Stories by Heather Cherone

If Mayor Brandon Johnson refuses to appear as requested, it could open a new front in the ongoing battle with the GOP-controlled U.S House and the Trump administration, which is attempting to strip self-proclaimed sanctuary cities of all federal funding.

Ald. Jim Gardiner spent nearly three times as much on legal fees during 2023 and 2024 than any other member of the Chicago City Council, according to a WTTW News analysis of records filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

A statement from the Secret Service said the agents were investigating a threat against an official they are charged with protecting.

“We are not going to be intimidated by those acts of terror to radically shift our way of living,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “That’s what individuals who stoke fear into people want to see happen.”

A 33-page evaluation of the first year of the push dubbed the People’s Plan for Community Safety promises to continue working to reduce crime and violence by “addressing the root causes of harm and investing in communities and people.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson have both said they are prepared to confront President-elect Donald Trump's policies head-on. But it is unclear how Trump will make good on his promises of retribution, and what power city and state officials will have to resist or thwart federal authorities.

After days of increasing alarm among advocates for immigrant rights, the showdown over whether to amend Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance, was anti-climactic.

The City Council voted 49-1 to create a working group to come up with ways Chicago can change its traffic ticketing system so Black, Latino and low-income residents are no longer disproportionately hit with fines.

In all, the settlements approved Wednesday account for nearly half of the city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg's probe found the department members offered the deputy chief inappropriate “professional courtesy.”

The immediate challenges facing the new school board members are enormous: They must ink a new deal with the teachers union, pick a new leader and confront the threat posed by President-elect Donald Trump’s promises to deport thousands of undocumented Chicagoans.

Mayor Brandon Johnson slammed S&P’s decision to downgrade the city’s credit rating, saying it was based on inaccurate information.

The Chicago Board of Ethics fined indicted former Ald. Carrie Austin’s son, who works as an assistant commissioner in the Department of Streets and Sanitation, $7,000 on Monday for supervising his former sister-in-law for six years, in violation of the city’s governmental ethics ordinance.

For four decades, Chicago has held the designation of a sanctuary city — but what does it mean, and how has Chicago’s status endured? WTTW News explains.

Nearly 70% of those revenues came from the $44 million in flat fees Bally’s agreed to pay in 2023 and 2024 as part of the deal approved by the City Council in 2022 that ended a 30-year effort to bring casino gambling to Chicago.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st Ward) said he would ask his colleagues to vote Wednesday on the measure advanced by the Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee in October after working for months behind the scenes to marshal support.

The showdown over whether to amend the Welcoming City ordinance, set for Wednesday, will come less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. He has promised to immediately launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

Convicted in 2006, Ben Baker spent 10 years in prison before he was released in 2016, three years after former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts was convicted of taking bribes.

In all, Chicago taxpayers spent more than $73 million from January 2019 to August 2024 to resolve two dozen lawsuits filed by Chicagoans injured during police pursuits, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

The Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee is set on Monday to consider the proposed settlement, which would add to the toll of Jon Burge’s legacy of torture and misconduct more than 30 years after he was fired. A final vote of the City Council could come Wednesday.

If approved, it would be the seventh lawsuit filed by Chicagoans who said they were the victims of Reynaldo Guevara’s misconduct to be resolved, at a cost of $78 million to Chicago taxpayers.

Treasure Hendrix, 35, died after ingesting a toxic cocktail of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and ecstasy, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. Her death was the result of an accidental overdose, according to her autopsy.

One of Chicago’s largest developers will invoke a little-known and untested provision of city law in an attempt to win approval for a 615-unit apartment complex in Lincoln Park.

The six plaintiffs will each get $4,000, with the remaining $133,500 covering their legal fees, according to a copy of the settlement agreement obtained by WTTW News.

If approved by the full City Council, violations of the ordinance could trigger fines of at least $2,000 and no more than $5,000. A final vote on the measure could come at the City Council meeting scheduled for Jan. 15.

In his first interview since the CPS board voted unanimously to terminate Martinez, Johnson said the current board members were carrying out his vision for the nation’s fourth-largest school district.