The Watchdogs
Investigations of government, politicians, education, business and issues affecting taxpayers and consumers.
Rommell Kellogg was convicted of collecting payments from Arnie’s Idle Hour in Harvey in exchange for the city not closing the club, where prostitution flourished.
Burke’s defense team has promised to summon former Ald. Danny Solis to the witness stand — finally giving Burke the chance to confront the man who famously turned on him while wearing an FBI wire.
Construction was halted Sunday pending an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency review of a nearly 800-page city consultant’s study that was released Friday night.
Burke tried, but failed, to leverage his political clout to strong-arm business for his tax appeals firm out of the New York business that redeveloped the Old Post Office.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall denied a request for mistrial over a remark about the ‘Chicago way of doing business’ being ‘very corrupt.’ That allowed prosecutors to proceed with recordings of Burke and witness testimony.
Rev. Richard McGrath’s name belongs on lists of abusers kept by all Catholic dioceses where he worked, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said.
When Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur explained that she did not expect Amtrak executive Ray Lang to make the comment, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall quickly asked, ‘What were you expecting him to say?’
Nearly a dozen former and current Peoples Gas workers say in the federal lawsuit that the company racially discriminated against Black employees in the Chicago area.
Special Agent Ryan McDonald’s testimony came nearly five years to the day after the FBI raided former Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke’s offices Nov. 29, 2018.
Feds say giving council members “a local veto over proposals to build affordable housing” has meant it’s “rarely, if ever, constructed in the majority-white wards that have the least affordable housing.”
COVID-19 is arguably one reason it took so long for the feds to bring ex-Ald. Ed Burke to trial in the first place. The FBI raided his offices five years ago this week. Criminal charges followed in 2019, but the pandemic helped scuttle plans to begin the trial in 2021.
“I was relieved when they said it before they got in the house that I’m not in trouble,” Shoukat Dhanani testified. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let them in.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson is moving ahead with plans to shelter up to 2,000 asylum-seekers despite protests in the Southwest Side community.
Prosecutors called Shoukat Dhanani to the witness stand and played secretly recorded calls as they began showing jurors evidence of a second scheme outlined in Burke’s 2019 indictment.
Prosecutors say the former City Council dean was upset he had failed to land an internship at the Field Museum for the daughter of a close friend.
Her lawyer says the former head of the juvenile court’s child protection division will fight charges that she stole more than $300,000 from a World War II vet.
A jury in California convicted two executives from Gree USA Inc. for not telling the government what it knew about the defects. The appliances were widely sold under well-known brand names.
Nearly 4,900 robberies happened between July 1 and Nov. 26, a more than 55% increase compared to the previous five months. That’s the largest percentage increase in robberies between consecutive five-month periods since at least 2001.
Restaurant employee is pressed why he didn’t initially tell FBI agents about the former alderperson’s apparent interest in getting private business from Burger King owners.
The payouts from the 300 cases have included $140 million that went to lawyers for the city and $537 million paid to plaintiffs.
“We were going to talk about the real estate tax representation, and you were going to have somebody get in touch with me so we can expedite your permits,” Burke was recorded saying during a call with an executive.
An executive for Shoukat Dhanani, which owned hundred of Burger King locations, said the Klafter & Burke firm “seemed very disorganized.”
The move by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office comes weeks after WBEZ and the Sun-Times identified officers who appeared on leaked membership rolls for the anti-government group.
Prosecutors kicked off their case with Elmhurst University political science professor Constance Mixon, who began to explain Chicago city government to the jury.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, prosecutors and defense attorneys have seated 12 jurors at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse who will hear evidence that was used in 2019 to level criminal charges against Burke in a push against old-school, Chicago-style corruption.
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