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.

Now and then a Chicago newspaper runs an article detailing gynormous sums of money coursing through the bank account of a campaign fund connected to a powerful city official. The story is usually structured: "Big sum of money -> little-known ward organization -> powerful official connected to it -> city contractors contribute to fund". The implication, with no direct facts, is usually that the powerful official directs city contractors to their favored ward organization, and in return the contractor gets a job.