Cook County Judge Charles Beach looked at a defendant accused of armed violence and other felonies and explained to him that as a judge, he must determine whether the man poses a danger to the public.

“That is a little bit more of a difficult question for me but I do believe you are,” he said, referencing the type of weapon the man was accused of having. “That is no longer a weapon of defense. It is a weapon of aggression capable of mass harm … the possession of body armor adds a lot.”

More than 1,000 federal COVID-19 relief loans for struggling businesses went to city of Chicago employees — including cops — and City Hall’s watchdog believes many were obtained fraudulently.

Deborah Witzburg, City Hall’s inspector general, said her office examined more than 350,000 federal COVID-19 loans approved in the Chicago area. Of them, she found more than 1,000 loans that city employees got from the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

A seismic report on how to pull Metra, Pace and the CTA away from a $730 million fiscal cliff and transform public transit is headed to the General Assembly and Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

So, what’s next for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s 132-page document? Here are some takeaways after officials adopted the plan Wednesday at a CMAP meeting.