The NATO summit is now less than a month away and, as we learn more about things like security perimeters, trains stopping at McCormick Place during the summit, and the "red zone" protection that begins this week, more people are starting to ask, "what are authorities preparing for?" more ›

The American Lung Association released its annual "State of the Air" report card, and we failed. more ›

Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) has issued a challenge to Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown in his bid to unseat Brown -- turn down any campaign contributions from employees and vendors that do business with the county. Brown, not surprisingly, refused. more ›

We hear about pollution all the time, but a new report names the biggest releasers of a rogue's gallery of toxic chemicals. We combed through the data to see where the mess is coming from... more ›

Or at least give up meat for a month. Dr. Terry Mason went on Fox Chicago to argue the health benefits of the meat-free lifestyle. more ›

Some downstate reps in the General Assembly have a resolution to boot Cook County out of Illinois. It is a stupid idea. But let's suspend disbelief and consider the journey to Chicagoland statehood. more ›

Two downstate state lawmakers think Cook County should be its own state because it is always bossing around the rest of Illinois. more ›

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is unhappy with the city of Chicago and the CTA, so she is taking matters into her own hands. more ›

The impeccably dressed "Hog with the Big Nuts" thinks the head of the county juvenile jail "looks like a trailer tramp. more ›

Cook County government officials have one of the highest-paying pension programs in the state. more ›

This Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey was the first survey of its kind for suburban Cook County and shows that about 37 percent of those teens have sex. more ›

In a Cook County lawsuit involving a car dealership and some very unhappy clients, an attorney has been noticeably distracted from the legal case at hand. Apparently, legal counsel at Gauthier & Gooch for the defendants, Exotic Motors, Inc., drafted a motion pointing out that the plaintiffs' attorney resorted to "theatrics" in allowing a "large breasted woman" without "any evidence of legal training" to sit at the counsel's table during the trial. The counsel for Exotic Motors was so distraught by this woman and her abilities to "distract" the legal case at hand that he drafted the motion to displace her from the counsel's table. more ›

27-year-old Sonny Pierce has been charged with the rapes and murders of three teenage girls. Cook County State's Attorney Anital Alvarez and law enforcement authorities believe the three women Pierce is accused of killing may only be the start of a series of murders and have asked citizens with any information linking him to unsolved murders to come forward. more ›

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made a visit to the northwest suburb of Palatine on Monday night to address the village's ongoing threat to secede from the county. more ›

A new study released that details the health rates of the nation on a county-by-county basis finds that Kendall County is the healthiest county in Illinois, while six of the ten least healthiest counties are downstate. more ›

Cook County Forest Preserve employees were hard at work in 2010 at the Cermak Aquatic Center in Lyons. An investigation by the Cook County inspector general found employees drinking, sleeping, having sex, giving alcohol to minors and skimming money on the job -- the taxpayer funded job. more ›

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart held a news conference this morning to list a litany of disturbing practices regarding how the county handles burying unidentified and indigent people. Dart detailed instances where bodies were collected for burial in U-Haul trucks, bodies being buried eight to a plot, and and as many as 26 babies being buried in a coffin along with body parts. more ›

You'll always find something entertaining on Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey's Twitter feed. But after reading the above update from last night, and this one, and this one, and this one, we wanted to make certain that Fritchey wasn't speaking from experience. So we sent him a direct message this morning. more ›

the Sun-times and NBC5 reports that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security is looking into the county's homeland security initiative, Project Shield. The program, which started six years ago under the watch of former County Board President John Stroger, has been plagued by budget overruns, being years behind schedule, a lack of basic services such as security cameras not operating, and allegations of mismanagement of funds. more ›

Investigators have shut down an animal shelter in Tinley Park after a significant population of the animals within the shelter were found to be malnourished, sick, or dead. Authorities visited the shelter, Dazzle's Painted Pastures Animal Rescue and Sanctuary, this past Friday. What they found at the shelter was unpleasant and extremely disheartening:

Officers visited Dazzle's Painted Pastures on Friday with a search warrant. They found a dead miniature horse and a dead Himalayan cat. Officers seized 63 dogs, 31 cats and six rabbits. They also removed 30 horses, ponies, sheep, goats and llamas.

As Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart looks at as many line items as possible to comply with County Board President Toni Preckwinkle's mandate to balance the county budget, one of the casualties could be the Sheriff's Department's graffiti removal program. The anti-graffiti unit is responsible for removing gang tags and other graffiti throughout the suburbs, but cutting it from the budget will allow Dart's department to continue patrolling unincorporated stretches of Cook County, guarding Cook County Jail and the Circuit Courts. Given the choice, Dart may have to err on the side of overall safety. more ›

Seven Cook County workers have been suspended from a county job training program. The Sun Times reports the director of the Cook County Board President’s Office of Employment and Training (POET) suspended seven employees earlier this week, citing an official misconduct investigation. Among those suspended includes an employee related to Shirley Glover, an ex-Cook County financial manager who was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty for embezzling over $100,000. more ›

We've all seen the bumpers this week on CBS2 where Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas tells Pam Zekman, "Channel 2 is not gonna tell Maria Pappas how to run her office." Maybe not. But the CBS2/Better Government Association investigation that brought to public attention Pappas' $94,000 driver and $57,000 cleaning lady has uncovered more wasteful taxpayer spending in the form of Pappas' Treasurers Outreach Program (TOPS), a program former Treasurer's Office employees said is nothing more than an excuse for Papppas to throw a good old-fashioned Greek party that they were forced to work. 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 ›

County Board President Toni Preckwinkle seems headed for a showdown with Sheriff Tom Dart over proposed cuts to his department's budget. If Dart holds the line with his current proposed cuts, it could become the first confrontation in Preckwinkle's administration. more ›

It's nice to see some civil discussion about budget cuts for a change, even though Toni Preckwinkle said it's her way or the highway. more ›

Gene Schulter's decision not to run for re-election makes the number of aldermen leaving City Council to 11. more ›

By now we know that Joe Berrios has something resembling an enemies list. But what about those who he makes enemies of? Berrios's firings of former Assessor Jim Houlihan's staff and the hirings of others, including his son and sister, may be in violation of the Shakman Decrees. more ›

As the residency challenges to Rahm Emanuel's candidacy continue, Carol Marin's most recent Sun-Times op-ed raises some interesting questions regarding who might have sicced election law attorney Burt Odelson on Emanuel. Read on and you'll see that, as Studs Terkel once told Art Shay, it's all connected, isn't it? more ›

Now that Joe Berrios (and his immediate family) are ensconced in the County Assessor's office, Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Tim Evans has to nominate a successor to fill Berrios's former seat at the County Board of Review. Michael Sneed reported that 47th Ward Alderman Eugene Schulter has his eye on filling the vacancy, even though he filed to run for reelection with the Board of Elections. There's one roadblock in place if Schulter wants to abandon the City Council ship. Schulter backed Forrest Claypool in his failed campaign for Assessor. Joe Berrios is chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and recently discussed with Evans what he felt were the necessary requirements for the job. See where this is going? more ›