Stories by Heather Cherone

Mayor Brandon Johnson nominated Marlene Hopkins to permanently replace former Buildings Commissioner Matthew Beaudet, whom Johnson fired last month. Hopkins’ nomination must be confirmed by the Chicago City Council.

The cost to taxpayers of the settlements approved without debate by the City Council on Wednesday is equivalent to more than a third of the city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.

The last time Chicago voters passed a binding referendum that applied to the entire city was 1885, when they voted to create the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, according to city records.

While the office of circuit court clerk might not be as well-known as other county offices up for grabs Tuesday, it is a powerful perch. The clerk controls more than 1,400 jobs and handles everything from evictions to traffic tickets to child support.

Glock should be banned from selling those guns to Chicagoans and forced to pay for the harm the pistols have caused, according to a new lawsuit filed by the city's lawyers that will test a new state law.

In all, the City Council will consider paying $52.7 million to resolve four lawsuits that allege a wide range of police misconduct. The city’s insurance company is set to pay $25 million of that total.

Twenty-seven people were allowed to stay after they presented evidence that they had applied for public benefits that will make it possible for them to secure more permanent housing. Four others were allowed to stay because they are pregnant or have a disability, officials said.

The Chicago City Council is set to consider paying $45 million to resolve a lawsuit that alleges an unauthorized chase left a 15-year-old boy with a traumatic brain injury, unable to walk or talk.

No one will be evicted from the city’s migrant shelter in Pilsen, where 10 cases of measles had been confirmed as of late Thursday night.

Migrants evicted from a city shelter can return to the designated “landing zone” for buses from Texas at Polk and Desplaines streets in the West Loop, according to the policy imposed by Mayor Brandon Johnson.

If approved, the settlement would bring the total amount paid by Chicago taxpayers to resolve lawsuits naming former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara to $62.5 million, records show.

All four of the neighborhoods have suffered from decades of disinvestment, fueling a cycle of violence that has made them some of the most violent places in Chicago, officials said.

“This has been a situation that has gotten increasingly out of control,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said about the massive bills for police overtime. “The superintendent and I, we both agree on that.”

With three of the seven justices abstaining, the state’s highest court rejected an appeal from a coalition of real estate and development groups that sued the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners to knock the ballot measure off Tuesday’s ballot.

The Chicago Police Department spent $293 million on overtime last year, 40% more than in 2022 and nearly three times the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget, according to data obtained by WTTW News.

City health officials did not immediately identify whether the latest people to contract measles are children or adults, nor did they disclose their condition, as they have with all other cases of measles.

Since the first confirmed case of measles was diagnosed in a shelter resident on Friday, approximately 900 residents have been vaccinated, officials said. 

A coalition of the real estate and development groups asked the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse an appellate court ruling that overturned a decision by Cook County Judge Kathleen Burke that blocked the Chicago Board of Elections from counting votes for and against the proposal, known as Bring Chicago Home.

The cancelation of the meeting leaves the pending probe against City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin up in the air, four months after the Ethics Board ratified the determination that she fired two city employees after they warned her she was violating the city’s government ethics ordinance by using city resources to host a prayer service.

A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on its way to Chicago to assist the Chicago Department of Public Health respond to the apparent measles outbreak, Chicago health officials said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson faces an April 7 deadline to pick seven members to serve on the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.

Eileen O’Neill Burke rejected the endorsement of the city’s largest police union in a statement to WTTW News. “We still want our members to vote for her,” Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said.

The child diagnosed with measles “has recovered and is no longer infectious,” according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

The Obama Presidential Center, which broke ground in September 2021, had been slated to open in October 2025.

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Appellate Court unanimously overturned the Feb. 23 decision by a Cook County judge that invalidated the binding ballot question known as Bring Chicago Home. The ruling could still be appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.

For Eileen O’Neill Burke, locked in a fierce fight for the Democratic nomination for Cook County state’s attorney against Clayton Harris III, her last name has turned out to be a double-edged sword.