• Federal investigators on the Jon Burge torture case have widened their scope to include several of Burge's former colleagues.
• A new police unit on the West Side, led by commander James Roussell, has seen dramatic improvements in violent crime statistics. Roussell credits using a similar strategy he used against insurgents when fighting in Iraq as a Marine Reserve officer.
• State Representative Cynthia Soto is asking for a one-year moratorium on the closing and reorganizing of several Chicago-area schools.

"The United States of America v. the State of Illinois" has a real dramatic ring to it, no? The Department of Homeland Security is suing Illinois in an attempt to invalidate a state law that bans employers from using E-Verify, a website that allows employers to check if a Social Security number is valid. Blago signed the law, which passed with bipartisan "veto-proof majorities," in August, and it's supposed to go into effect in January.... more ›