Stories by Matt Masterson

A Gurnee man who spent nearly three decades behind bars after being convicted of murdering his ex-wife has been awarded a $13 million settlement through a civil lawsuit he brought in 2023.

Lawrence Reed, 50, is scheduled to be arraigned next week on two counts of aggravated battery stemming from a March incident on a Blue Line train.

The family of Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera, who was fatally shot in the line of duty this year by a fellow officer, says the shooting came after she broke off a romantic relationship with her partner.

The FBI’s Chicago field office on Wednesday said it is seeking to identify other potential victims of 44-year-old Luis Uribe, who stands accused of robbing and/or sexually assaulting at least four women in Schaumburg and Naperville throughout 2022.

Federal prosecutors allege that Luis Uribe is a “serial rapist” who used his position in law enforcement to sexually assault and rob at least four women at gunpoint throughout 2022.

In letters sent to both Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker, the Federal Transit Administration on Sunday issued a special directive calling for “immediate, measurable corrective actions” aimed at reducing violent crime.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis on Thursday did not yet grant a motion to dismiss that class action lawsuit, brought forth this week by the plaintiffs themselves.

Chicago’s Board of Education approved a whopping $17.5 million payment to settle a lawsuit brought by a former Little Village student who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a school official for years.

Attorneys representing the Chicago Headline Club and local journalists who fought for a broad injunction limiting federal agents’ use of force have abruptly moved to dismiss their lawsuit as the Trump administration’s vastly increased immigration efforts across Illinois appear to have “ended.”

Speaking at the City Club of Chicago on Tuesday to mark her first year as the county’s top prosecutor, O’Neill Burke said her office will be looking into possible improvements to the electronic monitoring system.

Charles Beach took his oath of office and officially took over as chief judge, months after he defeated eight-time incumbent Tim Evans in a September election held by Cook County judges.

Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans said his office is “reviewing all actions” after a Chicago man who had been out on pretrial release allegedly doused a woman in gasoline and lit her on fire on board a CTA Blue Line train this month.

The family of a woman who was set on fire on board a CTA Blue Line train last week has launched an online fundraiser to aid in her medical bills as she recovers from the severe burns she sustained.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office announced that Martinez Duncan died after a fire broke out in the jail’s residential treatment unit last Thursday.

A fundraiser has been launched for a 14-year-old boy who was killed in a downtown shooting Friday night in the same area where seven other teens were wounded in a mass shooting.

Texts from the Border Patrol agent who fired at Martinez revealed he apparently bragged about the shooting to others, stating in one message that he’d “fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to stay an order issued by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis that sought to rein in agents’ use of tear gas, pepper balls and other crowd control measures against protesters, journalists and others.

Lawrence Reed, 50, was charged in a federal complaint Wednesday with a terrorist attack on a mass transportation system, two days after he allegedly doused a woman with gasoline and ignited a blaze on a CTA train.

Sharing art, books and local beer, Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday called it an “honor” to meet with the pope in the Vatican to express “the pride and reverence of the people of this great state.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Johnson said there are currently only four people being held at the Broadview facility, a drastic reduction that comes weeks after detainees there testified they had been crammed into rooms with hundreds of others.

Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Board of Higher Education on Monday announced that total enrollment in Illinois public universities increased for the second year in a row and hit its highest overall level in 10 years.

Broadview’s mayor has declared a civil emergency following a series of “serious and credible” threats made against village officials and increasing protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

Attorneys representing a group of Chicago journalists and protesters claim immigration agents have repeatedly violated a sweeping injunction limiting the use of “riot control weapons,” less than a week after it was put into effect by a federal judge.

Diana Santillana Galeano, who had been held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in Clay County, Indiana, was released Wednesday night, hours after a federal judge granted a habeas petition.

Abughazaleh and five others entered their not guilty pleas before a packed courtroom in the Dirksen Federal Building on Wednesday,

CPS Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht’s office on Wednesday published a new report on the district’s travel and overnight spending, which jumped from around $300,000 in fiscal year 2021 to nearly $8 million in 2024.