The Watchdogs

Investigations of government, politicians, education, business and issues affecting taxpayers and consumers.

The shooting last month outside the VLive nightclub is being investigated as a hate crime. The gunman allegedly said, “Bad gay,” before firing.
The feds agreed that the Vernon Hills Democrat deserved probation despite his tax crimes, asking U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland for the light sentence in a memo last week.
Timothy Mapes was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for lying to a grand jury. Now we know who wrote letters to the judge on his behalf.
The Servites has had numerous priests and brothers accused of sexual abuse and faces an onslaught of new lawsuits. Unlike many dioceses and orders, the group has no public list of members deemed to have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. And other church lists are incomplete.
Prosecutors have accused defense attorneys for the four people convicted of conspiring to bribe Michael Madigan of “claiming victory prematurely.” But one defense attorney predicted that “the convictions are not going to stand.”
Timothy Mapes was convicted of lying to a federal grand jury as part of an effort to thwart the feds’ probe into former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Joseph Burgos was caught at Chicago’s downtown Greyhound bus station with a backpack full of opioid pills, authorities say.
A 10-page memo Tuesday offered few new details about Link’s cooperation or crime, but it showed the value of Link’s undercover work to the feds.
Adan Casarrubias Salgado led the Guerreros Unidos cartel, which has been blamed for the presumed massacre of 43 college students in Mexico in 2014.
After a four-year standoff, the governor’s deal with the U.S. EPA commits Illinois to weighing the likely environmental impact before allowing more polluting industry to move to low-income neighborhoods already burdened by environmental and social stresses.
Marlene Hopkins oversaw the 2020 Crawford plant demolition that coated the community in dust.
As the White Sox and Bulls owner seeks $1 billion in state funding for a new South Loop ballpark, he’s spending big to gobble up lots around the Bulls’ home, records show.
Link testified that he’d withdrawn money from his campaign account and “used some for gambling.” He also told jurors that “I was helping a friend who was in dire need.”
Mario DePasquale pleaded guilty late last summer to the extortion conspiracy involving former McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski. On Wednesday, he insisted his crimes were completely out of character.
Hundreds of drivers in Illinois and throughout the country describe incidents in which their back windows “shattered” or “exploded” as they were on the road or after they were parked.
In her lawsuit in 2020, Officer Cynthia Donald accused Johnson of forcing her to have sex and continuing to harass her after she was demoted.
Federal prosecutors asked the judge to give Mapes as many as five years in prison, arguing that his lies “were calculated to thwart the government’s sprawling investigation of a series of unlawful schemes calculated to corrupt the government of this state at the highest levels.”
The disclosure came Friday after Annazette Collins signaled she would testify during her ongoing trial on charges she dodged nearly $100,000 in taxes. She later changed her mind and decided not to take the stand.
Helm, a former city of Chicago deputy aviation commissioner, told a judge he lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and has been “unemployed” for three years.