Crime & Law
Illinois on Monday will become the first state to fully abolish cash bail through an act of the legislature — a major criminal justice overhaul spurred by the advocacy of a progressive faction of the Democratic Party that’s grown increasingly powerful in recent years.
The long-anticipated elimination of cash bail officially takes effect in Illinois Monday, following extensive delays, legal challenges and pushback from critics who sought to keep the existing system in place.
A tent collapse in southwest suburban Chicago injured at least 26 people, police said. Five of those hurt had serious injuries, Bedford Park Police Chief Tom Hansen said.
For years, former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White blocked attempts by an ex-state trooper to regain his driving privileges after a high-speed crash that caused the deaths of teenage sisters on a busy St. Clair County interstate in 2007.
Hunter Biden is accused of lying about his drug use when he bought a firearm in October 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction to crack cocaine, according to the indictment filed in federal court in Delaware by a special counsel overseeing the case.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted 12-9 in favor of recommending April Perry to become the next U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. With the committee’s approval, she is now set for a final confirmation vote before the full Senate.
A federal judge declared illegal a revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. He declined, however, to order an immediate end to the program and the protections it offers to recipients.
A new study from researchers at the University of Chicago Crime Lab has found a training program rooted in behavioral science can dramatically cut the number of use-of-force incidents committed by police while also increasing officer safety.
Prosecutors opened a landmark antitrust trial against Google with sweeping allegations that the company intentionally stifled competition challenging its massive search engine, accusing the tech giant of spending billions to operate an illegal monopoly that has harmed every computer and mobile device user in the U.S.
If the appeal before the Chicago-based First District Appellate Court fails, Smollett will have to finish a 150-day stint in jail that his trial judge ordered during his 2022 sentencing.
During a brief case management hearing Monday morning, Judge Victoria Rossetti said she intends to set a trial date for Robert Crimo III when he next appears in court Dec. 11.
That toll is set to grow in the coming weeks, as the Chicago City Council considers paying $25 million to resolve separate lawsuits filed in 2016 by two men who spent a combined 34 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of killing a basketball star in 1993.
According to Chicago Police Department data, 26 people were shot in 21 separate shootings between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
In a letter sent this week, Reinberg Elementary principal Edwin Loch informed parents and families that a staffer has been pulled from the school following an allegation that they “engaged inappropriately with a student.”
Snelling vowed to rebuild trust between Chicagoans and the Police Department, which is struggling to reduce crime and implement court-ordered reforms designed to ensure officers no longer routinely violate the constitutional rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans.
The unanimous vote by the interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability caps an effort that began in 2017 to stop the Chicago Police Department from using databases to track Chicagoans they believe to be in a gang.