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The former Illinois House speaker is asking that he be allowed to stay out of prison during his appeal in the federal bribery case — an area of criminal law his attorneys say is among the most complex and “rapidly evolving.”
Many who’ve been through restrictive housing attest to extreme isolation and confinement in small, dark, windowless cells. Phone and tablet use can be restricted. Yard or outside time is limited.
John Hooker, one of the four former Commonwealth Edison officials convicted of conspiring to bribe ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. The sentence is well below the recommendation from federal prosecutors of 56 months. Hooker’s defense team had asked for a sentence of probation.
According to data from the city and Chicago Police Department, total violent crime is down at least 22% thus far in 2025, while there have been 90 fewer homicides and more than 400 fewer shootings compared to last year.
Michael McClain, 77, a former Illinois representative lobbyist for Commonwealth Edison, was convicted of bribery conspiracy and willfully falsifying the utility giant’s books as part of the “ComEd Four” trial in 2023.
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In all, Chicago taxpayers have spent more than $120.3 million since January 2019 to resolve 31 lawsuits filed by Chicagoans injured during police pursuits, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
If approved, it would be the eighth lawsuit filed by Chicagoans who said they were the victims of Guevara’s misconduct to be resolved at a cost of more than $95 million to Chicago taxpayers.
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City lawyers reached an agreement to settle the lawsuit filed by Gilbert and Hester Mendez midway through a federal civil trial after Peter Mendez, who was 9 at the time of the no-knock raid, told a jury that he was traumatized by Chicago police officers’ decision to point a M4 assault rifle and other guns at him and his 5-year-old brother.
Reported losses to job scams increased more than threefold from 2020 to 2023. In the first half of 2024, they topped $220 million, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
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Former Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin is too sick to stand trial on charges that she took bribes in the form of home improvements including new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops from a developer and lied to federal agents, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
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“This is an abomination. This is sinful. It’s unholy,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “This bill is a fundamental attack on our democracy and our way of life.”
Officials with the federal Bureau of Prisons on Tuesday confirmed that Burke, 81, had been transferred from the Federal Correctional Institution in Thomson, Illinois where he’d been serving his sentence to a halfway house run by the bureau’s Chicago Residential Reentry Management office.
Prosecutors this week asked a federal judge to hand Anne Pramaggiore a 70-month prison sentence along with a fine of $1.75 million after she was convicted in the 2023 “ComEd Four” trial on charges including bribery conspiracy and willfully falsifying the company’s books.
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The Transportation Security Administration is looking to abandon the additional security step that has for years bedeviled anyone passing through U.S airports, according to media reports.
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The legal battle over President Donald Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship is far from over despite the Republican administration’s major victory Friday limiting nationwide injunctions.
After months of touting the impending release of new, blockbuster information on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department announced in a memo Monday that there is no evidence he kept a “client list” or was murdered.
 

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