Stories by Heather Cherone

The proposed settlement is set to be considered Wednesday by the Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee. A final vote of the City Council could come on Feb. 18.

Chicago taxpayers paid an additional $2 million to defend the other Chicago police officers named in Johnson's lawsuit, which was filed in 2020, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

If approved, it would be the 11th lawsuit filed by Chicagoans who said they were the victims of former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara’s misconduct to be resolved at a cost of approximately $120 million to Chicago taxpayers.

A key City Council panel will consider resolving four lawsuits naming former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara on Wednesday at a cost of $29.2 million.

Mayor Brandon Johnson's executive order “jeopardizes our ability to effectively prosecute and secure convictions when federal law enforcement agents have committed a crime,” Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said.

“When it comes to the Chicago Police Department, there’s always going to be this trust factor,” Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling said.

The number of times officers pointed their guns at individuals increased 44% between 2022 and 2024, according to one of the goals unanimously set for Snelling to achieve in 2026.

A new Chicago Police Department policy that does not ban officers from serving no-knock warrants or from pointing guns at children during raids is now final.

The seven-member Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability oversees the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the Chicago Police Board and has the power to set policy for the Chicago Police Department.

“Abolish ICE” is one of 25 finalists that Chicagoans can vote on between Sunday and Feb. 14, with the top six vote-getters winning the honor of renaming one snowplow in each of Chicago’s six snow districts.

“If the federal government will not hold these rogue actors accountable, then Chicago will do everything in our power to bring these agents to justice,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

U.S District Court Judge John Tharp said that he reconsidered his decision to allow lawyers for Ebony Tate, her mother, Cynthia Eason, and four children to call former Mayor Rahm Emanuel after lawyers for the city once again vigorously objected.

Eight notable Italian Americans are finalists in a little-advertised contest.

“For too long, Gregory Bovino and his rogue federal agents have terrorized communities in Illinois and across the country, violated our people’s constitutional rights and unleashed violence at every turn,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability voted unanimously to select LaKenya White, a 26-year veteran of Chicago’s police accountability system, to lead the agency known as COPA.

A trial, set to start Monday, will decide whether CPD officers traumatized two women and four children in August when a CPD SWAT team broke down the door of their apartment, pointed assault rifles directly at the kids and ordered one of the women to leave the house while unclothed.

In all, President Donald Trump’s decision to send federalized National Guard troops to six American cities cost approximately $496 million through the end of December, according to the report.

A joint City Council committee voted 19-3 to explicitly give the Civilian Office of Police Accountability authority to investigate whether CPD officers have improperly helped federal agents enforce immigration law.

The beloved festival, featuring the best of Chicago’s restaurant and culinary scene, will take place July 8-12, officials announced.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s failure to name a new Ethics Board chair has infuriated good-government advocates who have demanded that he do more to combat Chicago’s reputation as the most corrupt of corrupt American cities.

In all, $1.59 billion poured into the city’s 108 TIF funds in 2024, according to the annual report from the clerk’s office posted online Wednesday.

The number of people visiting the temporary casino at River North’s Medinah Temple failed to grow from 2024 to 2025, leading to a 1.3% drop in tax revenues,

In the less than nine years the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has existed, its investigators have probed 138 deaths caused by CPD officers, records show.

The Illinois Department of Human Rights will investigate whether the three firms that own and manage the building at 7500 S. South Shore Drive committed housing discrimination, officials said.

The new proposal does not mention the city’s curfew, but gives the city’s top cop the power to issue what it calls “a dispersal declaration” in areas where police leaders have determined they have probable cause to believe there will be a “disruptive youth gathering.”

The proposal immediately bans the sale of intoxicating hemp products to those younger than 21, while exempting the sale of beverages, topical creams and pet products with intoxicating hemp from the larger ban set to take effect April 1.