Cook County Clerk Loses Bid to Be Freed From Oversight
A federal appeals panel affirmed a decision that the Chicago-area clerk’s office needs an independent monitor in place to prevent political hiring and firing.
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Chicago
Chicago Releases Video of Cop Fatally Shooting 13-Year-Old Boy
An independent agency charged with investigating police misconduct in Chicago released body-camera videos showing the shooting that killed a seventh-grader two weeks ago.
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Online Classes
A federal court in Illinois ruled in favor of Columbia College Chicago in a suit brought by a student unhappy that the school moved its classes online and closed its campus for much of the spring 2020 semester due to the pandemic. The student did not prove the school “made any specific promise of on-campus, in-person instruction or services.”
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Foul Ball
An appeals court in Illinois declined to compel to arbitration a personal injury suit brought against Major League Baseball by a woman who was hit in the face by a foul ball while attending a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. The court ruled that there was a low likelihood that a ticket holder would “actually find, obtain, and read the full arbitration provision by accessing the Cub’s website or visiting the administrative office.”
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Chicago Parish Fiercely Backs Priest After Sex Abuse Claims
Decades-old sexual abuse allegations have temporarily removed a 71-year-old priest during an investigation, putting his job, reputation and the parish’s future are in jeopardy.
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7th Circuit Nixes $44.7M Award to Man Shot by Off-Duty Cop
A federal appeals court has cleared Chicago of liability for a drunken off-duty shooting by a police officer that left the officer’s friend permanently disabled.
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Chicago Teachers Union Approves Deal to Reopen Schools
The union representing educators in Chicago Public Schools voted in favor of an agreement to return to in-person learning after
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Catholic Church Argues for Exception to Worker Rights at Seventh Circuit
The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago said in an appeals court hearing Tuesday that it has the right to treat certain employees however it wants, despite that conduct being discriminatory in a secular workplace.
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Chicago Teachers Vote to Teach From Home, Defying District
The Chicago Teachers Union said Sunday that its members voted to defy an order to return to the classroom before they are vaccinated against the coronavirus, setting up a showdown with district officials who have said such a move would amount to an illegal strike.
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Impound Isn’t in the Wrong, High Court Says, When Debtors Go Bankrupt
Debtors are not entitled to immediately reunite with their impounded property once they declare bankruptcy, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Read moreChicago Corruption
Former Chicago Alderman Edward Vrdolyak, known as “Fast Eddie” for his backroom deals of questionable legality, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion in a scheme where he collected more than $12 million from Illinois’ settlement with tobacco companies. However, the 82-year-old will not be required to report to prison during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Chicago Asks Residents to Stay Home 30 Days to Combat Virus
Chicagoans were urged Thursday to self-quarantine for the next month to battle the recent spike in Covid-19 cases threatening to claim a thousand more lives in the city by the end of the year.
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Chicago-Area Clerk Asks Court to Toss Anti-Patronage Rules
The Cook County clerk should not be bound by decades-old federal consent decrees meant to curb hiring and firing decisions based on political affiliations, her attorney argued before a Seventh Circuit panel Tuesday.
Read moreChicago PD
A Chicago police officer claims in Cook County court that the former chief sexually assaulted her during a night out drinking before he was found asleep in his car, an incident he was fired for just weeks before his planned retirement.
Read moreLead in the Water
A class of Chicago residents cannot sue the city over its replacement of water mains and water meters which creates an increased risk that lead will be dislodged or leach from the residents’ individual service lines, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled, because they have not suffered any actual harm.
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Besieged by Gun Violence, Cities Say Feds Turned a Blind Eye on DIY Kits
As authorities increasingly recover untraceable “ghost guns” from crime scenes, Chicago and three other U.S. cities took aim in a federal complaint Wednesday at the government’s failure to crack down on build-it-yourself kits.
Read morePresidential Center
The Obama Presidential Center can occupy 20 acres of public land in Chicago’s Jackson Park, the Seventh Circuit ruled, finding the plaintiffs who wish to stop the project do not have a property interest in the land and that the center, with its museum, library, gardens and more, is a use of the land with public benefits.
Read moreUnion Pension
A local branch of the Service Employees International Union claims in a federal lawsuit that the Chicago Cubs did not provide materials needed for an audit of the baseball team’s pension plan.
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‘Waking Up in Shock’: Downtown Chicago Rocked by Looting, Unrest
Chicago’s downtown and surrounding neighborhoods were ransacked by looters late Sunday and early Monday in what police believe to be an organized attack.
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15 Injured in Shooting Outside Chicago Funeral Home
Fifteen people were injured, one person was being questioned and multiple suspects were being sought after gunfire erupted outside a funeral home on Chicago’s South Side where at least one squad car was present, police said.
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