Stories by Matt Masterson

Chicago police are asking for help in identifying two offenders who allegedly attacked a star of the TV series “Empire” in what investigators believe may have been a “racially-charged assault.”

Bail hearings and some pretrial hearings will continue, but all other court operations will be postponed for part of the week in anticipation of a near-record cold snap.

In announcing the plan, the Cook County state’s attorney said her office must avoid “needlessly bringing people into the criminal justice system” and instead focus on prosecuting violent crime cases.

Last week, a Cook County judge handed down an 81-month prison sentence to former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke. But was a different sentence required? The state attorney general’s office says it’s now taking a look at that decision to see if it fits with state sentencing requirements. 

Nearly three dozen Chicago Public Schools staffers, including 12 teachers, have been removed from schools due to sexual abuse allegations in recent months, according to the district’s watchdog.

Evanston Township High School district officials have reached an agreement with four former students who claimed they were sexually abused decades ago by a former drama teacher.

Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan sentences the former Chicago cop to 81 months in prison – just under seven years – for the 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald. He will likely only have to serve about half of that sentence.

In October, he became the first Chicago cop in decades to be convicted of murder for an on-duty shooting. Now, the former police officer will learn his sentence for the 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald.

A Cook County judge says a trio of current and former Chicago police officers did not conspire to hide details of the Laquan McDonald shooting in an unprecedented trial that put a spotlight on the police department’s so-called code of silence.

Were three Chicago cops following procedure after an officer-involved shooting? Or did they engage in a cover-up to try and protect their fellow officer? That’s what a Cook County judge will decide this week.

More than two years removed from a midnight deal to avert what would have been the second strike in four years, members of the Chicago Teachers Union are heading back to the bargaining table.

The former Chicago police officer will be sentenced Friday. He was convicted last fall of second-degree murder in the fatal 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Evanston police are investigating a local high school employee following allegations of “inappropriate contact” with at least two students.

If the partial government shutdown lasts through next week, federal courts in Chicago and across the country may have to delay pay and limit operations.

Keith Watley, 29, is accused of intentionally running over and killing a mechanic he knew on the South Side.

The Cook County state’s attorney said she was “sickened” by recent allegations of sexual and physical abuse made against R&B star R. Kelly in a new televised docuseries.

Carjacking totals dropped across Chicago in 2018 following a yearslong spike, and city leaders hope the deployment of a technological tool will help draw those totals down further.

Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigator Alison Yohanna is facing felony charges after she allegedly emailed a false report of a mass shooting at her office late last month.

A staff member at Chicago’s largest public high school has been removed following an allegation of inappropriate behavior involving a student. “We are taking this situation seriously,” the school’s principal wrote Friday in an email to parents.

Among the extraordinary details that came to light after Ald. Ed Burke was charged Thursday with attempted extortion was the fact that nearly two dozen firearms were found in his offices during a series of November raids.

A Cook County judge has already delayed her finding once in the unprecedented trial of three Chicago police officers. The new verdict date is Jan. 17 – a day before the sentencing of former Officer Jason Van Dyke.

Chicago police descended on COPA’s office last Friday following a report of an emailed threat. But COPA officials now say that threat was “false” and the sender has been identified as an agency employee.

The school district’s inspector general found the music director “willfully violated” CPS fundraising guidelines. That’s just one of the investigations highlighted in the watchdog’s just-released annual report.

Nearly 250 Chicago schools have been labelled “underutilized,” according to district data. That total exceeds the number of schools CPS says are running efficiently.

The school district says identification numbers, grades, standardized test scores and the email addresses of numerous Ogden Elementary students were exposed in the latest CPS data breach.

Strawberry Hampton, a 27-year-old transgender woman, said she was constantly harassed and abused by prisoners and corrections officers alike inside various all-male prisons.