Stories by Matt Masterson

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.

A long-awaited new fieldhouse, the transformation of a toxic waste site into a lakefront park and plans to address homelessness are all on the list of priorities for the Chicago Park District.

Cook County residents will get another shot to file property tax appeals. A clean slate and a new beginning — we explain. And the Chicago Park District unveils its budget proposal.

The Cook County Board of Review, the office tasked with settling appeals, announced that everyone who lives in a Cook County township that’s already closed its 2025 property tax appeal window will have another shot to file.

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 84-year-old civil rights leader was discharged Monday from Northwestern Memorial Hospital, his son and family spokesperson Yusef Jackson said.

The Wisconsin woman who won release from a mental institution after almost killing her sixth grade classmate in the name of horror villain Slender Man only to flee the state weeks later won’t fight extradition from Illinois.

Detectives are using all kinds of gizmos and gadgets to solve crimes these days, but they're overlooking the lowest of low-tech clues: moss. A Field Museum researcher wants to change that.

More than 2 million people in Illinois are eligible to have their records sealed but haven’t acted on what is currently a cumbersome, lengthy process.

O’Hare is likely to see its busiest Thanksgiving travel week in the airport’s 70-year history, according to the city’s aviation department. In Illinois, more than 4.1 million residents are expected to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday period, setting a new record for Thanksgiving travel in the state, according to AAA.

The Emmett Till Interpretive Center disclosed late Sunday that it had purchased the barn located in a rural area outside the city of Drew, aided by a $1.5 million donation from television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes.

What exactly is a consent decree and how does it work? Plus, what the push for police reform looks like at the neighborhood level.

Remel Terry is now president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. Terry has been a member of the commission, better known as the CCPSA, since it was launched in 2022.

Police district councils work in each of the city’s 22 police districts, hearing out residents’ public safety concerns and advocating for accountability in the Chicago Police Department. The first members were elected in 2023, giving everyday people more of a say in how policing is done.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi testified he was treated well at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, until then-CPD Detective Richard Zuley took command of the investigation into his ties to al-Qaida and the torture began.

Chicagoans have been going gaga over a pair of snowy owls that have settled in at Montrose beach. Maybe a little too gaga.

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.

The consent decree is a binding court order granting a federal judge oversight of the police department. WTTW News Explains how that works in practice.

The rulings from U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie amount to a stunning rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to target Trump’s political opponents. It also highlights its legal maneuvering to hastily install a loyalist prosecutor willing to file the cases.

However, U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer ruled that officers must have their cameras on if a deputy chief asks them to answer additional questions about the shooting.

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.

A Wisconsin woman who admitted to nearly stabbing a classmate to death at age 12 to please the online horror character Slender Man has been found in Illinois after she cut off an electronic monitoring device.

U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis used a blistering 233-page ruling to painstakingly detail how agents falsely asserted in court and in official reports that they had been confronted with unrelenting and life-threatening violence every time they attempted to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $16.6 billion budget proposal faces a major setback. And Dexter Reed’s family is asking a judge to reinstate a lawsuit against the city.

The commission is tasked with producing a public record of alleged abuses perpetrated by federal agents during “Operation Midway Blitz.” It will also examine the impact of such conduct on Illinois residents and communities.

Nearly six decades after becoming a lawyer, former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has been disbarred following his convictions on federal corruption charges earlier this year.