The Cook County Sheriff's Boot Camp is going to start a fish farm. more ›

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and County Sheriff Tom Dart have different views on the county's policy of detaining undocumented immigrants. more ›

The problem may go deeper than the morgue. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told Fox News Chicago in an interview Jan. 26 that the way the county handled paupers' burials are still coming back to haunt them. more ›

The efforts of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart to identify the remains of eight victims of notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy continues to produce unexpected results after a second suspected victim of Gacy's was found to be living alive and well in Oregon. more ›

The family of William George Bundy finally have closure after DNA samples they provided to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's office matched samples extracted from the unidentified remains earlier this year. more ›

The population at Cook County Jail dropped from 75,496 in 2007 to 62,098 this year. But Dart and Alvarez blamed the length of stays at the jail on the courts. more ›

County Sheriff Tom Dart's office had exhumed the remains of eight unidentified victims of Gacy in recent months so that DNA testing may finally lead to identifying them. more ›

A White House study released yesterday showed that 83 percent of men arrested in Cook County last year tested positive for at least one illicit drug. more ›

Last month, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart implemented a comprehensive policy to separate inmates at Cook County Jail by gender identity, rather than birth sex. It's believed the policy is the first of its kind in the country. 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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

Earlier this year, when everyone in the city was lining up to run for mayor, Cook County sheriff Tom Dart seemed like a natural front-runner. Popular with independents, liberals, South side ethnics and African American voters, he seemed like a sure thing to challenge Rahm Emanuel's powerhouse run for City Hall. And then he dropped out of the race, citing family obligations. more ›

Now that Tom Dart has quashed his aspirations to become mayor of Chicago, it's back to business at the Cook County Sheriff's office, and at the top of Dart's to-do list is booting folks out of their foreclosed homes. more ›

The wide open field of Mayoral candidates narrowed today when Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced he would not run for mayor. Dart cited family commitments as the reason he was not running, but Dan Mihalopoulos, reporting for Early and Often, writes that Dart was faced with the grim reality that any money he could raise for a mayoral campaign would pale in comparison to the money pipeline Rahm Emanuel will have at his disposal. Mihalopoulos's source said Dart's consultants, Joe Trippi and Tom Lindenfeld, couldn't find a scenario where Dart could raise even half as much as the war chest predicted for Emanuel. more ›

For the second time in two years, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced that his department will not act upon foreclosure evictions related to Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and GMAC/Ally Financial until those three financial institutions can provide affidavits stating that each of the foreclosures were examined and that there are no problems with them. more ›

Now comes word that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Congressman Luis Gutierrez met to discuss the wide open race. more ›

An elderly senior citizen couple were peacefully resting Thursday night, but were abruptly wakened when officers of the Cook County Sheriff raided their home executing a search warrant. more ›

• Tom Dart still isn't saying anything about a mayoral run even as a Rahmbo run becomes more likely.
• Today in "What is wrong with people?" - President Obama is still having to defend his faith.
• Downtown traffic was temporarily disrupted today by a suspicious package.

Cook County commissioners made a dramatic u-turn at their last meeting -- the forthcoming regime change led them to discuss containing costs. more ›

Sources close to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart are telling the Associated Press that the county's top cop is "all the way in," adding that "he's decided to run." When asked directly of his plans by an AP reporter, Dart demurred, saying that he is "very strongly considering" a run for mayor that he plans to make an announcement in the next three or four weeks. Dart's name has been among the many that have been mentioned as potential replacements to Mayor Daley, who is not seeking re-election. Former Chicago Alderman and University of Illinois political scientist Dick Simpson was more blunt about Dart's prospects, telling CBS2 that "he automatically -- if he declares -- will be the leading candidate." Petitions have been circulating to get Dart's name on the ballot for mayor, although he's told the media that his supporters have asked if they could put petitions out and there is no organized effort. more ›

The latest update on who may or may not be running for mayor comes from a series of political events and statements from local politicians. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has said that he's weighing his options when it comes to a run at City Hall. "I'm not as quick as some other people might be to (jump) out of the box and say I'm off to a new career," Dart told the Tribune. "I want to be thoughtful." Nevertheless, petitions to put Dart's name on the ballot are on the street. Dart says that he has no organized political effort to put his name on the ballot for mayor, but that supporters have asked if they could put petitions out for him. Dart spoke to about 250 supporters at a "Women for Dart" event Monday, where he also addressed questions from the press about a potential run. more ›

In what the Sun-Times is calling the "first Chicago mayor poll" - which we guess works as long as you don't count that other Chicago mayor poll - it seems that the front-runners are Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and state Sen. James Meeks. The poll - which, like that other poll, ignored a few key potential candidates - came out like so, with a margin of error of 4.3 percent meaning these numbers actually don't mean a whole heck of a lot: more ›

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has scored a victory in his war against Craigslist and their "Adult Services" section, albeit indirectly, as the online classified ad service has currently removed the section from its site. The previous links to the section have been replaced with a black box with white text reading "CENSORED." more ›

A statewide alert was issued this week when almost two dozen guns, including high powered assault rifles and handguns were stolen from a shooting range in south suburban Harvey. The Cook County Sheriff’s Department briefly tried to field an assist in investigating the case, but pulled out quickly. The Tribune reports Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart cancelled the investigation because the department wanted an investigation “free from the influence” of Harvey Police. The range was reportedly not a “secure” facility for storing guns. more ›

With a drop in inmates over the past several years, the Cook County Jail is preparing to close down two buildings in an effort to save money. Sheriff Tom Dart said, "When every government agency is looking for ways to cut costs and save taxpayer dollars, it makes no sense to keep half-empty buildings operating at full capacity." According to Chicago Current, the move will hopefully save $15 million. Between 2004 and 2009, the number of inmates processed at the jail shrank from around 106,000 to 86,000. This comes in the wake of the earlier announcement that 600 new guards will be hired over next two years at the jail, a move made as part of a deal with the federal government. more ›

As part of an on-going effort to get out from under the glare of federal court supervision, Cook County will hire more than 600 new jail guards by next Spring, the Tribune reports. A report filed by the U.S. Department of Justice last year concluded "that the jail has failed to adequately protect inmates from harm and serious risk of harm, including physical harm caused by inappropriate and excessive force used by staff and violence by other inmates; failed to provide adequate medical and mental health care, including suicide prevention; and failed to provide adequate environmental conditions, including fire safety and sanitation, all resulting in unconstitutional living conditions." more ›

If you've followed the local news around the financial collapse, you know that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has made national news for suspending foreclosure evictions in the county, citing the number of rent-paying tenants that were being suddenly evicted after the landlord neglected the mortgage payments. Dart resumed evictions after being assured by the banks that tenants in good standing would be able to stay in their homes. His stance on evictions has earned him praise (as well as criticism), including Time Magazine naming him one of its 100 most influential people for 2009. more ›

A lawsuit against Craigslist filed by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has been dismissed by federal Judge John Grady. Dart sued the website for enabling prostitution via their "Erotic Services" section. The website has sent removed that section, combining several categories into one labeled "Adult." Judge Grady's reasoning for the dismissal was that the blame for the prostitution didn't sit with Craigslist but rather the site's users who committed the actual crimes. A spokesman indicated Dart is mulling an appeal of the dismissal. more ›

While Daley decried the press for writing his political obituary too soon and declared that there would be no political fallout for his failed 2016 Olympic bid, the fact of the matter is that he's said publicly that he hasn't decided if he's going to run for mayor in 2011 or not. That's not a shocker - lots of politicians play coy when asked about an election that's still too far on the horizon to predict. Nevertheless, Chicagoans have been whispering about the impending municipal elections for days now (if not months). And while the mayor hasn't made anything official just yet, his brother (and former U.S. commerce secretary) Bill expects Richie to run again. "Win or lose, the Olympics were never going to determine what Rich Daley was going to do," William Daley told the Tribune. "I believe he runs again. I just assume he does. He still has the enthusiasm for the job." more ›