Stories by Matt Masterson

The February trial date for alleged Highland Park parade gunman Robert Crimo III has been removed, with a new trial date coming either later this year or in early 2025.

Those findings were among numerous cases highlighted in an annual report published Tuesday by CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher, which examined investigations undertaken by his office between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

According to the Chicago Police Department, 11 people were shot in 11 separate shooting incidents between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

The four former Commonwealth Edison officials convicted last year of conspiring to bribe ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan will not be sentenced until at least next month, but the delay could last much longer.

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan appeared in court in person for the first time Wednesday, as a judge pushed back his upcoming federal racketeering and bribery charges to October.

There were 617 homicides and 2,450 shootings across Chicago throughout 2023, according to Chicago Police Department data, with both totals hitting their lowest marks since 2019.

“We know it’ll be a busy night,” Commander Jon Hein said Friday. “We ask everyone to please ensure that you have a safe night and if you’re going to celebrate, do that responsibly.”

Chicago firefighters rescued multiple people from a fire that broke out on the sixth floor of an Uptown high-ride Friday morning.

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday announced two new appointments, tapping Jose Tirado to serve as OEMC’s new executive director and Lissette Castañeda to serve as commissioner for the Department of Housing.

The university confirmed that the Douglas County District Attorney’s office in Kansas issued an arrest warrant for Shannon on Wednesday. He has since turned himself in to police in Lawrence, Kansas, posted bail and is now returning to Illinois.

CTA has announced that it is partnering with Miller Lite to offer free rides, which will be available across the city on both trains and buses from 10 p.m. Sunday until 4 a.m. Monday.

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg on Wednesday said the court overseeing the federal consent decree has found that her office and its public safety section are in “full and effective compliance” with all applicable requirements.

According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, 33-year-old Michael O’Connor was found unresponsive in his cell in the jail’s Residential Treatment Unit at around 4:30 p.m. Christmas day.

The Chicago Police Board will move ahead with evidentiary hearings to determine “whether the officers violated any of the Chicago Police Department’s rules of conduct and, if so, the appropriate disciplinary action,” Vice President Paula Wolff wrote in her decision.

When former Chicago alderperson Ed Burke was convicted on racketeering, bribery and extortion charges, he became the latest Illinois politician and powerbroker to face accusations of corruption — but he’s far from the first in recent years.

The Columbia College Faculty Union (CFAC), which represents nearly 600 part-time faculty members, announced Thursday its members had officially approved the contract, which put an end to a record-long 49-day strike.

According to Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Department of Public Health, the cause of death for Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero, 5, remains under investigation, but it’s not connected to three other children who were hospitalized from the shelter Monday.

The defense teams for Michael Madigan and co-defendant Michael McClain are seeking to strike their upcoming trial date and delay all proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling in a case that could rewrite the federal bribery statute.

Mustafaa Saleh, 37, was sentenced last week to a year and one day in prison after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of wire fraud.

A Chicago police spokesperson said an investigation is underway, but it does not appear as though the boy’s death was criminal in nature.

College administrators and the Columbia College Faculty Union (CFAC) — which represents nearly 600 adjunct faculty members — jointly announced the tentative deal that would put an end to the record-long strike.

According to Chicago Police Department data, 18 total people were shot in 17 separate shooting incidents between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

Closing arguments continued Thursday in the high-profile corruption case of the longtime 14th Ward alderperson and Finance Committee chair, with prosecutors zeroing in on perhaps the most elaborate of four criminal schemes Burke is charged with.

Four former Commonwealth Edison officials convicted of conspiring to bribe Michael Madigan are seeking to delay their sentencing after the U.S.  Supreme Court agreed to hear a separate case the defendants say “has the potential to upend” their own proceedings.

Closing arguments began Wednesday, more than a month after proceedings began in Ed Burke’s landmark corruption case. Prosecutors painted the longtime 14th Ward alderperson as a “powerful and corrupt” politician who was motivated by greed to “get what he wanted for himself.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of three minor, unnamed victims, alleged that Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary School teacher Andrew Castro was able to continuously abuse the boys despite prior complaints of similar abuse.