Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois: Supreme Court sets March timeline for oral arguments in cash bail appeal
An appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of a state law that would end cash bail appears to be at least two months away from resolution under a new timeline approved by the court Thursday.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed the agreed motion setting the timeline for the high court’s appeal of a lower court ruling that invalidated provisions of the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform that would have eliminated cash bail on Jan. 1. The motion, Raoul’s office wrote in its filing, had been agreed to by all parties in the case, scheduling briefs to be filed in January and February, with oral arguments to begin sometime in March. A ruling would come sometime thereafter at an unspecified date.
Chicago Tribune: More PPP loan fraud by Cook County employees uncovered, some fired, watchdog reports
An independent watchdog has singled out more Cook County employees who fraudulently applied for pandemic relief, recommending firings in each case for violation of county rules around conduct and reporting of outside jobs.
It’s the latest in an ongoing investigation by the county’s Office of the Independent Inspector General to determine whether county workers who applied for federal Paycheck Protection Program loans were violating any personnel rules. In all, the OIIG’s office has released more than a dozen findings of violations of such rules since July, as well as evidence of fraudulent applications and misspent funds.
Chicago Sun-Times: City Hall went after Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. for owning a drug house in West Garfield Park
On a Saturday night in July 2019, Chicago police officers raided a West Garfield Park two-flat owned by Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) and his wife Darlena Williams-Burnett, looking for drug dealers selling heroin, marijuana and other drugs.
The police arrested two men and seized 3 ounces of marijuana, 16 tablets of ecstasy and 13 bullets.
WTTW: Share of Chicago Property Tax Revenues Claimed by TIF Funds Grew 15.5% in 2021: Report
The share of property taxes collected by the city and then claimed by Chicago’s tax increment finance districts grew 15.5% in 2021, fueled in part by the reassessment of the value of every property in Chicago, according to a report by Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough released Thursday.
Demolishing the record set in each of the past two years, $1.22 billion poured into the city’s 129 TIF funds in 2021, according to the clerk’s report. That accounts for approximately 40% of the nearly $3.02 billion in property tax revenue banked by city officials, an increase of 9% since 2017, according to data compiled by the clerk’s office.
Chicago Tribune: As Chicago police prepare to relaunch ‘gang database,’ concerns remain the tool could unfairly sweep up many
Critics remain concerned by the Chicago Police Department’s impending relaunch of its much-criticized “gang database,” a tool intended to identify people with connections to street gangs, even after the process to revamp it was paused last fall at the behest of the city’s new police oversight committee.
The department’s prior version of the database was widely criticized by community groups, the city’s inspector general and targeted in a federal lawsuit for allegedly being unconstitutional and racially biased, with Blacks and Latinos making up the majority of those on the list.