Stories by Heather Cherone

Chicago taxpayers have spent at least $267 million to resolve lawsuits alleging Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct so far this year, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

“Donald Trump is counting on your silence,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “We are counting on your courage.”

“These federal agents are operating lawlessly, demonstrating utter disregard for our constitutional rights,” Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd Ward) said.

State Rep. Hoan Huynh, a candidate to represent Illinois’ 9th District in Congress, said he was in Albany Park when he was confronted by six Border Patrol agents.

As aldermen kicked off nearly a month of hearings by quizzing the mayor’s finance team for more than four hours, several alderpeople said they were shocked by the amount of money the mayor had proposed taking from the city’s tax increment financing districts.

We take a look at five of our favorite places in Chicago said to be haunted by the ghosts of politicians — and their scandals.

U.S. District Judge Sarah Ellis said Thursday she was “not happy” that immigration agents appear to have violated her order not to use tear gas and other weapons against journalists, protesters and anyone not posing an immediate threat to immigration enforcement agents.

In all, CPD’s budget is set to swell to $2.1 billion, increasing by $37.9 million to cover the cost of salary increases required by agreements with unions representing members.

The Trump administration told the Supreme Court that it wanted to deploy 300 members of the Illinois National Guard and 400 members of the Texas National Guard.

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s request to allow the president to immediately deploy National Guard troops into Chicago.

The City Council also agreed to pay $8 million to the family of Leonardo Guerrero, who died after being strapped to a stretcher by Chicago Fire Department paramedics.

“The line to draw here is that we either are going to protect working people in Chicago from Trump’s cuts, or we are going to open up the floodgates and allow these individuals to be hurt and harmed further,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Nine months into the year, Chicago taxpayers have spent at least $266.8 million to resolve nearly two and a half dozen lawsuits, exceeding the city’s annual budget to resolve lawsuits alleging police misconduct by nearly $185 million, city records show.

The jump of six percentage points in the level of full compliance with the consent decree reached between Jan. 1 and June 30 is the second largest increase in the six and a half years that the federal court order has been in effect.

Mayor Brandon Johnson refused to fire Jason Lee, one of his closest aides, at the recommendation of Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, telling WTTW News that Lee “engaged in no wrongdoing.”

In the past 12 days, Department of Homeland Security Agents have deployed tear gas against Chicagoans who gathered to protest their efforts to detain people they believe to be in the county illegally four times: in Logan Square on Oct. 3; in Brighton Park on Oct. 4; in Albany Park on Sunday and in East Side Tuesday.

Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th Ward) said the proposals will revitalize Broadway, which has not seen any new housing built on its west side for two decades, by making the commercial district more affordable and accessible.

An appeals court allowed U.S. District Court Judge April Perry’s ruling blocking the deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois to stand, while halting her order stopping President Donald Trump from federalizing those troops.

Leonardo Guerrero, 44, died at an Uptown hospital on Aug. 31, 2022, after his heart stopped in a Chicago Fire Department ambulance.

Lt. Franklin Paz accused CPD officials of violating the state’s Whistleblower Act by reassigning him to the overnight shift in a South Side police district after he refused to order the officers he supervised to stop at least 10 Chicago drivers every day.

Nine cases alleging Chicagoans were hit or killed during a police chase that violated department policy cost taxpayers more than $75 million to resolve between Jan. 1 and July 31, according to WTTW News’ analysis.

A federal judge is set to decide Thursday whether to block President Donald Trump from deploying 200 members of the Texas National Guard alongside 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to the Chicago area.

“We’re headed into pretty tough waters here, turmoil,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. “And I would anticipate … next year, and particularly the years after next, we’re going to be in a very difficult place as the federal government reduces its support.”

Trump’s comments, posted to his social media platform, came a day after 200 Texas National Guard troops under the command of federal officials arrived at a military facility near Joliet over the vehement objections of Pritzker and Johnson.

While the number of officers carrying the gun “decreases daily,” CPD officials told the judge there is no firm timetable for all CPD officers to stop carrying the gun because of delays obtaining a new CPD-approved weapon or holster.

Botched raids by the Chicago Police Department have cost taxpayers more than $5.5 million since 2020, according to a WTTW News analysis.