Stories by Matt Masterson

A downstate man who allegedly mailed envelopes containing a suspicious substance along with the message “HAH enjoy the gift” to multiple Illinois Congress members now faces federal charges.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros on Tuesday said voters can report possible violations including fraud and voter intimidation directly to his office amid concerns over the security of voters and the elections themselves.

State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke is defending Cook County’s ban on assault weapons, saying it “passes constitutional muster” as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to take up a challenge to that law later this year.

Chicago Public Schools officials on Wednesday announced that the most recent class of seniors achieved an 83.4% graduation rate. That’s double the district’s graduation rate from 2001, CPS CEO Macquline King said.

One person is in custody after allegedly firing a gun in downtown Chicago near the Kluczynski Federal Building early Tuesday morning, authorities said.

U.S. News and World Report unveiled its individual state rankings, which listed Edison Elementary Regional Gifted Center and Skinner North Elementary School as the top elementary schools in Illinois.

The first batch of candidates seeking to deny Mayor Brandon Johnson a second term each filed tens of thousands of signatures Monday to officially get on the Feb. 23 ballot, waiting in line for hours among aspiring alderpeople, staff members, lawyers and candidates for other offices.

Cook County College Teachers Union Local 1600 and the City Colleges of Chicago reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract late Sunday, meaning Monday’s planned strike had been averted.

CPS Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht on Friday said the investigation was conducted pursuant to his office’s standard practices and procedures, and that “in no way was this investigation rushed or concluded prematurely.”

Chicago Public Schools’ internal watchdog has cleared school board president candidate Hilario Dominguez of any wrongdoing following an investigation into nearly decade-old allegations that he acted inappropriately with a high schooler.

The two-term Democratic incumbent and former downstate Republican legislator came together Tuesday for their first and only meeting during this election cycle in a forum hosted by WTTW News.

Chicago attorneys have filed more than a half dozen lawsuits alleging the Archdiocese of Chicago knew its priests were running a “sex ring” for decades at a South Side parish but did nothing to stop it from happening.

Hundreds of hotel workers from a half dozen Chicago hotels remain on strike Monday, days after walking off the job in a push for improved wages, healthcare benefits and a safer workload.

A Cook County judge on Friday ordered that Shavon Gayden, 48, remain held at Cook County Jail, days after she was charged with first-degree murder in the Oct. 3 killing of 7-year-old Eddimar Hernandez Chacon.

The family of Silverio Villegas González, the suburban father who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during a traffic stop last year, is taking legal action against the Trump administration more than a year after the “unnecessary, unjust” killing.

School board president candidate Hilario Dominguez says he met with Chicago Public Schools’ internal watchdog, which is revisiting nearly decade-old allegations that he acted inappropriately with a high schooler.

Almost a year to the day after Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum shot Marimar Martinez, her attorneys announced the filing of a new lawsuit they hope will put pressure on local and federal prosecutors to bring charges.

Cook County College Teachers Union Local 1600 announced Thursday they will begin their strike Oct. 19, days after 96% of its voting members said they were in favor of a work stoppage.

Through the first three quarters of 2026, Chicago is on pace for fewer homicides than it recorded in 2025, a year that closed with the city’s fewest recorded killings in 60 years.

A federal judge has not yet ruled on whether to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate possible wrongdoing by U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros’ office in the botched “Broadview Six” case. But the judge does intend to conduct additional fact-finding.

A Chicago-based law firm is suing current and former Trump administration officials in connection with the death of Renee Good, whose fatal shooting in Minneapolis early this year sparked nationwide protests against the president’s expanded immigration enforcement efforts.

Former Chicago Board of Education vice president Sendhil Revuluri is ending his campaign to become the board’s first-ever elected president, blaming “special-interest cash” for blocking out the “voices of real Chicagoans.”

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday announced the charges against Eva Bratcher, 72, who was indicted late last month on counts including theft of government property and fraud, misrepresentation or misuse of Social Security benefits.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office on Friday announced 79 felony charges against 11 current and former elected officials and employees of the village of Ford Heights.

On what would have been Laquan McDonald’s 29th birthday, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth is reintroducing legislation that would incentivize the use of independent, impartial investigations into the use of deadly force by law enforcement officials.

The embattled federal prosecutor whose alleged misconduct before a grand jury last year led to the dismissal of the “Broadview Six” case and a review of her previous cases has left Chicago’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.