Alvarez's comments are the latest in a stance that has left many confused and wondering if she's being loyal to a fault, to her predecessor and mentor Dick Devine. more ›

The population at Cook County Jail dropped from 75,496 in 2007 to 62,098 this year. But Dart and Alvarez blamed the length of stays at the jail on the courts. more ›

A jury convicted Shawn Gaston in the 2009 shooting death a Chicago police officer. But a police forensic scientist testified during the trial none of the DNA taken from the murder weapons matched Gaston's. more ›

The lawsuit is part of a muti-agency effort to target attorneys and companies who practice such methods. more ›

Judge Diane Cannon said the students were acting as journalists in a criminal procedure and therefore not covered by the shield law. more ›

Carol Marin pens an op-ed calling for a grand jury investigation into how the murder case of David Koschman was handled. more ›

By cutting security detail for several top officials, new "Top Cop" McCarthy cut costs by $650,000 and likely pissed off Ald. Ed Burke. more ›

The office of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard have differing accounts as to why Alvarez is blocking Blanchard's investigation into her office's handling of the David Koschman case. more ›

The Police Department has repeatedly stated that Daley relative Richard "R.J." Vanecko received no preferential treatment in the murder investigation of David Koschman seven years ago. But every move they make seems to suggest just that. The Police Department has asked Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office to prevent the release of lineup photos to the public. It's the latest wrinkle in the Koschman/Vanecko story that smells more pungent with every new uncovered layer. more ›

A former cop who was part of the original investigation into the 2004 death of David Koschman told the Sun-Times that Richard "R.J." Vanecko, the Daley relative who threw the punch that killed Koschman, should have been charged in the crime, but that a combination of factors not related to politics prevented that. more ›

It looks like thee David Koschman case is going to have something resembling a independent investigation after all. Inspector General Joe Ferguson requested documents from the Police Department regarding the Koschman case a full two weeks before the Illinois State Police agreed to Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's request to investigate. more ›

Lord help Northwestern's instructors. If they aren't allowing live sex toy demonstrations, they're being pulled from class for the upcoming quarter. That's what happened to Medill School of Journalism professor David Protess, the founder of that school's Innocence Project. more ›

We already know that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's office is keeping an eye on tomorrow's election for any hanky panky. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said during a news conference yesterday that, with over 200 candidates on the ballot in 43 ward races throughout the city in addition to the mayoral election, her office is on "high alert" for instances of voter fraud. “We anticipate that election activity, legitimate or otherwise, will be at an all-time here in the city of Chicago,” Alvarez said. The 24th Ward alone has a field of 18 candidates for alderman. more ›

A study released yesterday by a state commission revealed African Americans convicted of low level drug related charges are five times more likely to go to prison than whites in Illinois. The Sun Times reports the study started in 2008 by the Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission found that 19 percent of American American defendants were sentenced to prison, while only 4 percent of whites were sent to prison for Class 4 drug possession crimes. The disparity widens in Cook County, where African American defendants are eight times more likely to face jail time for the same crime. more ›

Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project, which has earned a reputation for its efforts in exonerating falsely convicted Death Row inmates, is under scrutiny from the Cook County State's Attorney and the university for ethics issues. more ›

On the heels of the revelation that Mark Kirk will deploy "voter integrity" squads to majority black voting districts around the state, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias's lawyers have sent letters to state’s attorneys, county clerks and the Illinois attorney general asking that additional resources be set aside to make sure that Kirk's plan doesn't become voter suppression. In a letter sent to Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, letter, Michael Dorf of Adduci, Dorf, Lehner, Mitchell and Blankenship, PC, asks that Alvarez "investigate this voter suppression program that Congressman Kirk and the Republican party officials have planned." Dorf also asks that "in areas Congressman Kirk is targeting, your office provide additional legal and law enforcement personnel in order to ensure that every vote is cast and counted legally." more ›

State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's embezzlement case against former Tood Stroger aide Carla Oglesby becomes better reading by the day. A ten-page complaint against Oglesby refers anonymously to fellow associates of Stroger who may have been involved in Oglesby's embezzlement scheme. Alvarez said many of the people in the complaint may have been involved unwittingly, as Oglesby used their work for Stroger to bill her own company. more ›

Two owners and a manager of the Boston Blackie's restaurant chain were arrested yesterday, accused of a check-kiting scheme that defrauded Charter One and Washington Mutual Banks of close to $2 million. Blackie's patriarch Nick Giannis; his son Chris; and Andy Bakopoulos, a Blackie's manager, are accused of implementing the bank fraud in an effort to keep from Boston Blackie's from filing bankruptcy. Blackie's eventually did file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December. more ›

Remember a few weeks back when the Cook County States Attorney's office denied a leaked rumor that Anita Alvarez would be letting the embattled, allegedly anti-gay, undeniably fishy Richard Fiorito off the hook? Turns out the rumor held some truth: As of Monday evening, Alvarez' office has ended its "nearly-year-long" investigation into the allegations facing Fiorito and, perhaps unsurprisingly, has decided not to press criminal charges, ABC7 reports. more ›

When we were alerted to a tip, earlier this week, from the Gay Liberation Network (GLN) that the Cook County States Attorney's office was planning to let the embattled Chicago police officer Richard Fiorito off the hook, we were a bit unnerved. The officer is currently the subject of 37 civil lawsuits alleging the police veteran repeatedly singled out gay, lesbian and other drivers for false DUI charges. In some cases, he is said to have used anti-gay slurs toward motorists. But the States Attorney's office claims the tip is untrue as the investigation continues. more ›

Shatoya Currie is looking for a new home, just like many other former residents of the Cabrini-Green housing project. However, Currie is confined to a wheelchair and unable to see or speak because of a 1997 attack that took place in the housing project. Currie was referred to as "Girl X" during the trial, since she was just nine years old at the time of the attack. Patrick Sykes was sentenced to 120 years in prison for the attack. A Time magazine article in 1997 contrasted public reaction to this case to that of the Jon-Benet Ramsey case. She is 22 years old now and is no longer eligible to stay at the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education, so she must find a new home. more ›

Anita Alvarez was sworn in as Cook County State’s Attorney this afternoon at a reception at the G.A.R. Memorial Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center. She is the first female and first Hispanic to hold the position. Alvarez has worked in the state’s attorney’s office for 22 years, and she most recently held the No. 3 job as Chief Deputy State's Attorney. She is also a native of Pilsen and graduate of Loyola and the Chicago-Kent College of Law. In February she beat five other candidates for the Democratic nomination, and in November she beat Republican candidate Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica for the position. more ›

While the big party was in Grant Park, another historic win went down in Cook County last night as Pilsen native Anita Alvarez became not only the first female state's attorney in the county's history, but is also the first Hispanic state's attorney. With 93 percent of the results in, Alvarez garnered 69 percent of the vote to Republican challenger Tony Peraica's 26 percent; Green Party candidate Tom O'Brien had five percent. more ›

There may never be a presidential race quite like the current one (proof enough), but don’t let that fool you into blowing off important local races (and yes, voting for judges is important so don’t even take the easy way out by voting “no” for all of them). The long list of candidates and offices, some of which you may never have heard of, can be intimidating, but we at Chicagoist have come up with a quick guide highlighting some of the important races. We've also included other resources that might come in handy on Election Day, which should just happen already. more ›

images for his Republican themed cooking show (yeah, we don't get it either), "What's COOKin' With the Republicans!" And now, Peraica has taken to having a van drive around and bug the shit out of everybody. more ›

Cook County Commissioner and GOP candidate for state's attorney Tony Peraica took a swipe at his opponent, Democrat Anita Alvarez yesterday. "It reinforces to the citizens of Cook County that what we have is corruption on steroids that is prevalent at all levels of government," Peraica said, referring to a photograph of her on the front page of last week's El Dia, a Spanish language newspaper. That photograph, taken during a fundraiser at a Southwest Side restaurant, shows her posing with Jorge Montes de Oca, Jr, son of the paper's owner and, until recently a wanted man. more ›