Stories by Heather Cherone

“Your war and your tariffs are squeezing Illinois farmers with higher costs they cannot control and never asked for,” Gov. JB Pritzker wrote. “They should not be forced to pick up the tab for your decisions.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s order requires contractors to certify that they have not committed a “public integrity violation, antidiscrimination or wage theft violation” during the previous five years.

Until the Supreme Court rules, 31 cases will remain in limbo — including three that seek to terminate officers who caused the deaths of Chicagoans, record show.

Tax Increment Financing Districts “reinforced the city’s historic economic inequities instead of reducing them — and all of this happened with little transparency or accountability from city planning officials,” according to the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The terms of two members of the board expired last month, including Vice Chair Ryan Cortazar, who has led the board since former Chair William Conlon stepped down in July 2025, and Board Member Sarah Jin.

“We cannot continue to govern by searching for loose change in the couch, or every time that there’s a budget challenge, we revert back to proclivities that have caused tremendous harm to working people in this city,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Less than 24 hours after Chicago officials recommended he be fired, Officer Joseph Vecchio was arrested and charged with a felony count of aggravated domestic battery and is being held in Cook County jail, records show.

Lawyers for the city of Chicago have appealed that verdict, the largest ever in a lawsuit alleging misconduct by members of the Chicago Police Department.

Taxing agencies — including schools, parks, libraries and cities — sent property tax bills totaling $19.9 billion in 2025, 3.9% more than in 2024, according to a new analysis from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas’ research team.

Chicago DSA declined to endorse Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st Ward) because he would not tell the group he considers himself an anti-Zionist and Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) because she supported reversing a 2023 City Council vote to phase out the tipped minimum wage and voted against spending on the migrant crisis.

Chicago and Atlanta were eliminated in the first round of cuts made by officials with the Democratic National Committee, leaving Boston, Philadelphia and Denver to battle it out to host the gathering planned for Aug. 7-10, 2028.

The videos appear to violate the city’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance, which bans candidates for city office from “intentionally (using) any city property or resources of the city in connection with any prohibited political activity.”

An overhaul of the county’s property tax system plagued with problems that created “a cascade effect,” Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle said Tuesday

Officer Charles Harris II faces a suspension of 29 days for failing to activate his body-worn camera as required and failing to notify his supervisors that he had fired his gun, records show.

Chicago taxpayers have paid $2.7 million for a system designed to alert officials about which officers have been the subject of repeated police misconduct allegations. It is not scheduled to launch until June 2027.

In all, taxpayers have paid more than $986,000 to defend and resolve lawsuits alleging misconduct by members of the tactical team during traffic stops, according to records obtained by WTTW News.

“Chicagoans have been absolutely clear: They do not want data centers expanding across our city without strong protection for their communities, their utility bills, their air, water and their quality of life,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Chicago police officers detained the same teen four times in less than 30 minutes in what investigators ruled was a botched raid.

Officials with Bally’s Corp. have been warning the Chicago City Council for months that its move to green-light video gaming would kneecap the city’s permanent casino, scheduled to open in River West early next year.

Giannoulias, 50, who is running for a second term as secretary of state in November, will simultaneously enter the contest to be Chicago’s 58th mayor.

That missed deadline comes as CPD officials acknowledged, again, that the number of times officers used force against members of the public “continues to trend upward,” according to the report.

Chicago taxpayers have already paid $3.4 million to defend the lawsuit that accuses the CPD of making more than 1.5 million traffic stops between 2016 and 2023 based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans, records show.

Gun policy group the Brady Campaign has urged elected officials to use their procurement power to force gun companies to change how they do business, since cities and states spend millions of dollars to equip police officers.

“By administratively closing hundreds of cases COPA may have alleviated its own burden, but it also created a vacuum of accountability within the police oversight system it is mandated to uphold,” according to the analysis released by the Office of the Inspector General.

“For Black Chicago in particular, it kind of felt a way that government was able to turn on resources in a moment’s notice that our communities have been starved for decades,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “And I tried desperately to live in my values, even though it cost me politically. It did. It did cost me.”

Candidates will hit the street to gather thousands of autographs from registered voters a month earlier than aspiring candidates did four years ago, the last time all 50 alderpeople, the mayor, city clerk and city treasurer faced voters.