Marquis Harrison of the West side Austin neighborhood is being charged with murder as an adult with after a fatal car crash this weekend. Harrison, who was allegedly driving a stolen Range Roger Sunday, was stopped at the intersection of Elston and Blackhawk for disregarding a traffic signal. When police stepped out of their vehicle, Harrison allegedly drove away, leading police on a chase through the Bucktown neighborhood before striking the vehicle of 42-year-old Marciea Adkins, a 911 dispatch operator on her way home from her shift. The crash was fatal. “It appeared there was a chase going on. I saw police vehicles speeding through the neighborhood and heard sirens just before the crash,” Bucktown resident Steve Jensen told the Sun-Times. 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 ›

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 ›

As Mayor Daley continues to try to play the "Not My Fault" game in the Burge torture case, he's decided to kick things up a notch and get all sassy on us. Originally, the Mayor said earlier this week:

I was not the mayor. Wait. Wait. There's nothing in the indictment. You're mixing apples and oranges...you're doing a great disservice. I'm very proud of my role as prosecutor. I was not the mayor. I was not the police chief. I did not promote this man in the '80s. Let's put everything in perspective.

Congressman and mayoral wannabe Jesse Jackson Jr made some strange bedfellows this weekend when he announced that he's endorsing Larry Suffredin for Cook County state's attorney. more ›