For members of Illinois’ congressional delegation, Wednesday was an unprecedented —  and for some, scary — experience.

“It’s a sick, disgusting day in American democracy and we’ll get through it and hopefully be stronger somehow for it,” U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger said of Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters.

“I was not surprised by the violence,” said Tom Mockaitis, a security and terrorism specialist. “I was surprised and appalled by how poorly prepared to defend the United States Capitol the security apparatus was.” 

Riots break out in Washington, D.C. by pro-Trump supporters as Congress prepared to count electoral votes. Our politics team takes on that story and more in this week’s roundtable.

President Donald Trump told his supporters on Wednesday to “go home” after they stormed the Capitol in protest of his reelection defeat and he urged them to stay peaceful, but he also praised their mission even after it erupted in violence.

President-elect Joe Biden called Wednesday for the restoration of “just simple decency” as a mob incited by his predecessor stormed the U.S. Capitol and delayed Congress from certifying the results of November’s election in which Biden won the White House. 

Officer Joseph Cabrera faces charges of aggravated assault and making a false statement in connection with the Oct. 13 shooting which occurred near 5200 S. Monitor Ave., according to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

Cardinal Blase Cupich asked the Rev. Michael Pfleger to step down as senior pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church while the Archdiocese of Chicago investigates an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor more than 40 years ago. 

Officer Rusten Sheskey’s shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug. 23, captured on bystander video, turned the nation’s spotlight on Wisconsin during a summer marked by protests over police brutality and racism.

Long-stalled efforts to put an elected board of Chicago residents in charge of the Chicago Police Department remain mired in debate, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot declined Tuesday to commit to a timeline to create the required police oversight body.

Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, entered his plea in a brief hearing conducted by teleconference that came just as Kenosha was bracing for a charging decision in the event that brought Rittenhouse to the city in August — the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

“People should be wary of anyone who offers the vaccine or promises priority access to the vaccine or a COVID-19 cure in exchange for money,” said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Erica Reddick, a longtime public defender and judge, is replacing Judge LeRoy Martin Jr., who has been assigned to serve as an appellate court justice.

Claims filed on behalf of two men shot by an Illinois teen during a night of protests over a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, allege the city and Kenosha County were negligent in their response to the unrest.

The number of homicides and shootings in Chicago spiked dramatically in 2020, ending with more bloodshed than in all but one year in more than two decades, statistics released by police on Friday revealed.

In the first year since Illinois legalized recreational marijuana, the Illinois State Police expunged 492,192 non-felony cannabis arrest records, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office announced on Thursday.