemmed from a 2017 federal investigation prompted by the police murder of Laquan McDonald that found officers routinely violated the constitutional rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans. In all, 37.6% of the 665 positions within CPD assigned to making sure officers follow the Constitution while on duty and implementing the required reforms are vacant. Read more Robert E. Crimo III., watches the jury selection process during the first day of his trial at the Lake County Courthouse, Waukegan, Ill., Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, Pool, File) Robert Crimo III, the gunman who killed seven and wounded dozens of others at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade in 2022, has pleaded guilty moments before his trial was set to begin. Opening statements were set to begin Monday morning at the Lake County Courthouse, where Crimo, 24, was accused of 21 counts of first-degree murder— three for each of the seven people killed — and 48 counts of attempted murder charges stemming from the 2022 mass shooting. But just as those proceedings were getting underway, Crimo’s attorneys announced their client’s intent to plead guilty to every count in the indictment. Unlike a previous hearing, where Crimo appeared to have reached a plea deal but backed out at the last second, he informed the court he would be entering an open plea of guilt — meaning he did so without any sentence recommendation and would accept an automatic life sentence without the chance of parole. “Do you still wish to plead guilty to all 69 counts?” Judge Victoria Rossetti asked before a courtroom packed with shooting victims and their families. “Yes,” Crimo answered. Read more Learn more about advertising & sponsorship with WTTW. A still photo from a WTTW News package on undocumented families. (WTTW News) Many undocumented families describe their lives as living in the shadows since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Mixed-status families who have called Chicago home for decades are feeling the impact of Trump’s promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. WTTW News interviewed two mothers who are undocumented and shared their experiences. To protect their identities, their names were changed. “It’s really heartbreaking because of our children,” said Rosa, who has two young children. “It feels like we have to have them locked in at home, and they don’t understand what’s going on.” “He (Trump) said that he is only targeting criminals, but you never know when you might be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Sandra, a mother of four. Read more Read more Back in the Day: March 3, 1913 - Pioneering Black Composer Margaret Bonds Born in Chicago On this day 112 years ago, the first Black soloist to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was born in Chicago. A child prodigy who wrote her first composition at 5, Margaret Bonds attended Northwestern University for undergraduate and graduate degrees, and studied composition at the prestigious Juilliard School. When she became the first African American to perform with the CSO in 1933, she was only 22. She wrote music for Langston Hughes, Cab Calloway, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Louis Armstrong and more. Bonds died in 1972, four years before the advent of the Copyright Act, greatly affecting her estate's intellectual property rights to her original music. Because of the racism and institutional barriers for women composers who are Black, much of her oeuvre went unrecorded. As KUSC points out, "According to musicologist Helen Walker-Hill in her book From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music, of the more than 200 compositions by Margaret Bonds only 75 scores exist today. Of those 75 scores, only 47 were published during her lifetime." This Week’s Civic Events and Meetings Every Monday, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government. A Commission on Chicago Landmarks meeting is scheduled for 12:45 p.m. Thursday; a livestream will be available. The commission recommends buildings, sites, objects and districts for official landmark status. Ahead of next week’s meeting of the full Chicago City Council, five committees are set to meet this week: License and Consumer Protection (10:30 a.m. Tuesday); Pedestrian and Traffic Safety (12:30 p.m. Tuesday); Transportation and Public Way (10 a.m. Wednesday); Housing and Real Estate (12:30 p.m. Wednesday); and Economic, Capital and Technology Development (10 a.m. Thursday). Learn more about advertising & sponsorship with WTTW. Paczki Day is Tuesday. What's your favorite sweet treat that you can find in Chicago? Email [email protected] with your responses and your answers might be published. The latest from Washington and how it might impact Illinois. 5:30 PM | 10:00 PM Want more WTTW News content? Follow WTTW on Instagram to check in with us daily, go behind-the-scenes, and more. Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
