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Drug busts ‘in, around’ parking lot on city land by United Center
Undercover police officers bought heroin, crack cocaine and fentanyl earlier this month “in and around” a parking lot on city-owned land near the United Center that City Hall has been trying to shut...
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THE WATCHDOGS: Arrests down 28 percent in Chicago this year
The last arrest on Labor Day in the Gresham District stemmed from a call just before 10 p.m. There was someone with a gun near 78th and Loomis — just blocks from where two people had been wounded in...
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WATCHDOGS: Crooked pol’s pension take was $2M; now widow collects
In the 1980s, the FBI enlisted the help of an undercover mole to ensnare crooked Chicago politicians “dumb enough to listen to him,” according to one account. Among those charged was then-Cook County...
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WATCHDOGS: Zion’s nuclear fallout; still reeling from ’98 closing
Workers are methodically dismantling the once-mighty Zion nuclear power plant. Just up the road in the far north suburb, a different kind of dismantling is taking place. The small Lake County city of...
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THE WATCHDOGS: Sex predators living in public housing despite ban
Twenty years ago, a 9-year-old girl from Cabrini-Green was abducted, sexually assaulted, poisoned and left for dead in a crime that dominated the news as much for the resilience of the young victim as...
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Noble disciplined 7 staffers for postcards, then gave one a raise
Three more high-level Noble Network of Charter Schools staffers have been disciplined for their roles in using student data improperly obtained from the Chicago Public Schools to send out recruitment...
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THE WATCHDOGS: Ex-county housing chairman cashing in
With Mayor Richard M. Daley’s City Hall tenure coming to a close in 2011, longtime Daley aide and political operative Richard Monocchio needed a job. Monocchio — Daley’s last city buildings...
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A top Claypool aide at CPS resigns amid residency questions
The Chicago Public Schools’ facilities chief — one of schools CEO Forrest Claypool’s hires from the city agency he formerly headed — has resigned from his $165,000 post amid residency questions. Jason...
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THE WATCHDOGS: The most violent police beat in Chicago
John Hosey Jr. was driving in Homan Square on Chicago’s West Side on Aug. 8 when he was shot and killed. Officers nearby heard the gunshots, at least five of them, coming from the area of Grenshaw and...
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THE WATCHDOGS: 1 in 4 CPS teachers missed 10 or more days a year
About one of every four Chicago Public Schools teachers missed more than 10 days of school a year, most them at schools serving kids in high-poverty, heavily minority parts of the city — students...
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THE WATCHDOGS: How much do minorities get from film tax credits?
Nine years ago, legislators agreed to give lucrative tax breaks for movies, TV shows and commercials made in Illinois. And to help ensure whether minorities and women get a piece of the booming action...
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In Immigration Court, few criminals, far more minor offenders
Rodrigo Osorio’s odyssey through the U.S. Immigration Court in Chicago began when he bought a used pickup truck with tinted windows. A Villa Park cop pulled Osorio over in the Ford F-150 in March 2011...
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WATCHDOGS: 71 percent of Chicago cops’ street stops are of blacks
The number of street stops by the Chicago Police Department has plummeted by 85 percent in a year, but African-Americans continued to account for the vast majority of those detained and frisked, a...
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THE WATCHDOGS: Chicago cops playing catchup on gunfire sensors
In 2012, the Chicago Police Department installed ShotSpotter gunfire sensors in the high-crime Englewood District on the South Side and Harrison District on the West Side. But the city has only...
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THE WATCHDOGS: Senator’s law firm cashes in on state deals
State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, is one of the most powerful people in Springfield, talked about as a possible future president of the Illinois Senate. He’s also a partner in a Chicago law firm...
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At 34 mph, doors suddenly opened on car of packed Metra train
If their morning coffee didn’t already have them wide awake, Metra BNSF riders were given a brief jolt of adrenaline when doors in one car on a packed express train between Naperville and the Loop...
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Tab for clout firefighter’s fight with Chicago cop: $1.6 million
Chicago taxpayers have now spent more than $1.6 million as a result of a fight between a clout-heavy firefighter and a cop at a rescue scene five years ago, records show. After years in court, Mayor...
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WATCHDOGS: CTA buses rack up red-light, speed tickets; you pay
CTA bus drivers racked up more than 400 red-light-camera and speeding-camera tickets the past two years while on the job, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show — and taxpayers were stuck...
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After Trump’s election, Rahm Emanuel picked up pace of travel
As other members of his party were reeling from Donald Trump’s Election Day victory, Mayor Rahm Emanuel got moving. In a return to his long-cultivated role as a national political operator, Emanuel...
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THE WATCHDOGS: Suspended cop skirts punishment — for 14 years
Chicago police Officer Clay T. Walker was accused of punching a 22-year-old woman in the face and pouring a can of Mountain Dew on her while she was handcuffed to a bench inside a police station after...
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