Kick off your week with WTTW News. Here are the latest headlines on policing, pollution and more.
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(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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Chicago taxpayers spent nearly $259 million in 2025 to resolve lawsuits alleging Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct — including wrongful convictions and improper pursuits, according to a city report required by the federal court order known as the consent decree.
That is more than three times what Chicago taxpayers paid to resolve police misconduct lawsuits in 2024, according to the annual report from the Chicago Department of Law detailing the cost of lawsuits filed against the Chicago Police Department.
That tally does not include the $101.3 million the city agreed to spend to resolve 184 lawsuits filed by Chicagoans who were wrongfully convicted based on what they allege was fabricated evidence gathered by former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who was convicted in 2013 of taking bribes, and other officers, according to the report.
The vast majority of those payments will be made in 2026, records show, helping the city to manage the financial fallout of the scandal that engulfed Watts and the officers he supervised.
Had the city paid to resolve the lawsuits alleging misconduct by Watts in 2025, when the City Council voted to settle them, Chicago taxpayers would have paid a total of $360.3 million to resolve police misconduct lawsuits, according to the report.
More context:
Annually, the city sets aside $82 million to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits as part of the Chicago Police Department’s nearly $2 billion budget.
However, according to the city’s audited annual financial report for 2025, CPD spent just $131.1 million to resolve police misconduct lawsuits.
CPD overspent its total 2025 budget by $162.5 million, according to Chicago’s annual financial report.
It is unclear how the city paid the remaining $127.8 million worth of bills to resolve those lawsuits, why that expense was not attributed to the police department and why it has not been transparently reported to Chicagoans.
Between 2021 and 2025, while the Chicago Police Department has been subject to a federal court order to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers, taxpayers have spent $472.4 million to resolve police misconduct lawsuits, according to reports required by the consent decree.
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Sponsor Message
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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns to Ravinia this summer for its 90th summer residency, featuring world-class performances, celebrated conductors, and unforgettable nights in the newly transformed Hunter Pavilion. Plan an evening of extraordinary music in one of Chicago's most beloved outdoor settings. Get tickets at www.ravinia.org!
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(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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Air pollution is impacting the life expectancy of Black and Latino residents in Chicago, according to a report from the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Last fall, CDPH and the University of Illinois Chicago joined forces to combat this gap by installing 277 air quality monitors around the city, the largest system of its kind in the United States.
“It’s collecting concentrations of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide,” said Grace Adams, environmental health projects administrator at CDPH. “There’s one in at least every community area and at least one in every ward, so that way we are getting full, city-wide coverage and we can understand what’s happening at the hyperlocal level.”
Some backstory:
Since 2023, Chicago has seen record-breaking amounts of air pollution. Smoke from wildfires in Canada and the western United States drifted into various parts of the city, contributing to worsening air quality. Serap Erdal, Open Air Chicago project leader and UIC School of Public Health professor, said these phenomena worsen in the summer.
“The higher temperatures serve as a catalyst for chemical reactions in the atmosphere, so that results in higher concentrations of ozone and other pollutants,” Erdal said.
Earlier this year, the American Lung Association ranked the Chicago-Naperville area’s air pollution as one of the worst in the country in its State of the Air Report.
Open Air Chicago is hoping to help change that ranking and protect Chicago residents, especially those on the South and West sides.
Jaime Groth Searle, founder and executive director of the Southwest Collective, a neighborhood organization working to improve quality of life on Chicago’s Southwest Side, said the region’s industrial history also contributes to higher rates of air pollution.
“There is a lot happening, a lot being made, a lot being transported across our interstates, our rivers, our airways,” Groth Searle said. “There are some neighborhoods where that is happening a lot more than others, and they happen to be on the South, the West and the Southwest and Southeast sides.”
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(WTTW News)
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Within the walls of Out West Boxing in the Austin community, the sound of leather gloves tapping against pads and bags echoes across the gym.
It’s there that Roy Flowers, an Austin native and founder of Flowers Fitness Club, can be heard repeating “one-two” “one-two” while holding up pads for his fighters.
In 2021, Flowers started his boxing club in the hopes of creating healthy, supportive spaces for the youth in his community.
“When I was a kid, I wish they had programs, you know, more positive programs where I could come,” Flowers said.
As a teenager and young adult, Flowers found himself in situations that ended with him serving time in prison, where he was exposed to programs that allowed him to finish his GED and earn a bachelor’s degree.
Years after being released, he made a name for himself in the community as a barber and volunteer, often employing young adults at his barbershop who could use the work. After two decades of building himself up, he realized it was time for him to build up his community.
“I just wanted to be the mentor that I wish I had,” Flowers said.
Few get to know him as intimately as the young fighters he helps prepare for the ring.
Josiah Owens, a 15-year-old participant, said Flowers and the other coaches in the program are like fathers to him and the larger gym is “one big family.”
“They taught me lessons that I would never have learned in the outside world,” Josiah said.
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More From WTTW News:
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The former head of a southwest suburban school district is facing criminal charges alleging he used a district credit card to cover $10,000 in personal expenses, including adult websites, golf equipment and Visa gift cards, according to Cook County prosecutors.
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Back in the Day: July 13, 1966 - Eight Nurses Murdered By Local Serial Killer
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On this day 60 years ago, Richard Speck, a Kirkwood, Illinois-born and Chicago-based 24-year-old, broke into a Southeast Side dormitory and killed eight nursing students. The horrific mass murder in South Deering rocked the city in its gruesome details. After trespassing, Speck stabbed or strangled, one-by-one eight of the nine women who lived in the building. The ninth hid under a bed and avoided capture. Speck was found days later following a suicide attempt and was arrested at the hospital. After a 1967 trial, Speck was sentenced to death and died of a heart attack in Stateville Correctional Center on the day before his 50th birthday.
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This Week’s Civic Events and Meetings
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Every Monday, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government.
City Council
There will be a regular meeting of Chicago’s City Council on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Check the source website for a forthcoming agenda and more details. If you’d like to submit a public comment, the deadline is July 15th at 9 a.m.
City Club of Chicago
On Thursday at noon, the City Club of Chicago is hosting a roundtable discussion titled: “Two Generations Rising Together: The Proof and Promise of Hope Chicago.” Hope Chicago is a scholarship-focused non-profit that provides students from area high schools money to able to graduate college debt free. Hope Chicago CEO Dr. Aaron Kuecker and Illinois State Representative Kam Buckner will join several alums of the program to discuss its model, its successes and its aims for the future. Buy tickets here.
WTTW
Join WTTW and Tri States Public Radio on Saturday evening at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois, for a screening and discussion event centered on “Firsthand: Democracy,” the acclaimed docuseries produced by WTTW. Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion moderated by executive producer Dan Protess. It’s a free event, but you
should RSVP here.
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What's the best place for a Chicago-style hot dog?
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