A judge on Friday denied a last-ditch effort to dismiss a criminal case against actor Jussie Smollett, who is accused of lying to police when he reported that he was the victim of a racist, anti-gay attack in downtown Chicago in January 2019.

Police charged Aireon Luster, 24, on Wednesday with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the death of Serenity Broughton. He was ordered held without bond during a Thursday court hearing. 

In March, a task force was formed by the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, the Illinois State Police, and others to try and put the brakes on carjackings.

A measure that grants the Chicago Police Board the power to overrule the Chicago Police Department and remove a Chicagoan from an under-development gang database advanced Wednesday — even though it is not clear when that system will be up and running.

Federal prosecutors announced charges against five reputed members of the O-Block street gang, accusing them of participating in a criminal organization responsible for murder and of “violently” protecting the gang and its territories on the South Side.

A mass shooting in Wicker Park that left one person dead and four others wounded Sunday morning was among 31 shooting incidents over the holiday weekend, according to the Chicago Police Department.

Mayor Lightfoot and State’s Attorney Kim Foxx have been at odds. President Biden completed his previously postponed visit to Chicago tout vaccine mandates. And the White Sox struggle as playoffs get underway.

After 12 years, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson will leave office Oct. 15 — but not before completing a probe of the botched raid.

Through the end of June, the CPD has hit some level of compliance with 266 out of 507 possible paragraphs under the consent decree, Independent Monitor Maggie Hickey said in a new status report published Friday.

Louis Capriotti, 46, entered a guilty plea Thursday, court records indicate, admitting to leaving what a federal judge had previously described as “very explicit and concerning” voicemails.

The order Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman is the first legal blow to the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which until now had withstood a wave of early challenges.

Kim Foxx held a rare press conference Tuesday to respond to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, calling it “inappropriate” and “wrong” for the mayor to publicly push for criminal charges in last Friday's shooting “without the benefit of all of the evidence.”

Cyclists of color in Chicago get a disproportionate number of tickets from police, according to reports by the Chicago Tribune. Bike advocates hope a new city initiative can help address the problem but say it’s not just about infrastructure.

Michael Aguirre was held without bail during a court hearing Wednesday following his arrest this week on a charge of first-degree murder stemming from the killing of 14-year-old Savanah Quintero.

Provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, released early Wednesday, suggest the homicide rate for the United States rose 30% between 2019 and 2020. 

A Chicago woman convicted of assisting her boyfriend in her mother’s murder and stuffing the body in a suitcase on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali in 2014 is being released early from a 10-year sentence, a prison official confirmed Wednesday.