Stories by Matt Masterson

As the number of COVID-19 cases decline at the Cook County Jail, Sheriff Tom Dart announced Monday he would resume allowing in-person family visits for detainees for the first time in months.

The Chicago Police Department’s latest crime figures show a 20% reduction in overall crime in May 2020 compared to last year. But year-to-date totals show an increase in shootings (30%) and homicides (25%) compared with the same time frame last year.

“Yeah we’re not gonna do that,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said during a Friday morning press conference when asked if she would consider canceling CPS’ existing contract with the Chicago Police Department. “Unfortunately, we need security in our schools.”

Speaking on National Gun Violence Awareness Day, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Friday there has been a marked increase in gun violence in 2020, despite a stay-at-home order that was in place statewide for more than two months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a new study, cycling through Cook County Jail — a facility once dubbed the “largest-known source” of COVID-19 in the U.S. — is associated with roughly 16% of all documented cases of the virus in Illinois and Chicago through mid-April.

Cook County prosecutors claim Michael Mangan, 36, broke a total of 82 windows at a Northwest Side elementary school, valued at $16,400, and did so because “the school ruined his life.”

In an address Tuesday night, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot outlined reforms based on improving police training, officer wellness and community relations she said are “critical to resolving our crisis.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she made the decision only after speaking with business owners, chambers of commerce and city officials, all of whom she said were fully behind moving into phase three of the state’s Restore Illinois plan.

A 28-year-old man who took part in weekend protests in Chicago and Minneapolis is facing federal criminal charges after he allegedly handed out explosives and encouraged others to “light that b***h and throw it” at police officers.

Referencing Chicago’s own “dark days” with police violence, the mayor said additional training and improved relationships between officers and the community are needed following protests and looting across the city.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the time for his stay-at-home order has come to an end as several businesses across Illinois began to reopen Friday – the first day under phase three the governor's Restore Illinois plan.

The head of Chicago Public Schools said the district will continue honing its remote learning program over the summer as it prepares for the possibility of additional classroom closures in the fall due to COVID-19.

The announcement comes one day after the Office of the Chief Judge announced the extension of a modified court schedule postponing most criminal and civil cases across the Cook County court system into July.

The percentage of Chicago Public Schools students accessing materials and getting grades has steadily risen during the remote learning period, but new data shows some high-need populations have fallen behind.

Chicago saw its most violent Memorial Day weekend in five years, despite a stay-at-home order meant to keep people inside during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“I know worship is as essential as food and water for most of us," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday, “and it’s my priority to provide guidance to ensure that it may proceed safely.”

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said officers will be “visible and present” in neighborhoods throughout the summer and will be “on the lookout” for large gatherings.

The Illinois Department of Corrections and Gov. J.B. Pritzker aren’t doing enough to protect elderly and medically vulnerable inmates from COVID-19 inside state prison facilities, according to a lawsuit.

Chicago teachers say they’re being diverted from their teaching duties and forced to fulfill a “physically impossible mandate” of rewriting tens of thousands of individual education plans for special education students.

A Cook County judge has rejected a push to overturn a temporary ban that has prevented children in foster care from having supervised visits with their parents and siblings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aamir Mohammed, 30, was ordered held on $5,000 bond during a hearing Tuesday, four days after a confrontation outside Ms. T’s Southern Fried Chicken in Lakeview left a 24-year-old woman with multiple serious injuries.

COVID-19 can mimic labor symptoms and can cause additional complications for women following birth, according to Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who called for increased testing of pregnant women.

John Catanzara says he’s “not too concerned” with the opinions of his critics, and he’s hopeful that he’ll be able to secure what the Chicago police union has lacked for nearly three years: a contract with the city.

A temporary ban put in place by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has kept children in foster care from having supervised visits with their parents and siblings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a 12-page ruling, the judge said the Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Albany Park and Logos Baptist Ministries in Niles “provided no evidence” that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order targeted religion.

The Cook County sheriff is challenging a federal court order that outlines how his office must combat COVID-19 at the Cook County Jail, and called ongoing efforts by activists to get more detainees out of the jail a “waste of resources.”