The Watchdogs
Investigations of government, politicians, education, business and issues affecting taxpayers and consumers.
Barbara Glusak, who was Washington Federal Bank for Savings’ chief financial officer, kept sounding the alarm about falsified loan records, court records show. But no one heeded the warning, allowing an embezzlement scheme to continue six more years.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and CPD Supt. Larry Snelling had earlier vowed to rid the department of officers listed on the anti-government group Oath Keepers’ rolls.
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Link testified that he’d withdrawn money from his campaign account and “used some for gambling.”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.
2.5 years in prison for Tim Mapes, ex-aide to Michael Madigan. 'Your loyalty was gravely misguided.'
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.
Annazette Collins’ indictment revolves around the work she did after she lost the Democratic primary in 2012. A prosecutor explained Tuesday how Collins, after working “as a career politician,” founded the lobbying and consulting firm Kourtnie Nicole Corp.
Rodney “Hot Rod” Phillips is a former Black Disciples member featured in “The Interrupters,” a documentary about felons hired to intervene in conflicts. But he wound up back in prison. “When I came home, I rededicated myself back to the work,” he says. “The flame was lit.”
Preventive care is free under the Affordable Care Act, but providers might try to exploit loopholes.
Officeholders can keep taking a public pension if they aren’t working for the branch of government that’s paying that benefit. Seven primary candidates, including O’Neill Burke, are getting retirement pay from past offices.
But lawyers for Tim Mapes argue their client should be sentenced to time served, supervised release and “significant” community service.
Home day cares, mostly on Chicago’s South and West sides, are prioritized by the city for lead pipe replacements, but future funding is murky.
The school’s president says Mohammad Saleem isn’t violating a court order that bars him from being “at or in” the institution. He lives next door with a judge’s OK and attended a graduation ceremony at the mosque.
Sheila Jackson Lee, a congresswoman from Texas, visited Chicago to raise money for her failed effort to become Houston’s mayor. Her son Jason Lee is a top adviser to Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Alex Nitchoff’s late father Boris Nitchoff was identified as a key player in the pending case against former Ald. Carrie Austin.
The five additives, including red dye No. 3, would be banned from retail sales of foods and beverages in Illinois by 2027.
Ald. Nicole Lee’s 11th Ward includes Bridgeport, where the Sox have played for more than a century. But after she was briefed Friday night, she said the plans for The 78 looked too good to pass up, though “it breaks my heart to think that the team could go anywhere but stay on 35th Street.”
Interim police Supt. Fred Waller ordered that ties with Professional Law Enforcement Training be cut, but PLET was brought back late last year.
Premium increases for new and renewing customers during 2023 totaled $1.25 billion, a consumer group found, with State Farm and Allstate raising rates by the largest amount.
The team is considering building a stadium at the Clark Street-Roosevelt Road site, sources say. Mayor Brandon Johnson and Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf would say only, “We met to discuss the historic partnership between the team and Chicago and the team’s ideas for remaining competitive in Chicago in perpetuity.”