Stories by Matt Masterson

With more than 98% of precincts reporting by Wednesday afternoon, each of the 61 Cook County judges seeking retention in Tuesday’s election appear to have surpassed the 60% voting threshold necessary to remain on the bench.

With a return to in-person learning nearing for some groups of Chicago Public Schools students, the district has announced it will spend $8.5 million on air purifiers for classrooms and staff spaces to protect against the coronavirus.

Data from the Chicago Police Department shows there have been 2,768 shootings and 655 murders year-to-date. Those figures are up 51% and 52%, respectively, when compared to the first 10 months of 2019.

“It’s unfortunate,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday. “Look, this disease is unrelenting, it doesn’t care about what the location is and what we’re trying to do here is to limit the cases, the hospitalizations and the deaths.”

Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer on Thursday ordered a suspension of criminal jury trials at the Dirksen Federal Building effective immediately.

A jury found the defendant guilty in March on each of the six charges he faced: two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree murder of a peace officer and two counts of armed violence.

Sade Owens faces a single felony charge for falsely reporting the kidnapping of her son Jaylen Mojica, which sparked an extensive manhunt Monday that involved Chicago officers from across the city, police helicopters and K-9 units.

According to a new report, Chicago police officers who fired their weapons have been returning to regular field duties before completing necessary training requirements aimed at helping them process trauma.

After refusing requests to wear face masks or use hand sanitizer inside a North Lawndale neighborhood store, two sisters allegedly attacked a male employee, stabbing him more than two dozen times Sunday evening.

Parents and activists are calling on Chicago Public Schools to answer critical safety questions about in-person learning before some of the district’s most vulnerable students return to their classrooms.

With just over a week to go until Election Day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has launched a hotline for residents in Chicago and the surrounding areas to report any complaints of voter fraud or intimidation.

“We all want to return to our students. We don’t want to die doing our jobs, and we don’t want to be vectors for spreading illness or death to our students and their families,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said.

“The way we work, the way we live, the way we play have all changed,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the state’s top doctor, said Friday. “The harsh reality is that the sacrifices we’ve made and that we continue to make do not have a future expiration date.”

Speaking on a day when Illinois reported nearly 5,000 new COVID-19 cases, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state will act to punish businesses and establishments that fail to abide by mandated coronavirus mitigation requirements.

With local school council elections coming next month, Chicago Public Schools has announced it will let families choose between voting in person at their school, submitting their ballot by mail or dropping off their mail-in ballot at their school.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has repeatedly said she’s not in favor of defunding the Chicago Police Department, but with position reductions, budget cuts and investments in a new pilot program, the city may be rethinking the way policing will work.

After policy changes were made to improve equitable enrollment, students of color and those from low-income households were three times more likely to enroll in full-day pre-K, according to a new report from the University of Chicago.

The city this week will receive a $1 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to aid in the testing and tracking of sexual assault kits, many of which have been held up in a statewide backlog that dates back decades.

The school district announced Friday morning that its citywide enrollment had fallen from 355,156 in the 2019-20 school year to 340,658 this year.

A federal judge has ordered Jeremiah “Jerry” Harris, star of the Netflix documentary series “Cheer,” to remain in jail pending trial on a charge he sexually exploited underage children.

Cynthia Donald, who filed the lawsuit Thursday in Cook County Court, claimed that for more than three years, she was subjected to “unwanted and uninvited sexual advances” from Johnson inside his office at CPD headquarters.

A federal judge will decide whether “Cheer” star Jeremiah “Jerry” Harris will be held in jail or released as he awaits trial on a single count of producing child pornography.

Chicago Public Schools says it wants to triple the number of district graduates it hires annually as teachers, and through a new partnership, it’s planning to make the majority of those hires people of color.

Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate is up to 4.3%, nearly a full percentage point higher than it was a week ago, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was convicted of second-degree murder of Black teen Laquan McDonald in 2014, is expected to be released in February 2022. While he remains in custody, it’s unclear where he will serve the remainder of his sentence.

Diego Vargas, 24, was charged in U.S. District Court in Chicago this week with a single count of maliciously attempting to damage and destroy a building by means of an explosive device.