21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins accepted Jesse Jackson's endorsement for Cook County State's attorney Sunday at Jackson's South Side Rainbow/PUSH headquarters. A Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll published today shows that there is no clear front-runner in the race for State's Attorney, and most of the county's Democratic power brokers have stayed out of the race. Jesse Jackson Jr endorsed Larry Suffredin earlier this year, ostensibly as part of the on-going feud between the Jacksons and Bill......

The Cook County State's Attorney race has been contentious, with Democratic candidates taking plenty of shots at each other in a televised debate and myriad endorsements. [Ed note: I love when there's a usage note in the dictionary.] Now Jesse Jackson's candidate Larry Suffredin is under renewed scrutiny for his work as a corporate lobbyist. According to the Sun Times, Suffredin, a Cook County commissioner from Evanston lobbied on behalf of Kankakee Regional Landfill LLC.......

In a political season that has been marked by the theme of change, Illinois's 3rd Congressional District has become one of the battle grounds over what the Democratic Party might look like going forward in 2008. Critics of the incumbent, Dan Lipinski, are unhappy with his opposition to abortion rights and stem cell research, and his siding with moderate Republicans on the war in Iraq and domestic spying. Besides his voting record, they also don't......

Among all of the jockeying for Cook County State's Attorney and the sparks and drama of the presidential primaries, one of the more significant local races this primary season hasn't gotten nearly the attention that it deserves. 28th Ward Alderman Ed Smith is running against Eugene Moore for Cook County Recorder of Deeds. "The Recorder of Deeds Office is the worst ran county office in Cook County," Smith said in a debate with Moore on......

Head to Daley Plaza this morning at 10:30 a.m. for a quick early voting rally for Mark Pera. Pera, the assistant Cook County State's Attorney who is running against Dan Lipinski for the 3rd Congressional District seat, is the first serious candidate to challenge Lipinski since he went to congress in 2004. Pera's campaign has attracted a lot of attention, both online and in the district. Online support has helped helped fund his campaign, but......

The race for Cook County state's attorney has been hot and heavy in the past few weeks, with candidates taking plenty of shots at each other in a debate last week. (You can watch the debate here.) The race has also split up local democrats, as endorsements abound. Lt Governor Pat Quinn is supporting Anita Alvarez, saying "she happens to be a woman. She happens to be Hispanic. And she also happens to be the......

Now that Tony Peraica has thrown his hat in the ring for Cook County State's Attorney, and Luis Gutierrez has been worshipped in seeking a ninth term, we now have a whole flock of Democrats and Republicans lining up to beat the shit out of each other over Dennis Hastert's congressional seat. Addressing a crowd of supporters last Friday from the steps of the Kendall County Courthouse, where he launched his national political career, Hastert......

In other news, Blagojevich says that he will cut $500 million from the budget and spend more on a health plan he favors. Yesterday, Cook County Commissioner and once and future candidate for Board President Tony Peraica announced that he would run for Cook County State's Attorney in 2008, which current three-term State's Attorney Dick Devine will be vacating at the end of his term. "It's time for Cook County to have a State's Attorney......

- As the CTA moves along with its Doomsday Scenario, Mayor Daley raised the possibility of dedicated bus lanes on Lake Shore Drive. - Dick Devine's current term as Cook County State's Attorney will be his last. - The city is placing the search for a new Police Superintendent in the hands of a highly respected D.C. think-tank. - Good news and bad news on the historic preservation front. - Four men are charged......

So you think Chicagoist is sometimes too critical of the way Mayor Daley runs the city? Wait until the Reverend Al Sharpton gets settled in his new digs. The boisterous Gotham-based minister, with the pompadour that's fading away like a Neil Young lyric, is opening a Chicago chapter of his National Action Network this week, in part to add pressure to His Elective Majesty and Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine to react faster to......

Remember when all the county hacks on the payroll were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, crying about how Forrest Claypool was going to destroy Cook County by laying off everybody? Remember when progressives and reformers were begging people to vote for Tony Peraica and all the DINO pork-choppers were saying that he was Ronald Reagan reincarnated, hell-bent on destroying the social safety net of Cook County? We hate to say we......

The annual Pride Parade roared through the streets of Lakeview this afternoon. Through its 38 years, the parade has become more corporate and mainstream. Channels 2, 5, 7, and 9 had a presence, as did every major bank in the city, Jewel, Whole Foods, Pepsico, AT&T, and many other corporations. Former NBA star John Amaechi, the first NBA player to come out as a gay man, welcomed the crowd as the parade’s grand marshall. A......

We're gonna keep it real. We are not young or thin or rich enough to go to all of those clubs on Lake Street or anywhere else they are — we don't know where they are 'cause we just don't do that sort of thing. Our days of the potential for crazy sex and good blow in the bathroom are LOONNG over, and we never were cool enough to swing bottle service, anyway. So, the......

In a case what a Cook County Judge called "... bar none, is the worst I have ever seen or heard," a former CTA maintenance yard worker Thursday was sentence to life in prison plus 30 years for the beating death of his 12-year-old daughter. It seems that back in 2001, Larry Slack decided that the logical response to the loss of his wife's credit card would be to torture his children, Laree and Lester,......

When the George Ryan defense team got underway at his corruption trial earlier this month, we thought his attorneys, after damaging testimony from prosecution witnesses, would work hard to show that Ryan’s actions may have been sleazy, but not criminal. Along those lines, the defense began by arguing Ryan’s well documented wads of cash came not from bribes, but from his employees. Ryan’s secretary would take the Christmas gifts of money from Ryan's workers......

The George Ryan trial resumed yesterday after a holiday break, and the prosecution continued to try to convince the jury that Ryan is a money loving sellout who used the Secretary of State and governor’s office to line his pockets with wads of cash. Yesterday former state prosecutor and Patrick Quinn testified that when Cook County State's Attorney Jack O'Malley offered suggestions of how Ryan could clean up corruption in the secretary of state’s......

On August 28, 2001 somebody shot Chicago Detective Joseph M. Airhart in the head—leaving him paralyzed and only semiconscious to this day. In the trial's opening statements on Wednesday, prosecutor Robert Milan, first assistant to the Cook County State's Attorney, said it was Daniel Salley. The prosecution says that Salley, angry over an IRS investigation he says ruined his tax-preparation business, robbed a South Side bank twice in August 2001. Four days after the second......

Since we left college, Chicagoist has spent a limited amount of time in court proceedings. The ones we have witnessed have been a lot like pro basketball games: lots of tedium with a few minutes of excitement at the end. So we imagine Sun-Times federal court reporter Natasha Korecki must feel like she hit the jackpot in covering the trial of self-styled “freedom fighter” Aaron Patterson. Patterson, pardoned in 2003 for double murder by then-governor......

So, do you give a shit about this whole thing? We don't want to tell you what to do, but it is going to get really interesting. So you should. Since it's Friday, here's a short recap of the feud this week and a bit of speculation from your friends at Chicagoist. Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine have announced that together they will investigate allegations made by Ald. Richard......

Today is Festivus and we've been reading a lot lately about how all the cool kids are celebrating. It's easy. All you need is an aluminum pole to display unadorned. Local customs sometimes allow decorations, but they must be non-threatening plain decorations, and tinsel is absolutely banned. What? It's distracting! At Chicagoist's Festivus party we would ask everyone invited (all of you!) to contribute to The Human Fund and the money would really go to......

It appears that the “unfinished business” between R. Kelly and Jay-Z is going to stay that way. The “Best of Both Worlds” tour came to an abrupt, if not unexpected, end on Saturday night in Jay-Z’s hometown of New York. The Trib lets the AP handle the heavy lifting on this story while Jim Dero at the Sun-Times fleshes out the details. While slow jamming the crowd at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Kelly stopped......