Stories by Heather Cherone

The proposed non-binding ballot question violates Illinois’ election law, which requires advisory questions to “be confined to one topic and should not contain alternative or bifurcated questions,” the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners unanimously ruled.

So far, Chicago taxpayers have paid approximately $11.9 million to settle and defend lawsuits sparked by the conduct of CPD officers during protests that swept the city in 2020 and erupted into unrest, according to court records.

The City Council’s Finance Committee on Wednesday is set to consider the proposed settlement, which calls for taxpayers to pay $20 million and the city’s insurance company to pay $2 million. A final vote of the City Council could come Jan. 21.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability determined police were not justified in stopping the man’s car and should not have searched him or his car after handcuffing him in Chicago’s River North neighborhood on March 18, 2024.

Chicago police officers have faced pointed questions from residents and elected officials for more than six months about their actions during a series of increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement actions ordered by President Donald Trump.

Mayor Brandon Johnson warned again on Wednesday that the Chicago City Council may have to make emergency cuts if revenue baked into the city’s 2026 spending plan fails to materialize.

A final vote on the proposal by the full City Council could come as soon as Jan. 21.

Catherine “Cat” Sharp said she was ending her bid to represent Cook County’s 12th District on the Board of Commissioners in order to “focus on winning the legal battle against the Trump administration.”

“I think New Year’s Eve was a testament that we did not need an additional tool in order to ensure that our young people were where they need to be and that our parents and adults who are part of these young peoples’ lives — that they are also held accountable for their whereabouts,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

The city of Chicago spent $250.8 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during 2025 — 151% more than the Chicago City Council set aside for police overtime as part of the city’s annual budget, according to records published by the city’s watchdog.

The proposals, set for a vote at the 10 a.m. Wednesday meeting of the Public Safety Committee, were prompted by the killing of 14-year-old Armani Floyd on Nov. 21 during a large gathering downtown after the city’s annual Christmas tree lighting. Eight others were injured in a separate shooting just blocks away.

The report published by the Chicago Police Department acknowledges that the number of times officers used force against members of the public “continues to trend upward.”

Chicagoans will get a small break on their grocery bills but be forced to pony up to cover a host of tax and fee hikes that a deeply divided Chicago City Council approved to fill a massive budget shortfall over the objections of Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Previous winners include “Mrs. O’Leary’s Plow,” “Casimir Plowaski” and “Snower Wacker.”

The festivities will take place along the Chicago Riverwalk at Wacker Drive from Wells Street to Lake Street, with a main stage located at Wacker and Franklin, officials said.

Supporters of the gunshot detection system said it helped officers save lives when shootings were not reported to emergency services. ShotSpotter was never used to dispatch paramedics.

The city budget, which will take effect Jan. 1, will double CPD’s overtime budget from $100 million to $200 million, the first increase since 2020, when the budget for police overtime went from $95 million to $100 million, records show.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision not to veto the budget he called “morally bankrupt” immediately averts what could have been the city most severe fiscal crisis in more than 40 years.

Officer Elmer Carrillo Jr. is the first CPD officer to be terminated for failing a drug test since Illinois legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and is the first to be fired by the Police Board in nearly a year and a half amid a protracted legal battle, records show.

“We may not have the majority of the City Council but we do have the people,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said just before the the Chicago City Council voted to approve a budget he fiercely opposed.

Mayor Brandon Johnson stopped short Friday of promising to veto that spending plan but said he has “serious and significant concerns about the plan, which he and the city’s top financial officials contend would leave the city with a deficit of more than $163 million.

While Mayor Brandon Johnson weighed what could be the biggest decision of his time as mayor, the Civic Federation said the proposed "budget does not move Chicago appreciably toward long-term fiscal stability."

“The McCaskey family should focus on hosting a playoff game in a stadium that actually exists not distract by pontificating about hosting a Super Bowl in one that doesn’t,” State Rep. Kam Buckner said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson called the plan speculative, infeasible and immoral, but has yet to announce whether he would veto the plan. It would take 34 votes to override that rejection.

A federal jury determined Chicago police officers did not violate the civil rights of the Chicago man they shot during a February 2020 incident in the Grand Red Line CTA station, records show.

Mayor Brandon Johnson immediately rejected the proposal to increase the city’s debt collection efforts as a tax “on everyday Chicagoans” that would target “poor and working” people.