Stories by Heather Cherone

“God spared our great leader Donald J. Trump,” said U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Springfield), kicking off the breakfast. “The darker it gets the brighter we can shine.”

Authored by Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd Ward), the measure allows officials to fine those who leave materials in public areas or on private property that appear to be hazardous or pose a threat to public safety.

Chicago taxpayers have paid nearly $71.9 million since 2019 to resolve lawsuits involving police pursuits, with the city’s insurance coverage paying an additional $25 million, according to a WTTW News analysis.

John Velez was convicted of killing 26-year-old Anthony Hueneca in Little Village. The jury did not hear evidence that Velez was actually in Cicero at the time of the shooting.

In all, it has already cost Chicago taxpayers more than $98 million to defend former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, investigate his conduct and resolve lawsuits that allege he violated dozens of Chicagoans’ civil rights, according to WTTW News’ analysis.

Investigators with CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs did not interview anyone other than the eight officers accused of belonging to the Oath Keepers, according to a 30-page report.

The board of the Municipal Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago voted at its June meeting to suspend the former alderperson’s pension once he was sentenced on 13 counts of racketeering, attempted extortion and attempted bribery.

The debate represented the latest skirmish in the so-far unsuccessful push to rewrite the rules for the City Council, which served as a rubber stamp for decades rather than a legislative body charged with setting policy for the entire city.

The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois accuses the Chicago Police Department of making more than 1.5 million traffic stops between 2016 and 2023 based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans. 

In all, Chicago owes $37.2 billion to its four employee pension funds representing police officers, firefighters, municipal employees and laborers, according to the 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

“Many homeowners are going to be shocked and angry when they get their bills,” Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said.

As the mayor ramps up work on his second budget proposal, a newly formed Chicago City Council subcommittee is set to meet at noon Wednesday to start examining the dozens of proposals to increase the amount of money officials have on hand to spend starting in 2025.

Every four years, residents of Chicago’s 50 wards pick their representative on the City Council. They are officially known as alderpeople. But what exactly do they do?

Former Ald. Ed Burke is sentenced to 2 years in prison and a $2M fine, U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall rules.

Property tax bills for Cook County residents are available online at cookcountytreasurer.com and should hit mailboxes this week.

The revised policy represents a “substantial improvement” over the original policy, according to a coalition of police reform groups that challenged the policy in federal court.

Judge Kendall sided with prosecutors, who blasted the request for a postponement as a “last-ditch effort” by Burke to avoid being sentenced on Monday for racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion.

“The public, as well as the victims in this case, have a strong interest in finality and bringing the case to a close,” prosecutors wrote. “Unfounded, eleventh-hour requests for delay like this one contribute to a general sense that the wheels of justice turn too slowly.”

A court order requiring the Chicago Police Department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers should not be expanded to include traffic stops, eight alderpeople told the federal judge overseeing the push to reform the department.

The renewed effort is finally getting off the ground more than six months after Johnson agreed to earmark $500,000 in the city’s 2024 budget for the task force, the first time city officials have promised to use taxpayer dollars to do more than just promise to talk about what Chicago owes its Black residents as a result of the legacy of slavery and segregation.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office is scheduled to release a detailed proposal to close the gap in October, but officials have no plans to hike taxes, cut services or layoff workers to cover the projected gap, a spokesperson told WTTW News. 

Ald. Matt Martin (47th Ward) said the plan, which is estimated to cost approximately $9.5 million per election, was designed to reduce the influence of “big special interest donors.”

The proposed settlement calls for taxpayers to pay $21 million and the city’s insurance company to pay $29 million.

“We are still living up to our values,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We are providing care in a way that nowhere else in the country you’re seeing.”

Despite having a net worth of $30 million, now former Ald. Ed Burke was “steeped in corruption,” repeatedly choosing “spite and greed – not the public interest,” prosecutors told U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall.

“We aren’t rising to the occasion,” said Doug Schenkelberg, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. He called the survey results “disheartening but not surprising.”