Stories by Matt Masterson

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order requiring ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to provide clean bedding mats, toiletries and at least three full meals per day to detainees at the Broadview detention center.

Chester Wilson, 59, was former Ald. Carrie Austin’s chief of staff when he was indicted in July 2021 alongside his boss, once one of the most powerful politicians in Chicago.

Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested, police said.

The General Assembly Retirement System of Illinois sent the former Illinois Speaker of the House notice by mail, according to the State Retirement Systems. The suspension comes days after Madigan was convicted on 10 felony counts of bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud in his landmark corruption trial.

Former Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward) was convicted Thursday of 13 of 14 counts of racketeering, bribery and extortion, bringing his landmark corruption trial to an end with a verdict that delivered a searing indictment of Chicago’s political system, which Burke used to amass power for half a century.

“This is an extremely important day for the city,” Snelling said Monday. “For people who grew up like I did — a resident of Englewood and a student of the Chicago Public Schools — I want you to know the possibilities are limitless.”

Larry Snelling, a longtime Chicago Police Department insider with a decades-long career in law enforcement, has been tapped to lead the department as the city’s next top cop.

Nearly a quarter of the city will get new political leadership in 2023, a result of an unprecedented exodus of veteran alderpeople that will herald — along with the election of a new mayor — the start of a new era at City Hall.

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said the officer was a five-year veteran who had responded to a call of a woman being chased by a man with a gun. “This is something that no family should have to face.”

Two people were killed and seven people were wounded in a mass shooting late Thursday blocks from Michigan Avenue amid a continuing surge in violence downtown. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the incident “an outrageous act of violence.”

The ruling came after a Cook County judge sentenced Smollett last week to immediately begin serving 150 days in jail for his conviction on five felony counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police. The appeals court said Smollett could be released on a personal recognizance bond of $150,000, meaning he does not need to post any money to be released.

The Chicago Police Board on Monday will hold the first in a series of hearings that could lead to the termination of police officer and union head John Catanzara for defying the department’s brass and ignoring its rules.

The roadblocks preventing a new deal between the police union and city officials are unchanged since the contract expired on June 30, 2017 — and both sides are dug in and unwilling to compromise.

https://news.wttw.com/2021/02/08/ctu-delegates-ok-deal-allow-person-learning-resumeMembers of the Chicago Teachers Union are reviewing the framework of a deal that would allow in-person learning to resume at Chicago Public Schools for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close in March 2020 — and avert the second strike in 15 months.

Facing criticism from aldermen and progressive groups, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown on Monday defended the department’s handling of a protest downtown Saturday evening after officers and demonstrators clashed.

After nearly 100 days at the helm of the Chicago Police Department, the superintendent’s tenure has been anything but average, as he faces an ongoing pandemic, protests and a surge in gun violence. 

Federal monitor Maggie Hickey on Friday released the first semiannual report for the Chicago Police Department’s consent decree, saying that the department is not in compliance with a majority of the reforms.

The gunman who fatally shot his ex-fiancee outside a Chicago hospital before killing two people inside the building was once kicked out of the city’s firefighting academy after threatening a female cadet, officials said Tuesday.

A Chicago police officer, two female medical professionals and the suspected gunman are dead following a shooting rampage Monday afternoon at Mercy Hospital on the city’s Near South Side.