A former supervisor with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city, alleging that he was fired last month after raising concerns of anti-police bias and unprofessionalism within the agency.

Matthew Haynam filed the lawsuit against the city last week, alleging that COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten fired him in late August “in retaliation for Plaintiff’s good faith disclosure of Kersten’s outrageous misconduct to both the Office of the Inspector General for the City of Chicago and Civilian Commission on Public Safety and Accountability.”

Two groups that support school choice and charter schools have amassed over $3 million in donations combined ahead of Chicago’s first-ever school board election in November, the Chicago Sun Times reported. Chicago’s inaugural school board race will arrive after a 2021 law mandated an elected school board for the city.

The Urban Center Action (UCA) and Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ (INCS) independent expenditure committees “have amassed $3.6 million” combined from business leaders and billionaires. The two groups reportedly have been critical of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in the past.

In 2022, Illinois voters approved what they likely thought was an innocuous ballot measure, the Illinois Workers’ Rights Amendment, also called Amendment One. Little did Illinoisians know, this constitutional amendment was being tested as a blueprint for unscrupulous union executives to consolidate power nationwide.

Passed with 59 percent support, Amendment One codified “the fundamental right to organize and to bargain collectively” in the Illinois Constitution. Moreover, the amendment explicitly prohibits any new law that “interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and work place safety.”

Illinois Policy Institute’s Dylan Sharkey is urging residents to remember who’s in charge as local tax rates spiral more out of control.

“I think it starts with pressure from people,” Sharkey told The Center Square. “There’s a few things that can influence lawmakers decisions, special interests, campaign donations, but if you put enough pressure on them and it gets smaller by population each person’s voice matters more.”

A Metra stop could be coming to downtown Huntley, but officials are concerned about parking and costs.

Last year, Huntley was announced as one of the municipalities that would be getting a stop on the proposed Chicago-to-Rockford Metra line.