Cadre of GOP insiders getting big salaries at Illinois tollway

The Illinois tollway has hired a number of politically connected Republicans to work at the agency in important positions. While that is troubling to some government watchdogs who say they're concerned about favoritism, tollway officials say the agency is staffed with well-qualfied professionals.

Mayor Emanuel Names Jamie Rhee New Commissioner Of The Chicago Department Of Aviation

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced the appointment of Jamie Rhee as the new Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation . Rhee will succeed Ginger Evans, who is stepping down on August 1 after three remarkable years leading Chicago's aviation system.

US Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan has been deported to Mexico

The deportation follows an earlier decision by US authorities to deny Miguel Perez's citizenship application because of a felony drug conviction , despite his service and the PTSD he says it caused. Perez, 39, was escorted across the US-Mexico border from Texas and handed over to Mexican authorities Friday, ICE said in a statement.

Chicago mayor, police superintendent to be questioned in 2015 shooting of NIU student

Choose your news! Select the text alerts you want to receive: breaking news, prep sports scores, school closings, weather, and more. Members of the Northern Illinois University campus male mentoring organization Black Male Initiative said their final goodbye in January 2016 to fellow NIU student and BMI member Quintonio LeGrier.

Chicago sues Equifax over massive data breach

The city of Chicago filed a lawsuit Thursday against the credit reporting company Equifax over a data breach that exposed personal information of about 143 million people, including more than 5 million in Illinois. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the company should be held accountable for the breach and a delay in notifying consumers.

That Chicago soda tax was an even bigger hot mess than predicted

Back in December of last year, over vocal protests from residents, Cook County, Illinois adopted a policy similar to many other cash strapped, liberal municipalities. They decided to save the people from themselves and simultaneously put a bunch of money in the city's nearly empty coffers by imposing a sin tax on soda and other "sweetened beverages."

Leadership Change At Chicago Police Union Ignites Contract Fight

African-American elected officials said Thursday that they will continue pushing for changes to the Chicago's police union contract, which the newly-elected Fraternal Order of Police president has promised to defend.  Ald. Roderick Sawyer , the leader of the City Council's Black Caucus, threatened to block approval of a new contract if it doesn't include significant changes.  "The FOP contract has been serving and protecting a culture of racism in our police department for far too long," he said.  The city's contract with the FOP expires at the end of June.

Chicago Mayor Emanuel And Cook County Board President Preckwinkle…

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today launched an unprecedented effort to generate new industrial investment in Chicagoland neighborhoods. The Industrial Growth Zones program will accelerate neighborhood development in seven designated areas over the next three years by removing longstanding hurdles to development and providing a broad set of services to support property owners and industrial businesses.