Stories by Heather Cherone

“Abolish ICE” is one of 25 finalists that Chicagoans can vote on between Sunday and Feb. 14, with the top six vote-getters winning the honor of renaming one snowplow in each of Chicago’s six snow districts.

“If the federal government will not hold these rogue actors accountable, then Chicago will do everything in our power to bring these agents to justice,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

U.S District Court Judge John Tharp said that he reconsidered his decision to allow lawyers for Ebony Tate, her mother, Cynthia Eason, and four children to call former Mayor Rahm Emanuel after lawyers for the city once again vigorously objected.

Eight notable Italian Americans are finalists in a little-advertised contest.

“For too long, Gregory Bovino and his rogue federal agents have terrorized communities in Illinois and across the country, violated our people’s constitutional rights and unleashed violence at every turn,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability voted unanimously to select LaKenya White, a 26-year veteran of Chicago’s police accountability system, to lead the agency known as COPA.

A trial, set to start Monday, will decide whether CPD officers traumatized two women and four children in August when a CPD SWAT team broke down the door of their apartment, pointed assault rifles directly at the kids and ordered one of the women to leave the house while unclothed.

In all, President Donald Trump’s decision to send federalized National Guard troops to six American cities cost approximately $496 million through the end of December, according to the report.

A joint City Council committee voted 19-3 to explicitly give the Civilian Office of Police Accountability authority to investigate whether CPD officers have improperly helped federal agents enforce immigration law.

The beloved festival, featuring the best of Chicago’s restaurant and culinary scene, will take place July 8-12, officials announced.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s failure to name a new Ethics Board chair has infuriated good-government advocates who have demanded that he do more to combat Chicago’s reputation as the most corrupt of corrupt American cities.

In all, $1.59 billion poured into the city’s 108 TIF funds in 2024, according to the annual report from the clerk’s office posted online Wednesday.

The number of people visiting the temporary casino at River North’s Medinah Temple failed to grow from 2024 to 2025, leading to a 1.3% drop in tax revenues,

In the less than nine years the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has existed, its investigators have probed 138 deaths caused by CPD officers, records show.

The Illinois Department of Human Rights will investigate whether the three firms that own and manage the building at 7500 S. South Shore Drive committed housing discrimination, officials said.

The new proposal does not mention the city’s curfew, but gives the city’s top cop the power to issue what it calls “a dispersal declaration” in areas where police leaders have determined they have probable cause to believe there will be a “disruptive youth gathering.”

The proposal immediately bans the sale of intoxicating hemp products to those younger than 21, while exempting the sale of beverages, topical creams and pet products with intoxicating hemp from the larger ban set to take effect April 1.

In the latest case to be settled, the City Council voted 28-16 to pay $875,000 to 21 people who each say they were brutalized by Chicago police officers during the 2020 protests.

“The city’s finances are, needless to say, in an extremely precarious place, and we can ill-afford mistakes which run well into the eight figures,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said

“The final purchase price was far too high, much more than they initially received for the sale, and higher than most reasonable assumptions would support,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

The Chicago Police Department must work faster to complete internal affairs investigations, Supt. Larry Snelling told a federal judge.

“ICE has not made any city that they’ve gotten into safer,” U.S. Sen Tammy Duckworth said.  “In fact, in every city they’ve gone into, they’ve created chaos.”

“I continue to believe that people cannot both work for the government and defraud the government,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

“Any student of CPD’s modern history can recognize that there have been these groups of officers that have contributed more than their fair share of harm and misconduct,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg told WTTW News Wednesday.

The City Council’s Finance Committee endorsed the $135 million project from Golub & Co to transform 16 floors of the 44-story tower at 30 N. LaSalle St. into 349 homes, including 105 units set aside for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued an injunction Aug. 22 that prevents the Trump administration from blocking funding for some of the nation’s largest cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston and Baltimore.