Illinois’ prison population continues to shrink, with facilities now having a 26% vacancy rate, leading some of those inside and their advocates to question the state’s plan to build two new prisons.

Chicago officials would have an additional $87 million to spend on a host of programs designed to repair the city’s tattered social safety net, but the Chicago City Council used those funds to balance the 2025 budget and avert a property tax hike.

Despite the lack of a formal arrangement, emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided to WTTW News show members of the city’s staff collaborating for months on the app’s development and promotion. The unusual arrangement means municipal employees worked, while on the taxpayer’s dime, on a privately held product not subject to any formal agreement with the city of Aurora.

The independent monitoring teams for Chicago's police consent decree include former police brass who have previously been involved in consent decrees and reform efforts across the country. Despite their professional credentials, some members have documented histories of misconduct that might complicate the long-running effort.

The statistics, compiled by the Chicago Department of Transportation by comparing 2021 crash data with information from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, are a key justification for members of the Chicago City Council looking to lower the city’s default speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph.

The companies behind apps for temp workers have drawn millions in funding, hundreds of thousands of workers, and legal action over their labor practices — including here in Illinois.

That agreement must be approved by the Chicago City Council by Feb. 10, according to a joint filing from the lawyers representing the city and Reed’s mother, Nicole Banks. That indicates the settlement agreement calls for Chicago taxpayers to pay Reed’s family more than $100,000.

Chicago police agreed to judicial oversight in 2019. Since then, a series of mayors and police chiefs let efforts languish and no one in a position of oversight has pushed forcefully to keep the process on track, WTTW News and ProPublica found.

On the last day ballots will be counted, unofficial totals in Chicago show where the vote shifted since 2020. Much like the United States, voters in Illinois were driven by factors including economics, immigration and education in the presidential race.

To gain insight into the impact of prison closures, WTTW News looked back on the last prison the state shut down: Dwight Correctional Center. We spoke to both currently and formerly incarcerated women and correctional workers, as well as researchers and lifelong residents in the surrounding village.

“I must remind you that the consent decree is not optional,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul wrote to Mayor Brandon Johnson. “The City of Chicago must deliver on its consent decree obligations.”

A letter sent to police officials from COPA on March 27, six days after Reed’s death, shows that the agency had evidence that officers were routinely engaging in misconduct that violated Chicago Police Department rules and put Chicagoans at risk of a violent encounter with officers for at least a year. 

The city of Chicago has spent more than $4 million paying outside attorneys to fight a lawsuit that slams the city for failing to make its affordable housing program accessible. In addition to the legal costs, the case could also jeopardize the city’s chance at millions of dollars in grant money. 

“This is still very much a frustration I have,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “I’ve been in conversations with the superintendent, with our budget director to come up with better systems.”

The Fermi Forward Discovery Group will replace the Fermi Research Alliance early next year at the accelerator and detector laboratory in suburban Batavia. The announcement comes following criticism about safety and financial stewardship by the particle physics lab.

Michael Broadway, incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center, died in custody in June; the days before his death were some of the hottest that month. An autopsy report reveals that heat stress was one of the significant contributing factors in his death.