Jennifer Smith Richards – Page 11

Wilson Men's Hotel resident Eric Holmes formed a tenants association.

As Wilson Men’s Hotel prepares to close for renovations, a look at shrinking number of SROs in Chicago

May 23, 2019 at 12:18 a.m.

The 7-by-7 room fits a mattress, a plastic bin for clothes and milk crates that double as storage. The wooden floors in Jonathan Adams’ North Side unit are worn and...

Secretive appeals process quietly reducing punishment for cops after findings of misconduct

June 14, 2024 at 6:43 p.m.

A secretive appeals system has been knocking down the punishments of Chicago police officers no matter how serious their misconduct, undercutting the results of lengthy investigations and layers of review...

Students walk into Tilden Career Community Academy High School in Chicago on the first day of school on Sept. 5, 2017.

More than a dozen Chicago high schools struggle to survive as enrollment plummets, performance falters

June 1, 2018 at 10:42 a.m.

Between classes, Theron Averett Jr. walks past rooms stacked with empty desks and an off-limits area where he's heard there's an empty swimming pool. "I've never seen it," he says....

Nearly 80 investigators and attorneys are sworn in before Mayor Rahm Emanuel officially announces the creation of Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), Chicago's new civilian oversight agency, at the South Shore Cultural Center, on Sept. 15, 2017.

Police oversight ordinance promised transparency but doesn’t fully deliver

June 14, 2024 at 6:43 p.m.

When Chicago's new police oversight agency opened in September, city officials pledged a different way of doing business: Misconduct investigations would be transparent and the public would learn the outcomes...

Sloppy record keeping allowed Chicago cops to avoid being punished for misconduct

June 14, 2024 at 6:43 p.m.

Brandon Whitehead dropped to his knees in the middle of the busy street, cars veering around him as an off-duty Chicago police officer aimed a handgun at him and his...

SAT scores show vast disparity among Illinois high schools

May 23, 2019 at 12:05 a.m.

About two-thirds of Illinois public high schools posted below-average to rock-bottom scores on the SAT college entrance exam, given for free for the first time to 11th-graders last spring at...

Rat complaints jump in city’s densest neighborhoods. Is yours one of them?

May 22, 2019 at 11:59 p.m.

Claus Johnsen and Michelle McFall-Johnsen weren't surprised to hear their Logan Square neighborhood is among the city leaders in rat complaints, though they say the real news is just how...

Jeremiah Luckett, 25, has filed a lawsuit against Chicago police Officer Michael Wagner, who stunned him with a Taser in 2015. Luckett was photographed on April 3, 2017, outside his home in Chicago.

Chicago cops get more Tasers, but red flags remain

May 22, 2019 at 11:51 p.m.

The Chicago Police Department plans to own as many as 6,900 Tasers by the end of 2017, a ninefold increase from just two years ago and enough to give every...

North Chicago-based AbbVie in 2016 paid more than 2,000 doctors in Illinois $1.6 million, the most of any Illinois company.

Are drug firms paying your doctor? Illinois doctors accepted $74.1M in industry payments last year

June 2, 2018 at 10:45 p.m.

Lorenza Villegas doesn't think her doctors should accept free lunches or other types of payments from drug companies. But like most consumers, she hasn't looked up whether her physicians are...

Zach Pereles, left, and Michael Conklin enjoy happy hour food and drinks July 19, 2017, at The Boarding House restaurant and wine bar in Chicago's River North neighborhood. Two years after happy hour specials were legalized in Illinois, state and city tax revenues haven't surged.

Two years in, happy hour hasn’t delivered on its revenue promises

June 3, 2018 at 5:21 a.m.

Bringing happy hour back to Illinois was billed as a needed boost to the hospitality industry that would result in more revenue for the state and local municipalities. But two...

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