All posts tagged "Portsandharbors"

CHICAGO — A longtime Chicago political operative pleaded guilty Friday to a scheme to bribe then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval on behalf of a suburban construction company that needed state approval for a development in East Dundee. William Helm, the onetime deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation and a former state transportation official, also admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that he and others helped arrange $40,000 in bribes to other, unnamed officials. He also pleaded guilty to a tax count showing he vastly underreported his income over a five-year period, cost......

CHICAGO — A Cook County judge on Wednesday rejected a request to put a hold on a legal challenge to former President Donald Trump’s place on the Illinois’ March 19 Republican primary ballot. Attorneys for the former president had filed a motion to halt legal proceedings in Illinois until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on an appeal of a Colorado Supreme Court decision that found Trump disqualified from running for the presidency in that state under the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The nation’s highest court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the Colorado......

CHICAGO — Cook County prosecutors on Wednesday dropped charges against two Northwestern students amid controversy over the decision to pursue a criminal case against them for allegedly circulating a fake page of the student newspaper to protest the school stance on the crisis in Gaza and Israel. The charging decision, as well as the newspaper’s parent company’s pursuit of a complaint, attracted harsh criticism from students, professors and community members, who blasted the move as an example of over-policing of Black students and an effort to silence pro-Palestinian voices that disproportiona......

CHICAGO — A University of Chicago charter school is being sued after a video emerged showing a teacher mocking a special education student for crying and a classroom aide was convicted of misdemeanor battery for her role in the episode. The incident, which was recorded on another student’s cellphone, took place at the UC Charter School’s Woodlawn campus in December 2022. The Chicago Tribune reviewed the minute-long video, which offered a troubling glimpse inside the publicly funded high school overseen by the prestigious university. “The question, to me, is how seriously are they taking their ......

The more than 40 Illinoisans charged with participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol three years ago have seemingly come from all walks of life: a real estate broker, a tech company executive, an HVAC technician, a retired firefighter, a Brazilian citizen here on a work visa. And one Chicago police officer. Next week, Chicago police Officer Karol Chwiesiuk will face sentencing along with his sister on misdemeanor charges of breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and walking around the building while the mob trashed the Senate chambers and fought with Capitol police. Unlike most Jan. 6 ......

CHICAGO — Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s landmark racketeering trial was postponed Wednesday pending a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in a Chicago-area bribery case. The new date for the trial was set for Oct. 8. The ruling by U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey came as Madigan, the former leader of the state Democratic Party, appeared in court for the first time over since his indictment nearly two years ago. Blakey had originally ordered both Madigan and his co-defendant, longtime confidant Michael McClain, to appear in person, but later allowed a video appearance. ......