Stories by Heather Cherone

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg vowed to tackle Chicago’s “legitimacy deficit” by holding city officials who abuse the public trust accountable while working to reform the Chicago Police Department in order to reduce violence. 

“I’ll take on all comers,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “I fear no one.”

While weighing a bid for mayor, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley said a poll he conducted showed he would force Mayor Lori Lightfoot into a runoff and beat her by 10 percentage points.

Charles Sikanich is accused of trying to sell an MP-40 fully automatic machine gun, which is illegal to possess in Illinois, to an undercover ATF agent while on the clock in a city vehicle, according to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. 

The program was narrowly approved after several members blasted Lightfoot’s plan as an election-year stunt that would benefit oil companies without offering Chicagoans real relief from the pain at the pump.

The $31.5 million program has enough funding to send just 5,000 Chicago families $500 per month for 12 months, officials said.

The revised map the Latino Caucus would like to put to voters would craft two wards, rather than three wards, to include Englewood, with the dividing line drawn between Englewood and West Englewood. The map supported by the Black Caucus crafts 16 wards with a majority of Black voters, one ward with a plurality of Black voters and 14 wards with a majority of Latino voters.

In an interview with “Chicago Tonight” Tuesday, Department of Water Commissioner Andrea Cheng said officials are confident both regular and ultrasonic water meters can be safely installed in Chicago homes without threatening the health of residents. 

Data provided by Chicago health officials to WTTW News show fewer than 10 outbreaks at Chicago day care facilities between Jan. 2 and March 20, but officials acknowledged there were likely more outbreaks.

The number of evictions carried out in Cook County dropped from more than 3,300 in the five months before the pandemic to fewer than 1,200 in the five months after the eviction ban was lifted, according to data obtained by WTTW News.

None of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s allies on the Chicago City Council met the 10 a.m. Monday deadline to ask City Clerk Anna Valencia to put it on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, meaning the measure will remain in limbo at least until May.

The lawsuit filed by 22-year-old Esael Morales claims that he was sitting in his car with his girlfriend watching Netflix and eating takeout wings near her home when Officer Joseph Cabrera pulled up in his personal vehicle and confronted the couple, according to Morales’ lawsuit.

The maximum fine for violating the city’s ethics ordinance would jump from $5,000 to $20,000 under a proposal set to be unveiled by Ald. Michele Smith that has the support of the Chicago Board of Ethics.

Department of Water Management Commissioner Andrea Cheng said federal funding will “jump-start” Chicago’s efforts to remove the lead service. Cheng acknowledged logistical challenges have meant the program has failed to achieve what Lightfoot promised in September 2020, when she vowed that the city would remove 650 pipes by the end of 2021.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said former Ald. Danny Solis is one of the most significant government informants and witnesses of the last several decades. 

A casino does not belong so close to Chinatown, where it will have “human costs,” state Rep. Theresa Mah told WTTW News on Thursday.

“Like any good gardener, when you plant the seeds, you till the soil, you watch the shoots rise up from the garden, you want to be there to reap the harvest,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said this week as mayoral challengers begin to line up.

Former Ald. Danny Solis caused “generational” harm to Chicago and residents of the 25th Ward, his successor told the judge overseeing the criminal case facing the disgraced former alderperson.

The narrow margin of the committee’s vote sets up what could be a nailbiter at the City Council meeting set for April 27.

The CTA passes and gas cards with Mayor Lori Lightfoot's name would be sent to voters approximately 10 months before the next mayoral election.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued the revised executive order hours after Chicago health and transportation officials told riders a state order required them to keep masking up.

A Chicago native, John Rogers is a longtime friend of former President Barack Obama.

To avert the first ward map referendum since 1992, 41 alderpeople must agree on a map no later than May 19, the deadline for the June 28 primary election ballot to be finalized.

Two high-ranking police officials interfered with the investigation of the shooting death of a Chicago Police sergeant, according to a report released Friday by the city’s interim watchdog.

The wrongdoing was detailed in the first — and likely only — quarterly report issued by interim Inspector General William Marbeck, who is set to be replaced with a permanent watchdog later this month.

Officials granted nearly double the number of COVID-19 vaccine exemptions to members of the Chicago Police Department than to members of any other city department, according to data provided by the mayor’s office.