Stories by Heather Cherone

The independent expenditure funded by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, paid for $258,000 in cable television advertisements on March 16 and $359,000 in digital advertising on March 15, records show. 

Efforts by the leaders of large cities across the country to bring back officers amid a nationwide staffing crunch have fallen short, and experts on policing told WTTW News there is no evidence that Chicago will prove to be any different.

A new report says Chicago’s next top cop must be “a dynamic change agent” fully committed to implementing the court order requiring the Chicago Police Department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.

The Chicago Police Department spent at least $210.5 million on overtime, 56% more than in 2021 and more than double the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2022 budget, according to data obtained by WTTW News. 

The race for Chicago mayor continues to focus nearly entirely on the crime and violence that both candidates agree threaten the city’s economic vitality. They offered wildly different solutions to the seemingly intractable problem.

If the ComEd deal faced an uphill climb before Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s defeat, its prospects declined precipitously afterward, handing her what is likely to be one last defeat and all but ensuring that it will be up to Chicago’s next mayor to negotiate a new deal with ComEd.

Fueled by changes made during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of votes cast by mail soared by nearly 20% in the 2023 election as compared to the 2019 election, according to data from the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

Jesús “Chuy” García’s endorsement is designed to unite the city’s progressives behind Brandon Johnson, a critical part of Johnson’s path to defeating Paul Vallas, who has consolidated Chicago’s conservative political establishment under his banner.

“Seven years, and we still don’t have the answers. We still don’t know what happened to my son. Seven years, I’m still fighting, trying to find the truth.”

Sanders said he backed Johnson because the Cook County commissioner “understands the struggle of working people.”

The proposal requires human service organizations that contract with the city and have more than 20 employees to agree not to fight efforts by their employees to unionize as long as workers agree not to disrupt the company’s operations while they organize.

Drivers who park their cars in dedicated bicycle and bus lanes, as well as crosswalks, bus stops and no parking zones, will be ticketed if the infraction is captured by city cameras mounted on poles and on the front of buses and other city vehicles, officials said.

The proposal would launch the pilot program in dense neighborhoods and those pockmarked by vacant lots.

Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas’ plan to reverse decades of disinvestment on the South and West sides of Chicago focuses on the creation of an independent community development authority that would limit tChicago City Council members’ control of zoning in their wards. 

Six members of the Chicago City Council will have to defend their seats during the April 4 runoff, including 29th Ward Ald. Chris Taliaferro, who fell 25 votes short of winning a majority of votes in his West Side ward.

The proposal would require human service organizations that contract with the city and have more than 20 employees to agree not to fight efforts by their employees to unionize as long as workers agree not disrupt the company’s operations while they organize.

The proposal would require human service organizations that contract with the city to agree not to disrupt efforts by their employees to unionize as long as workers agree not disrupt the company’s operations while they organize.

The Taste — started in 1980 — is set to take place in its traditional Grant Park home Sept. 8-10, one week after the Labor Day holiday weekend that traditionally marks the end of summer.

Sharell Brown, 26, was shot and killed during a confrontation with police officers who stopped him in Lawndale. Brown was shot four times in the head and twice in his right arm, according to the investigation of the incident by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA.

Even if the federal grant is approved by Congress, Chicago would need an additional $2.4 billion to cover the total cost of the project, much of which is city officials hope will come from the federal government in future years.

SEIU Local 1, which represents 45,000 janitors, security officers, airport workers, home care workers and window washers, is the first major labor organization to back a candidate for mayor after the Feb. 28 election. 

Officer Robert Bakker returned to full duty Wednesday, two weeks after members of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee demanded that Chicago Police Department officials do more to weed out extremists from the department’s ranks.

At least part of the 300-acre Grant Park – known as Chicago’s front yard – will be closed to Chicagoans for 83 days this summer, including every day except June 2, June 3, June 4 and July 16, according to a schedule released Tuesday by the Chicago Park District.

All Chicagoans can cast their votes early starting March 20.

Designed to “create safer streets and a better transit experience,” the new initiative is set to last two years, and would target scofflaws downtown, between the lake, Ashland Avenue, Roosevelt Road and North Avenue.

Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson can now raise nearly unlimited amounts of cash for their mayoral campaigns, after Vallas loaned his own campaign $100,100 two days after advancing to the April 4 runoff.