good morning

CPS Employee Accused of Double-Dipping Through Dual Employment Scheme Now Works for CTA, Records Show Records obtained by WTTW News show a former CPS employee logged paid work hours while traveling domestically and abroad, contributing to inflated vendor bills and alleged time fraud. The investigation...

New: A CPS employee flagged as ineligible for rehire over an alleged time fraud scheme is now earning six figures at the CTA. Records show overlapping hours, weak oversight — and a hiring gap between agencies.

Read more:

Illinois Prison Officials Digitized Mail to Stop Contraband, But New Data Shows Little Results So Far The switch to digitized mail for incarcerated people has had little impact on the drug exposures the policy sought to stop, according to new data from the Illinois Department of Corrections.

NEW: Illinois prison officials digitized mail to stop contraband. But their data actually shows an increase drug discoveries six months after implementation. news.wttw.com/2026/04/16/i...

Lawmakers Grill Illinois Department of Corrections After Audit Shows Dozens of Failures Illinois lawmakers are fed up with the state Department of Corrections after another audit found it has ignored state spending rules and failed to fix many mistakes that have languished for years.

Illinois lawmakers are fed up with the state Department of Corrections after another audit found it has ignored state spending rules and failed to fix many mistakes that have languished for years.

https://to.wttw.com/4sC9e5U

3D printed homes, an abandoned $590,000 deposit, the FBI: What really happened in this small town? Article Summary Two men promised a $1.1 million 3D printer could fix Cairo, Illinois’ housing crisis. More than a year

Two men promised a $1.1 million 3D printer could fix this town’s housing crisis. To this day, the one duplex it printed still isn’t finished. buff.ly/J0bc1Yy

Molly Parker reports with @propublica.org

ICYMI:

What Menopause Is Like in Prison Limited information, health care challenges, hot flashes and mood swings make this an especially difficult life transition.

Last summer, an incarcerated woman in Missouri had a hot flash while we were on the phone. Since then, I've been talking to people around the country about what it's like to go through perimenopause and menopause in prison. Here's the result, co-published by @themarshallproject.org and @19thnews.org

No Trial. No Guilty Verdict. How Civil Commitment in Illinois Can Mean Decades Behind Bars Under two different Illinois laws, people charged with sex offenses are subject to indefinite detention. Some people who’ve only been charged with a crime — never convicted or sentenced — can spend th...

Never convicted. Still locked up for 9 years.

James Howe’s case exposes how Illinois’ “sexually dangerous persons” law can lead to indefinite detention — sometimes lasting decades.

Read the investigation by @blairpaddock.bsky.social:

How a Decades-Old Illinois Law Detains Some Convicted Sex Offenders Indefinitely Under two different Illinois laws, people charged with sex offenses are subject to indefinite detention. Some people who’ve already finished serving their sentences can spend the rest of their lives a...

And, even after some finish their prison sentences for sex offenses, they can also be indefinitely detained under the state’s Sexually Violent Persons Act. news.wttw.com/2026/04/14/h...

No Trial. No Guilty Verdict. How Civil Commitment in Illinois Can Mean Decades Behind Bars Under two different Illinois laws, people charged with sex offenses are subject to indefinite detention. Some people who’ve only been charged with a crime — never convicted or sentenced — can spend th...

NEW: An indefinite sentence without being convicted of a crime. Under Illinois' Sexually Dangerous Persons Act, men are detained in a southern Illinois prison, with the only way out being to complete treatment. But those inside say they just receive three hours a week. news.wttw.com/2026/04/14/n...

I’m co-leading a Power Broker book club at Mouse Arts & Letters in Bridgeport on Saturday 4/18 — we’re only reading a couple chapters focused on municipal finance, so no need to commit to reading the whole book in order to join us for discussion mouseartsandletters.org/events/munic...

Chicago April 16

Heartland to Close All Chicago Shelters for Unaccompanied Children, Lay Off About 337 Employees At Heartland, immigrant children who crossed the U.S. border have received residential and medical care, education and legal services before being connected with permanent homes.

NEW: Heartland is now closing all four of their shelters that house unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S. This, due to funding cuts, as the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement isn't renewing their contracts with the nonprofit. news.wttw.com/2026/04/06/h...

thanks, katie!

Under a Little-Known Treaty, Foreign Nationals Incarcerated in Illinois Can Ask for Transfers to Their Home Countries. Very Few Are Approved Over the past five years, 59 petitions have been filed with the Illinois Department of Corrections from those incarcerated in Illinois state prisons requesting transfers all over the world. Only two p...

NEW: Under a seldom-used treaty, incarcerated foreign nationals can request to transfer to their home countries. I spoke with a man in Illinois who's tried for nine years to transfer to Mexico without luck. And he's not alone in his denials: news.wttw.com/2026/04/02/u...

!!! congrats

Some People in Illinois Jails Don’t Receive Sentence Credit for Programs. A Bill Seeks to Change That. A pair of Illinois bills seeks to clarify language around sentencing credits, aiming to ensure that after program completion, judges can issue sentence credit, whether it was completed in a state pris...

NEW: For those incarcerated in Illinois jails awaiting trial, whether or not they earn credit that gives them time off their prison sentence can sometimes come down to a judge’s interpretation of a single word in state statute. A bill seeks to change that. news.wttw.com/2026/03/25/s...

"It is difficult to think of anywhere else, for that matter, where one can get a haircut, a bouquet of crocheted plastic flowers, and an order of sauteed kidneys in one convenient location."

Tenants at Chinatown’s storied Richland Center food court brace for potential rent increases - Chicago Reader Since last summer, Heung Seng Corporation’s staff have told tenants they will nearly double the rent on their next leases.

The landlord of the Richland Center food court in Chinatown told tenants they will nearly double the rent on their next leases amid the company’s wave of legal trouble, from @morleymusick.bsky.social.
chicagoreader.com/city-life/ch...

Despite Executive Order, CPD Has Yet to Finalize Policy Allowing Officers to Probe Federal Agents for Actions During Immigration Raids Nearly 50 days after the executive order was signed those “policies and procedures are currently in draft status,” according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by WTTW News seeking a copy o...

NEW: Leaders of the Chicago Police Department have yet to finalize a policy that would allow officers to investigate federal agents for their actions during immigration enforcement raids, according to records obtained by @wttw.bsky.social news.

Mayor Brandon Johnson Meets With Men in Prison Working Toward Northwestern University Degrees More than 100 people gathered in Sheridan’s gymnasium, about 70 miles southwest of Chicago. Students of the Northwestern Prison Education Program, which offers undergraduate degrees to men incarcerate...

On Sunday, Mayor Brandon Johnson visited Sheridan Correctional Center to hear from incarcerated Northwestern University students. news.wttw.com/2026/03/16/m...

Thousands of Colorado Meatpacking Workers Are on Strike A strike in Colorado shows what happens when thousands of workers confront one of the most concentrated industries in the American economy.

As of this morning, nearly 4,000 workers are on strike at one of the largest beef plants in the US. Biggest meatpacking strike in decades.

Tiny Warty Frogfish Was Surprise Birth at Shedd, Is First-Ever Raised in Aquarium “This little fish is truly one in a million,” said Jenny Richards, senior aquarist at Shedd Aquarium.

A baby warty frogfish at the Shedd Aquarium is the first of its kind ever raised from egg to juvenile in an aquarium setting. It is roughly 1 centimeter, or less than half an inch, in size.

https://to.wttw.com/3PuW2lh

Twenty Minutes and a Hug With Your Loved One As jails across the country move towards banning in-person physical visits, Cook County’s visitation policies can be a lifeline.

As jails across the country move towards banning in-person physical visits, Cook County’s visitation policies can be a lifeline.

Twenty Minutes and a Hug With Your Loved One: southsideweekly.com/twenty-minutes-and-a-hug...

CPD Failed to Document 267K Traffic Stops in 2025, 27% More Than Previous Year: Data Officers made an average of 732 traffic stops every day for an entire year that were not documented as required by CPD policy and state law, according to data from the city’s Office of Emergency Manag...

NEW: CPD officers made 267,240 undocumented traffic stops in 2025, an increase of nearly 27% as compared with the number of traffic stops officers made in 2024 but did not properly document for state officials, according to records obtained by me and @jaredrutecki.bsky.social for @wttw.bsky.social.

Check Your Judges with Injustice Watch Monday, March 9 6 PM - 8 PM Judges are powerful officials whose decisions affect many aspects of life, from traffic tickets to divorces, civil lawsuits, evictions, and criminal cases. That's why ahead of every election, Injustice Watch spends months researching each Cook County judicial candidate's background, legal experience, political connections, conduct, and more - all so you can make an informed decision about who should be a judge. Join Injustice Watch reporters Kelly Garcia, Maya Dukmasova, and Dan Hinkel for a conversation about notable judicial races and themes from the primary's field of candidates. Mouse Arts & Letters • 555 W. 31st St. learn more: mouseartsandletters.org • IG @mouseandletters • email hello@mouseartsandletters.org

On Monday, 3/9, the @injusticewatch.org crew is coming to Mouse to explain what we need to know about the upcoming judicial election. Come learn with us!

Job Night: Courtroom at Mouse Arts and Letters Club, 555 W. 31st St., will be on Thursday, March 5 at 7 pm. Join us for our first ever job night, this one focused on courtrooms. Job Night is an exciting new event series that brings together people from particular industries to explain their work. Our first ever Job Night will focus on courtrooms and feature a courtroom sketch artist, a public defender and a court reporter. As in News Night, the event mode will be a big, friendly group conversation.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to work in a courtroom? Join us at Mouse on Thursday to hear from a courtroom sketch artist, a public defender and a court reporter about their jobs.

An Incarcerated Pregnant Woman in Illinois Was Forced Into Induced Labor, Lawsuit Alleges “Just because we are going through something with our criminal past does not have anything to do with our reproductive rights,” said Amy Hicks, who was previously incarcerated at Logan Correctional Ce...

An incarcerated pregnant woman in Illinois was forced into induced labor, a lawsuit alleges. Prison employees told her that an induction of labor scheduled by officials was the policy for all those pregnant — regardless of individual medical need or consent, it states.

news.wttw.com/2026/03/02/i...

A PR Push on the Public Dime: Chicago Police Podcast Records Peel Back Layers of Expanded Communication Costs Podcasts are a new avenue for police to reach the communities they serve. A monthslong public records battle with CPD identifies the cost of the podcast “Roll Call.” It is the latest evidence of the h...

The “Roll Call” podcast is just part of a larger push in recent years to expand CPD’s communications operation.

Comms have vastly expanded over the past decade, and costs rose along with it.

Heartland to Close Three Chicago Shelters for Unaccompanied Children, Lay Off About 145 Employees Due to federal funding cuts, the nonprofit Heartland Human Care Services is closing three Chicago shelters that have been used to house unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S.

NEW: Due to federal funding cuts, the nonprofit Heartland Human Care Services is closing three Chicago shelters that have been used to house unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S. news.wttw.com/2026/02/23/h...