Stories by Heather Cherone

“A budget that would lay off workers and cut services is just, you know, one that should not be tolerated by any Chicagoan,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

This week’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has unleashed a wave of public feeling — exasperation, anger, resentment, helplessness — from Americans sharing personal stories of interactions with insurance companies, often seen as faceless corporate giants.

The Illinois Senate last spring passed a proposal to require the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board to develop or approve a hate crimes training program, which would become part of police officers’ introductory and continuing mandatory education. The measure did not advance.

After an extraordinarily short day of trial Monday, jurors may only remember one detail: those high up in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2018 campaign had nicknamed then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan “Sphinx.”

After an unrelated news conference, Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to say whether he still had confidence in Jason Lee, but praised his track record of helping progressive politicians get elected.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny identified the suspect as Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and a last known address in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mangione had a ghost gun, a type of weapon that can be assembled at home from parts without a serial number, making them difficult to trace, investigators said.

The CTA’s Red Line Extension project will create four new stops on the Far South Side. Residents in nearby communities harbor both concerns about how the project will play out and hope about how it could improve their communities.  

The Merriam-Webster entry for “polarization” reflects scientific and metaphorical definitions. It’s most commonly used to mean “causing strong disagreement between opposing factions or groupings.” Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based on data, tracking a rise in search and usage.

Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability President Anthony Driver, Jr., said he had no doubt that he was stopped because he is a 6-foot-3-inch Black man who weighs more than 200 pounds and wears his hair in dreadlocks.

Far-right influencer Nick Fuentes is due in court later this month after a woman accused him of pepper-spraying her when she showed up at his suburban Chicago home following his “Your body, my choice” post on X.

The court on Friday ruled that Wyndham Lathem had been improperly denied access to his legal counsel by Judge Charles Burns during an overnight recess in his 2021 murder trial.

What’s in a new city budget proposal. Chicago Public Schools’ CEO rejects a buyout. And a pivotal week in the Michael Madigan trial.

The U.S. Senate has approved the reauthorization through 2031 of a federal program that provides crucial funding for restoration and protection of Great Lakes ecosystems. Now it’s up to the U.S. House to do the same.

The new plan comes after the Chicago City Council rejected Johnson’s first two proposals to raise property taxes in order to avoid draconian cuts to city services and thousands of layoffs.

In a first for the Field Museum, the exhibits staff has outfitted four of its dinosaur replicas (OK, three dinosaurs and one pterosaur) in Santa hats to celebrate the festive season.

In “Art and Faith of the Crèche,” creed and creativity go together like Christmas and cookies, but you don’t have to be a believer to appreciate the beauty of the nativity sets on display at Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA).

Concerns over plans to clear out Humboldt Park’s homeless encampment. And an investigation finds significant privacy violations in Chicago’s migrant shelter system.

Brothers Andy and Fredy Granados opened Grano Panadería and Café in Back of the Yards. The shop combines traditional Mexican flavors with their first-generation Chicago roots.

Last month, Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward) announced the proposal to remove all tents from the area before the holidays as part of the Humboldt Park Encampment Housing Initiative. The city plans to start removal Friday morning, but advocates want officials to reconsider and explore other options.

“I was most shocked by the fact that there didn’t seem to be controls on who could access this very sensitive data — we’re talking medical information, immigration details, people’s contact information,” said Emeline Posner, a reporter with the Investigative Project on Race and Equity.

The Blackhawks are 8-16-2, two standings points behind the next-worst team, Nashville. Richardson went 57-118-15 with Chicago.

The disparity — that the smell of unsmoked marijuana is justification for a warrantless search, while the smell of smoked pot is not — “defies logic,” Justice Mary K. O’Brien wrote in her dissent.

The proposed Chinatown land transfer is one of five separate schemes prosecutors have accused former House Speaker Michael Madigan of orchestrating.

On Saturday, Jupiter will shine its brightest of the year and will be visible all night as it travels the sky from sunset to sunrise.

Joseph “JoJo” Mapp promised to serve as a “bridge” between community organizations working to help those returning to Chicago from jail or prison and the city.

The 533 homicides recorded across Chicago through the end of November mark a nearly 9% decline compared to the same time last year, according to CPD data. That total is also nearly 19% below 2022’s pace and 29% below 2021’s pace.