Stories by Heather Cherone

Inspector General Joseph Ferguson will leave his post as the city’s watchdog in October after running into a brick wall of opposition from Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago City Council during the final 18 months of his term in office.

Ald. Carrie Austin (34th Ward) was indicted Thursday on four charges that she took bribes from a developer and lied to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. The 72-year-old alderperson is the third sitting member of the Chicago City Council to be charged with federal crimes.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot took a page from former President Donald Trump on Thursday and bestowed a belittling moniker on a political opponent, referring to Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward) as “Burger King Ed,” a reference to the criminal charges Burke faces.

The special meeting set for Friday is the second time this year that aldermen have called an emergency meeting of the Chicago City Council over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s objections. Our Spotlight Politics team weighs in.

The roadblocks preventing a new deal between the police union and city officials are unchanged since the contract expired on June 30, 2017 — and both sides are dug in and unwilling to compromise.

The nationwide Fight For $15 movement pushed the challenges facing Chicago’s lowest-paid workers — who are primarily Black and Latino — to the top of the agenda for city officials.

A federal judge will not force the city to permit Reserve Management Group, the parent company of General Iron, to operate a metal shredding and recycling operation on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

Chicago and other major cities are experiencing a “pandemic-spurred surge” in violence that officials are having success in fighting despite a rising number of shootings and homicides, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said during a one-on-one interview Tuesday on “Chicago Tonight.”

All 50 states, along with Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., are recording fewer than 15 new cases per day per 100,000 residents and are no longer covered by the travel order, officials said Tuesday.

Hours after Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed the shutdown of the Cook County court system by the COVID-19 pandemic for escalating violence across Chicago’s South and West sides, several aldermen told “Chicago Tonight” that rising inequality and distrust of the police is to blame. 

Illinois residents scrambling to renew their driver’s licenses and identification cards got a five-month reprieve Monday as lines swelled at secretary of state offices across the state.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended two months ago that Officer Evan Solano have his gun and badge taken from him after the March fatal shooting of a 22-year-old in Portage Park, even as a probe of the killing continues.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot suffered a stinging defeat Friday as aldermen refused to approve her efforts to reduce their control over business signs, an indication that aldermen will not relinquish their veto over ward issues.

The vote Friday to change the name of the city’s most iconic roadway came after months of intense and raucous debate that included accusations of racism over how best to honor Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, Chicago’s first non-native settler. 

Attorney General Kwame Raoul renewed his call Thursday for Chicago officials to ban no-knock warrants and put tighter restrictions on officers to prevent mistaken raids like the one that left Anjanette Young handcuffed and pleading for help in February 2019. 

Leaders of the group that launched the push to rename Lake Shore Drive say they will agree to a compromise plan to call the iconic roadway “DuSable Lake Shore Drive,” but Mayor Lightfoot has yet to endorse the proposal.

A year after Cook County officials faced the largest budget deficit in a decade, they find themselves flush with cash, thanks to $1 billion in COVID-19 relief funds and an economy recovering faster than expected from the ravages of the pandemic, according to a budget forecast.

A vote to rename 17 miles of Lake Shore Drive for Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, Chicago’s first permanent non-Indigenous settler, was delayed again Wednesday after the Chicago City Council erupted in acrimony over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to serve as the city’s top attorney.

City Council members are expected to vote on a proposal to rename Lake Shore Drive after Chicago's first non-Indigenous settler, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, after a parliamentary maneuver delayed the vote last month. We discussion that plan and other city business with four alderpeople.

Chicagoans ages 12 and up who choose to get vaccinated at home will get their shot for free and a $50 gift card from food delivery company GrubHub, officials said.

The delay comes as city officials wait for U.S. Treasury Department officials to decide whether they will give Mayor Lori Lightfoot the green light to use $465 million in federal funds to pay off high-interest debt the city incurred to balance its 2020 and 2021 budgets.

The third time did not prove to be the charm for a proposal to build hundreds of apartments near Higgins Road and Cumberland Avenue. Instead, the City Council’s Zoning Committee voted 11-2 Tuesday to table the plan from GlenStar.

Approximately 26,850 Chicagoans who lost their jobs or found their paychecks scaled back because of the COVID-19 pandemic applied for $137 million in grants designed to stave off a wave of evictions and keep the lights on across Chicago, officials said Monday.

Aldermen are poised to settle a lawsuit alleging that four paramedics were sexually harassed by fellow members of the Chicago Fire Department — three by the same person — and another was retaliated against for reporting that she had been harassed.

A long-stalled plan to put an elected board of Chicago residents in charge of the Chicago Police Department remains mired in limbo after a razor-thin vote Friday.

The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels will perform from noon to 1 p.m. on Aug. 21 and Aug. 22 after practicing from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 20.