Category Archives: Chicago

Chicago scraps gunshot detection system accused of racial bias

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Community groups say ShotSpotter system sends police to Black and Latino neighborhoods for unnecessary and hostile encounters

Chicago will not renew its ShotSpotter contract and plans to stop using the controversial gunshot detection system later this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office announced on Tuesday.

The system, which relies on an artificial intelligence algorithm and network of microphones to identify gunshots, has been criticized for inaccuracy, racial bias and law enforcement misuse. An Associated Press investigation of the technology detailed how police and prosecutors used ShotSpotter data as evidence in charging a Chicago grandfather with murder before a judge dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence.

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Roaches, rats and rotten food reported at Chicago shelter for asylum seekers

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Public safety concerns about shelter housing more than 2,500 prompted in December after five-year-old boy died

Appalling conditions have been uncovered at a Chicago warehouse turned migrant shelter where more than 2,500 asylum seekers are staying.

Complaints about cockroaches, rats, rotten food, exposed pipes, sewage issues, illnesses spreading and inadequate food and water provision have been made to the city authorities, in emails first reported by WTTW, the PBS member station in Chicago.

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Chicago police search for suspect in fatal shootings of eight people

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Authorities are not aware of a motive for the killings, but warn that Romeo Nance, 23, should be considered armed and dangerous

A man shot and killed eight people at three locations since Sunday in the Chicago suburbs and remains loose, authorities said Monday.

Police in Will county and the city of Joliet said they did not know of a motive for the killings, but said the man knew the victims. The FBI’s fugitive task force was assisting local police in the search for the suspect, the Joliet police chief, William Evans, said.

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US woman jailed for 26 years over mother’s suitcase murder in Bali

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Heather Mack, 28, pleaded guilty to helping boyfriend kill Sheila Wiese-Mack in 2014 to gain access to $1.5m trust fund

An American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury vacation in Bali has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Judge Matthew Kennelly gave Mack credit for the approximately two years she spent in custody in Chicago awaiting trial since her return to the US in 2021. Mack’s attorney Michael Leonard said her formal sentence will be about 23 years total.

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‘No Xmas as usual’: pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate in US cities

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Organizers focus on second-most popular shopping day in cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters waved the pan-Arab colors flag and wore the symbolic Palestinian keffiyeh in a series of coordinated “No Xmas as Usual in a Genocide” rallies and marches across the US on Saturday.

Organizers with Shut It Down for Palestine said the organization had focused its protests on the second-most popular shopping day of the year – the day before Christmas Eve – as part of ongoing civic and commercial disruptions. Organizers said they planned to “organize actions to boycott, disrupt and rally at commercial centers”.

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Texas sends plane to Chicago with over 100 people who crossed US-Mexico border

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Spokesman for Greg Abbott says flights are result of criticism over his operation of bussing migrants to Democratic-led cities

Texas sent a plane with more than 120 people who crossed the US-Mexico border to Chicago in an escalation of Greg Abbott’s bussing operation, which has sent more than 80,000 people to Democratic-led cities across the country since last year.

The first flight, which the Republican governor’s office said left from El Paso and arrived Tuesday, was arranged a week after Chicago’s city council took new action over the busloads of migrants that have drawn sharp criticism from Brandon Johnson, the city’s mayor. The city has said bus operators began trying to drop off people in neighboring cities to avoid penalties that include fines, towing or impoundment.

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Richard Hunt, sculptor whose public works explored civil rights, dies aged 88

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The prolific Chicago artist created more than 160 commissioned public art pieces across the US that drew praise from presidents

Richard Hunt, a prolific Chicago artist who was the first Black sculptor to receive a solo retrospective at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (Moma) and whose public works drew praise from presidents, has died at age 88.

Hunt “passed away peacefully” Saturday at his home, according to a statement posted on his website. No cause of death was given.

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‘If this was about money, we’d still be teaching’: inside the longest adjunct strike in US history

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Academics at Columbia College in Chicago are in a fierce dispute over cuts to courses and poor working conditions

The longest strike of adjuncts in US labor history is still ongoing, with academics at Columbia College in Chicago remaining in a fierce dispute over cuts to college courses and a host of complaints over poor working conditions.

The fierce dispute began when Columbia College leadership suddenly announced plans to implement significant cuts to courses and course sections, and consolidating classes which have ballooned class sizes, citing a $20m budget shortfall.

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Jussie Smollett conviction over staged attack upheld by Illinois court

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Empire actor loses bid to overturn conviction after he was found to have lied to police about 2019 hate crime attack he orchestrated

An appeals court upheld the disorderly conduct convictions on Friday of the actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself in 2019 and then lying about it to Chicago police.

Smollett, who appeared in the TV show Empire, challenged the role of a special prosecutor, jury selection, evidence and many other aspects of the case. But all were turned aside in a 2-1 opinion from the Illinois appellate court.

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Chicago religious leaders urge peace after killing of six-year-old Muslim boy

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Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders shook hands, talked and prayed together after killing of Wadea Al-Fayoume

Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders shook hands, talked and prayed together as they gathered in Chicago to urge unity across divides and denounce hate, while the region continued to reel from the savage killing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in an alleged hate crime.

Imams and rabbis had already attended the funeral earlier in the week of Wadea Al-Fayoume, who had only recently celebrated his sixth birthday with his family in Plainfield, on the outskirts of Chicago, when the landlord, shouting Islamophobic curses, stabbed the boy and his mother last weekend.

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Former NFL player Sergio Brown taken into custody after mother’s death

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  • Sergio Brown was reportedly deported from Mexico
  • Myrtle Brown was found dead near home in Chicago

The former NFL player Sergio Brown has been taken into custody after the death of his mother in September.

Police in San Diego said he was held after entering the United States from Mexico on Tuesday. He is awaiting extradition to Maywood, Illinois, where the body of his mother, Myrtle, was found near her home last month. Police had issued a warrant for first-degree murder after her death was ruled a homicide.

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Chicago’s plan to hire controversial firm to house migrants alarms critics

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GardaWorld has been investigated for safety violations and is also the same company that bussed migrants in from Texas

The mayor of Chicago is at loggerheads with fellow progressives and his own Democratic state governor over the city’s choice of a vexed company to erect controversial tents for asylum seekers during the bitter midwest winter – as wider tensions rise on the left at the local and national level over migration policy chaos.

While the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, and the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, are divided over how to house thousands of migrant families currently sleeping inside and outside Chicago police stations, the two are united in fury at lack of emergency funding coming from Joe Biden’s White House.

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At least 1,000 birds died from colliding with one Chicago building in one day

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McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, is largely covered with glass, making it a lethal obstacle for birds

At least 1,000 birds died from colliding into a single building in Chicago on Thursday, 5 October, as they migrated south to their wintering grounds. Volunteers are still recovering bird carcasses within 1.5 miles of McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, which is largely covered with glass.

“It’s the tip of an iceberg but it’s it’s a huge, huge amount of birds we found both dead and injured,” said Annette Prince, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, adding that this was the highest number of bird strikes that the group recorded from the grounds of one building in a single day.

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Chicago woman arrested over alleged threats to kill Trump and son Barron

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Tracy Marie Fiorenza, 41, allegedly made first threat in email in May and allegedly sent another in June, officials say

A Chicago woman was arrested on Monday on charges of emailing threats to shoot Donald Trump and his youngest son Barron Trump, the US attorney’s office in the Illinois city said.

A formal complaint was filed against Tracy Marie Fiorenza, 41, earlier this month in the US district court for the southern district of Florida.

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Three-year-old asylum seeker dies after being bussed from Texas to Chicago

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From Venezuela, the child died at a local Illinois hospital on Thursday evening after showing signs of illness

A three-year-old girl from Venezuela being transported to Chicago from Texas by bus with other migrants died at a local Illinois hospital after showing signs of illness, the Texas department of emergency management said on Friday.

“Once the child presented with health concerns, the bus pulled over and security personnel on board called 9-1-1 for emergency attention,” the TDEM said in a written statement.

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Progressives press Chicago mayor over pledge to end controversial policing tool

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Brandon Johnson vowed to drop controversial gunshot detection system but approved a $10m payment for contractor ShotSpotter

Progressives have vowed to hold the new Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, to his campaign pledge that as part of crime-control efforts in the city he will break with the controversial gunshot detection contractor ShotSpotter.

Johnson gave the keynote speech this week at Netroots, the largest annual gathering of progressives in the country, taking place in Chicago, and amplified his campaign talk about a wider approach to safer streets.

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Tornadoes halt Chicago air traffic as residents urged to seek shelter

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At least eight tornadoes hit north-eastern Illinois, with no immediate reports of injuries

Tornadoes and thunderstorms battered the Chicago area on Wednesday, forcing airports to halt air traffic and prompting officials to advise residents to seek shelter as tornado sirens echoed through the third largest US city.

The National Weather Service reported that a tornado touched down near Chicago’s O’Hare international airport on Wednesday evening – one of at least eight tornadoes to hit north-eastern Illinois, including four in Cook county.

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Biden decries gun violence as shootings across US mar Fourth of July festivities

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At least 15 people shot dead across the country in mass shootings so far on the holiday weekend celebrating the US’s independence

A long holiday weekend of bloodshed has intensified after a heavily armed gunman in a bulletproof vest opened fire on the streets of Philadelphia on the eve of Fourth of July celebrations, in yet another mass shooting in the US, killing five people and wounding two boys before surrendering to the police.

Across the country, Texas was entering the holiday to news that another shooting had killed three people, in Fort Worth, occurring just before midnight amid a gathering in a parking lot that also wounded eight.

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Millions swelter under extreme heat as climate crisis tightens grip on US – live

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Heat dome of high pressure hovers over Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma as thousands remain without power in Chicago with heavy rains knocking down trees and power lines

The heating of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans by the burning of fossil fuels made the current extreme heatwave across the us at least five times more likely, according to a recent analysis by Climate Central, a climate science non-profit.

The rolling heatwave marks the latest in a series of recent extreme “heat dome” events that have scorched various parts of the world.

If you have this sort of high-pressure system sitting stationary over a region, you can have these really impressive heatwaves.

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Chonk the snapping turtle delights locals with Chicago River appearance

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Rare sight of giant reptile basking by waterside offers hope that notoriously polluted waterway is getting cleaner

A large snapping turtle dubbed “Chonk” has become a viral favorite of Chicago residents after the enormous reptile has been spotted repeatedly lounging by the once-toxic Chicago River.

“Look at the size of that thing!” Joey Santore said as he filmed “Chonkosaurus”, or “Chonk”, as the giant creature lay atop of what appears to be an old rusty chain and tree snags.

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