Scott’s exit after four and a half years is a sign Mayor Brandon Johnson is finally overhauling the CHA, housing advocates say.
Government Finance & Accountability
Posted inInvestigating Responses
A New City Tree Trim Strategy Produces Big Results. Not Everyone Is On Board.
City workers are pruning trees more than twice as quickly after an overhaul that gives alderpeople less power to control services.
Posted inCriminal Justice & Public Safety
Many cameras. Little focus. Blurry results.
Chicago police bet big on pricey surveillance cameras. Two decades later, the devices do little to solve most crimes.
Posted inInvestigations
How We Reported on Cook County Assessment Errors
Reporters from Illinois Answers Project and the Chicago Tribune collected and analyzed thousands of points of data to track down where the Cook County assessor misclassified hundreds of properties.
Posted inInvestigations
Luxury Home or Vacant Lot? Cook County Assessor Misclassifies Hundreds of Properties, Missing $444M in One Year Alone
An investigation by Illinois Answers Project and the Chicago Tribune found Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office missed critical data from at least 620 properties in 2023, with big implications for those taxpayers.
Posted inFollow-Up
Contractor Implicated in Chicago Area Bribery Case Surfaces in Federal Investigation of Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard
Records show village paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to company whose officials were charged with bribing a county employee with jewelry, sports tickets, home improvement materials
Posted inEducation
‘No Schoolers’: How Illinois’ Hands-Off Approach to Homeschooling Leaves Children at Risk
At 9 years old, L.J. started missing school. His parents said they would homeschool him. It took two years — during which he was beaten and denied food — for anyone to notice he wasn’t learning.
Posted inGovernment Finance & Accountability
Johnson Administration Faces Credibility Crunch Over a Key Plank of $1.25B Bond Plan
Officials say they’ll let enough special taxing districts expire to generate the money needed to pay back the debt. Some analysts are skeptical.
Posted inInvestigating Responses
‘Green Alleys’ Help Prevent Flooding, But Vulnerable Neighborhoods Must Wait in Line
‘It’s a little bit of a shot-in-the-dark implementation strategy,’ a key City Council member said.
Posted inGovernment Finance & Accountability
The Inside Story on a Billion-Dollar Chemical Company’s Fight to Keep its Secrets From the Public
After the Cicero Independiente and MuckRock published investigative articles about air pollution and the chemicals company Koppers, it hired a public-relations firm to organize a secret, behind-the-scenes campaign to influence local officials.
