Stories by Heather Cherone

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.

Eric Blackmon was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Tony Cox, who was killed on the West Side in what police believed was a gang-related shooting.

If approved, it would bring the total amount spent by taxpayers in 2025 to compensate those wrongfully convicted based on evidence developed by Chicago police officers to $164.2 million, according to a WTTW News analysis.

“It’s illegal, unconstitutional,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “It’s dangerous. It’s wrong. This is not about deportations, this is not about safety for this president. This is about authoritarianism. It’s about stoking fear. It’s about breaking the Constitution.”

Chicago firefighters and paramedics — who are prohibited from striking — have been working under the terms of a contract that expired in 2021.

“We’re not going to be intimidated in Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “It’s my responsibility to stand up to tyranny and to make sure that we are defending the people of this city.”

The lawsuit filed by Illinois and Chicago officials calls the looming deployment of both Texas and Illinois National Guard troops a politically motivated and unconstitutional federal overreach.

Marimar Martinez, 30, and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, are facing felony charges of “forcibly assaulting, impeding, and interfering with a federal law enforcement officer,” federal prosecutors announced Sunday.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said military officials called Saturday morning and “gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”

Gov. JB Pritzker, who is running for a third term as governor and considering a run for president in 2028, said he was “appalled by the reports of excessive use of force against children as well as the many innocent bystanders who were punished simply for residing in that building.”

Even though Chicago’s 2025 budget included $500,000 for the program, the effort will not move forward after the City Council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee, meeting in a joint session with the Transportation Committee, rejected officials’ plan to plow sidewalks in two small parts of the city.

The pause affects a long-awaited plan to extend the city’s Red Line train. The money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting,” budget director Russ Vought wrote on social media.

Conyears-Ervin, who is running to represent Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, had been fined a total of $70,000 by the Chicago Board of Ethics in two separate probes.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer said officers who have an alternative service weapon that “meets appropriate standards should be required immediately to use that alternative weapon.”

Chicago taxpayers paid $295 million between 2019 and 2024 to resolve lawsuits naming officers whose alleged misconduct led more than once to payouts, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News. In all, the city spent $491.7 million to resolve lawsuits alleging 1,643 Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct.