Meet outreach workers trying to keep their communities safe. And a push to expand Chicago’s violence prevention efforts hits an inflection point.

Peacekeepers across the city play an important role in interrupting and preventing violent crime in neighborhoods. These leaders are strategizing and organizing in their communities every day to improve safety and make a difference.

Some officials are pushing for policies to address root causes of violence and help offenders repair their relationships with their communities.

“He has stuck a middle finger in the face of the American people,” U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (14th District) said, “and it’s unacceptable.”

As Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team muscle through Washington, D.C., on a mission to cut spending, a Republican state legislator said Illinois could take a cue.

Illinois corruption takes center stage as Michael Madigan is convicted of bribery and Rod Blagojevich gets a pardon. Plus, why a project to keep invasive carp out of the Great Lakes is on hold.

Michael Madigan, once the state of Illinois’ most powerful politician during his decades-long run as Illinois House Speaker and chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, has now joined the long list of local and state powerbrokers convicted on federal corruption charges.

A 20-second video released Wednesday by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office of a small City Hall room crammed with gifts his office accepted on behalf of the city is “not a substitute for public access to public property,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

President Donald Trump pardons former Gov. Rod Blagojevich — how local politicians are reacting. And a project aimed at keeping invasive carp out of the Great Lakes is on hold.

“I support President Trump in many ways,” state Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) said, “but I don’t think he understands that this just signals that the corruption in Illinois is just accepted, rather than it has to stop.”

Housing and shelter, utility assistance, access to food and employment and income assistance were the most common needs for residents, according to 211 Metro Chicago program leaders.

No longer will gifts accepted by Chicago’s mayor on behalf of the city be covered by an “unwritten arrangement” dating back to the late 1980s during the administration of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, Board President William Conlon said.

The state of Illinois has pressed pause on a barrier designed to keep invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes, saying it can no longer count on the federal government to honor its funding obligation to the $1.15 billion project.