Seven of the teens appeared in juvenile court today, and a judge placed them all on electronic monitoring. An eighth teen will be charged as an adult and is held on $100,000 bond. more ›

Alex Kotlowitz speaks about his years looking into the city's most vexing problems, the differences between writing and making movies, the neighborhoods President Obama's message of hope and change never seem to impact, and more. more ›

The story of a year in the life of three "violence interrupters" as they step into confrontations at the moment they are about to turn into violent altercations in Chicago's toughest neighborhoods, the film's thoughtful and jarringly intimate look at a new approach to dealing with the persistent violence has struck a chord with audiences everywhere it's been shown, and we expect this will shortly be the movie everybody's talking about here. We sat down with Steve James, who is also known for other documentaries such as Stevie and features such as Prefontaine in addition to the legendary Hoop Dreams, at the offices of Kartemquin Films on the north side last week. Our interview with Kotlowitz will run separately. more ›

The Interrupters is the product of Hoop Dreams auteur Steve James' return to Chicago and collaboration with writer/Chicagoist fave Alex Kotlowitz. A run on the festival circuit is giving the film some serious Oscar buzz. more ›

Attorneys for Silvonus Shannon, who was convicted for his role in the beating death of Derrion Albert last month, have filed a motion for a new trial. Shannon said that he was acting in self-defense during the beating death of Albert, the Fenger High School student that was captured on videotape and sparked a nationwide discussion on violence. more ›

A jury wasted little time in finding a 15-year-old boy guilty of first-degree murder in the beating death of Fenger High School student Derrion Albert last year. more ›

Yesterday, nearly 1,500 people massed at the Thompson Center to protest the killing of more than 60 people in a church in central Baghdad. more ›

It was a heinous act of violence, one captured on video, shown around the county (and the world), and one that was sadly symbolic of the violence Chicago Public School students are facing. Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the beating death of Fenger High student Derrion Albert, an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time, pulled into a brawl between two factions of students: those already attending Fenger and students newly bused in from Altgeld Gardens, two groups that had been stuck in an ongoing cycle of violence. more ›

Another wave of violence started at 6 p.m. on Saturday when a 13-year-old boy playing with a gun accidentally shot himself in the leg in the 2000 block of West Howard Street and ended at 2:15 a.m. Sunday morning when a suspect in a vehicle shot a male in the 0-100 block of West 108th Place, police said to the Chicago Sun-Times. The 13-year-old boy was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston and is listed in "stable" condition and the male on the South Side was listed in good condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. more ›

The Chicago Public Schools' new school year is just a few days old and already a pair of violent acts have shaken the system, leaving one student dead and a student and teacher wounded. DeAntonio Goss, a 16-year-old sophomore at Bowen High School, was shot and killed yesterday afternoon, the first CPS student killed this school year. The shooting happened around 2:45 p.m. and another student, an 18-year-old senior, was also wounded in the shooting. Police say the shooting may have stemmed from a fight at school earlier in the day. more ›

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn chimed in on Police Superintendent Jody Weis's recent sit down with Chicago gang leaders, telling reporters that he doesn't support the strategy. “I don’t think that’s a particularly good strategy. … I just don’t think those are the people you want to be talking to,” Quinn told the Sun-Times. “I think it’s better to be fighting against assault weapons and protecting our officers and our communities against gang bangers who have assault weapons that are perpetrating mayhem and terrorism on the streets of Chicago. ... I’m running against somebody who supports assault weapons. Sen. [Bill] Brady, every chance he gets, votes with the guns. I don’t think that’s the way to go.” more ›

Police Superintendent Jody Weis's recent tete a tete with local gang leaders has angered some aldermen, who say that Chicago's top cop shouldn't be "negotiating with urban terrorists." 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti, who is rumored to be considering a run against Daley for mayor, lashed out at Weis Monday for his mid-August meeting. "I can't believe we're sitting down and negotiating with urban terrorists who are killing our kids with guns and drugs on the streets," Fioretti told the Sun-Times. "These are not people the superintendent ought to be negotiating with. They've now been elevated to equals. They're not equals. They belong in jail. It's an admission that the Police Department can't control the streets." Fioretti also questioned Weis's threat of going at gang leaders with federal racketeering charges if they don't back down, wondering why the police superintendent hadn't already applied that tactic. "We ought to be working hard with the feds and U.S. Attorney's office to start applying these RICO statutes now instead of giving them a warning that says, 'If you kill somebody.' That didn't help this weekend." 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, a longtime Daley critic, wondered if a crisis of leadership in the department was to blame. "What would accomplish more is to have a Police Department with good morale that believed in their leadership and believed in their mayor. We haven't had a Police Department with that kind of leadership in 22 years," Moore said. more ›

During an eight-hour period of overnight gun violence as detailed via the Chicago Sun-Times, one man was killed and 15 other people were injured from Saturday evening into early Sunday, police said. David A. Buckner, 47, of the 630 block of East 89th Street, was fatally shot while two rival groups exchanged gunfire at Ada Park. The shooting happened around 8 p.m. and also wounded three other people--a 37-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman suffered gunshot wounds to the leg and a 19-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the neck. All three were taken to nearby hospitals. more ›

A pair of drive-by shooting incidents have left two men dead and six people hurt. The first drive-by happened just after 1:15 a.m. in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. A group of men in a black Cadillac opened fire on a group of women in the 600 block of N. St. Louis, wounding four, two critically. The second shooting was outside a party in the Stony Island Park neighborhood around 2:30 a.m., killing two men and injured two others. According to the Tribune: "One man was at the party, two were coming to the party by car and a fourth man was standing in the street talking with his girlfriend when a dark car drove past and shots rang out, wounding all four." Two men, both 22, were later pronounced dead at separate hospitals. No one is in custody for either shooting. more ›

The Chicago Police officer gunned down outside his home yesterday morning was identified as 62-year-old Michael Bailey, a 20-year veteran of the force who was due to retire in a few weeks. Bailey would have turned 63 next month, the mandatory retirement age for Chicago Police officers. The search continues for the suspects, who approached Bailey early yesterday morning outside his house as he was cleaning a new Buick car he had just purchased a few weeks ago. He had just returned home from overnight guard duty at Mayor Daley's house. Daley said in a statement yesterday, "This is a tragic, stunning reminder of the senseless violence that stalks too many of our neighborhoods. Another Chicago police officer gunned down, this time just weeks before leaving a long career of protecting Chicago. It's absolutely outrageous. ... I knew him. He was a good man. He did not deserve this." Police are still investigating the motive, but an attempted robbery remains the likely one. Bailey is the third officer killed in two months: Officer Thomas Wortham, IV was shot outside his parents' Chatham home while off-duty in an attempted robbery on May 19 and Officer Thor Soderberg was killed less than two weeks ago. more ›

For the second straight year, attendance at the Taste of Chicago dropped, but this year was more dramatic than last year. In 2009, attendance was down just a hair, from 3.5 million in 2008 to 3.35 million. According to a report in the Sun-Times this morning, attendance for 2010 was down a pretty hefty 21 percent, to 2.65 million people. Cindy Gatziolis, of the Mayor's Office of Special Events, blamed the drop on the absence of the annual July 3rd fireworks this year. more ›

A warm, sunny weekend took a violent turn overnight as at least three people have been reported killed and 12 wounded since last night. In all, the Tribune reports 13 separate shooting incidents ranging from 8:16 p.m. last night to 5:06 a.m. this morning. Two of the fatalities were reported in the Englewood neighborhood. The first killing happened at 10:25 p.m., the other at around 1 a.m. when police responded to shots fired in the 6400 block of South Paulina Avenue. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene while the other was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The third killing happened early this morning in the East Chatham neighborhood. There were no reports of any suspects being held for any of the shootings. more ›

On top of the previous violence and power outage that was reported at the Taste of Chicago, three men from Chicago have been accused of attacking a family of five at the Taste of Chicago on Thursday. The family, including a four month-old baby, were punched and struck by the three men as they were leaving the Taste of Chicago. more ›

A relatively peaceful Taste of Chicago was marred last night by violence and a power outage. Three teens were stabbed in two separate incidents as the Taste crowd let out for the night and there were reports of numerous fights. While the violence wasn't quite as bad as the shootout at the OK Corral that broke out two years ago, it was still an unwelcome interruption in what had been, to this point, a relatively peaceful Taste. more ›

The City of Chicago is preparing for today's ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States on the handgun ban as the court issues its opinion on McDonald v. City of Chicago. (The city of Oak Park also has its handgun ban at issue with the case.) The City has been preparing for this day for months and, according to one report from the Tribune, if the ban is overturned, the City Council could take action on new local legislation by as soon as Wednesday. Indications are that the Court will come down with a 5-4 decision of overturning the ban, but that's still speculation. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Scalia, Alito, Kennedy, and Thomas were reported earlier this year as favoring the ban, enough for a 5-4 majority. All five justices also voted to overturn a similar ban for Washington D.C. in 2008. more ›

Mayor Daley announced today that the city will be setting aside $25 million in federal stimulus cash for programs that will be used to help fight violence amongst Chicago Public Schools students. This school year, 27 CPS students were killed, down from last year's tally of 32 students. The cash will break down like so: more ›

• The Arizona boycott is now apparently making its way around City Hall.
• In the wake of this weekend's violence, 130 additional police officers will soon be on the streets of Chicago.
• Rod and Patti Blagojevich will take the stand in their own defense.

The violent holiday weekend finished with another shooting death overnight, one of five people shot in the weekend's final hours. A 30-year-old man was found in the 200 block of East 115th St around 3:20 a.m. and was taken to Oak Lawn's Advocate Christ Medical Center where he was pronounced dead less than a half-hour later. It's the sixth reported death from weekend violence. Five other men were injured in separate shootings last night. more ›

We hope you enjoyed a great holiday weekend (mostly) full of sunshine, barbecues, enjoying some time off of work, and, of course, remembering those who gave their lives in service for this country. While you were doing all of that, you may or may not have missed a weekend full of news so here's what we covered since Friday. more ›

After Saturday night's outbreak of violence, Sunday saw a similar rash of shootings that's left as many as 12 injured and 3 dead. The first reported incident occurred yesterday afternoon shortly after 1 p.m. in the city's West Elsdon neighborhood and the last one happened around 5:30 a.m. this morning in the Uptown neighborhood where a man was shot by a bike-riding gunman. Shootings in Brighton Park, Little Village, and Englewood resulted in deaths. In addition to the four shootings deaths this weekend, another man died as a result of injuries sustained in a beating in Bridgeport early Sunday morning. With the five deaths since Saturday afternoon, May 2010 has seen 43 murders, slightly down from last May's total of 47, but that's not saying much. more ›

Along with the next round of warm weather comes the next round of violence, this one the most violent outbreak the city has seen so far this year. One man is dead and 21 were wounded in a spate of shootings over the 24 hours since this time yesterday. The first shooting was reported yesterday around 11 a.m. in the 5300 block of S. Laflin St. A little over 12 hours later, another shooting just two blocks north of that incident, in the 5100 block of S. Laflin St., another shooting would leave a 19-year-old man dead. Most depressing of all, as the Tribune reports: "No one is in custody for any of the shootings." more ›

An afternoon shooting near Rainbow Beach on the South Side has killed three people. The Tribune is calling the shooting "drug-related" and noting that all three victims were shot in the head. Today's incident follows another violent night in Chicago that included a trio of violent incidents at the Lakefront on the city's North Side last night, one of which was a gang-related shooting that left one man dead. more ›

With temperatures surging yesterday to 15-degrees above normal, reaching mid-July levels, the city saw another round of violence overnight. Nine people have been reported injured in seven separate shootings since 9:10 p.m. last night with one dead, a 35-year-old man shot near Washington Park. According to the Tribune, no suspects in any shootings were in custody as of 6:30 a.m. this morning. more ›

It was the first warm, dry night we've had this week so it goes to follow an outbreak of violence would occur. Eight people were reported injured by shootings since yesterday afternoon, two critically. The first occurred around 4 p.m. in the Gresham neighborhood where two people, a 27-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy, were shot. At 5 p.m., a drive-by shooting in the 2200 block of North Lawler Ave. wounded an 18-year-old man. Additionally, CBS 2 reports a late night shooting at 2353 S. Whipple St., bringing the total to seven shootings reported in all. CBS 2 also reported a pair of unrelated stabbing incidents that left two people wounded; both victims were reported to be in "good" condition. more ›

Just a few weeks after two state representatives suggested that the National Guard be brought in to help Chicago Police control the violence, Chicago Police are actually touting a drop in some violent crime. Police superintendent Jody Weis announced crime is down almost seven percent, most violent crime is down 11 percent and the number of homicides this year is below the five-year average for the same period. Weis attributes the decrease to "smart policing; sharing more information among federal, state and local police; and building partnerships within communities." more ›