Stories by Matt Masterson

Dennis Haggerty, 44, was charged in federal court Tuesday with a single count of wire fraud after he allegedly took millions of dollars from a pair of university hospitals for N95 face masks which he never produced.

As a potential return to in-person learning draws nearer for some Chicago Public Schools students, the Chicago Teachers Union is seeking help in negotiations with the district over classroom reopenings.

As Illinois saw more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases Friday, state health officials released new data showing there have been 10 school-based coronavirus outbreaks, while hundreds of schools have faced potential exposures.

“The Republicans, and the billionaires who sided with them, were effectively able to use the speaker as their foil and that hurt our ability, our state’s ability to get things done,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday.

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 9,935 new cases of COVID-19, a single-day record, and 97 deaths. In Illinois, 10,030 have now died as a result of the virus.

With more than 98% of precincts reporting by Wednesday afternoon, each of the 61 Cook County judges seeking retention in Tuesday’s election appear to have surpassed the 60% voting threshold necessary to remain on the bench.

With a return to in-person learning nearing for some groups of Chicago Public Schools students, the district has announced it will spend $8.5 million on air purifiers for classrooms and staff spaces to protect against the coronavirus.

Data from the Chicago Police Department shows there have been 2,768 shootings and 655 murders year-to-date. Those figures are up 51% and 52%, respectively, when compared to the first 10 months of 2019.

“It’s unfortunate,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday. “Look, this disease is unrelenting, it doesn’t care about what the location is and what we’re trying to do here is to limit the cases, the hospitalizations and the deaths.”

Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer on Thursday ordered a suspension of criminal jury trials at the Dirksen Federal Building effective immediately.

A jury found the defendant guilty in March on each of the six charges he faced: two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree murder of a peace officer and two counts of armed violence.

Sade Owens faces a single felony charge for falsely reporting the kidnapping of her son Jaylen Mojica, which sparked an extensive manhunt Monday that involved Chicago officers from across the city, police helicopters and K-9 units.

According to a new report, Chicago police officers who fired their weapons have been returning to regular field duties before completing necessary training requirements aimed at helping them process trauma.

After refusing requests to wear face masks or use hand sanitizer inside a North Lawndale neighborhood store, two sisters allegedly attacked a male employee, stabbing him more than two dozen times Sunday evening.

Parents and activists are calling on Chicago Public Schools to answer critical safety questions about in-person learning before some of the district’s most vulnerable students return to their classrooms.

With just over a week to go until Election Day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has launched a hotline for residents in Chicago and the surrounding areas to report any complaints of voter fraud or intimidation.

“We all want to return to our students. We don’t want to die doing our jobs, and we don’t want to be vectors for spreading illness or death to our students and their families,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said.

“The way we work, the way we live, the way we play have all changed,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the state’s top doctor, said Friday. “The harsh reality is that the sacrifices we’ve made and that we continue to make do not have a future expiration date.”

Speaking on a day when Illinois reported nearly 5,000 new COVID-19 cases, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state will act to punish businesses and establishments that fail to abide by mandated coronavirus mitigation requirements.

With local school council elections coming next month, Chicago Public Schools has announced it will let families choose between voting in person at their school, submitting their ballot by mail or dropping off their mail-in ballot at their school.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has repeatedly said she’s not in favor of defunding the Chicago Police Department, but with position reductions, budget cuts and investments in a new pilot program, the city may be rethinking the way policing will work.

After policy changes were made to improve equitable enrollment, students of color and those from low-income households were three times more likely to enroll in full-day pre-K, according to a new report from the University of Chicago.

The city this week will receive a $1 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to aid in the testing and tracking of sexual assault kits, many of which have been held up in a statewide backlog that dates back decades.

The school district announced Friday morning that its citywide enrollment had fallen from 355,156 in the 2019-20 school year to 340,658 this year.

A federal judge has ordered Jeremiah “Jerry” Harris, star of the Netflix documentary series “Cheer,” to remain in jail pending trial on a charge he sexually exploited underage children.

Cynthia Donald, who filed the lawsuit Thursday in Cook County Court, claimed that for more than three years, she was subjected to “unwanted and uninvited sexual advances” from Johnson inside his office at CPD headquarters.