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Yes, it's another cloudy day. Don't stress: Start your Tuesday with these stories from WTTW News. |
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Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Aug. 11, 2026. (WTTW News) |
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Unless the Illinois Supreme Court upholds a ruling that Chicago police officers accused of serious misconduct must have their fate determined during public proceedings, the more than seven-year effort to reform the Chicago Police Department will fail, Attorney General Kwame Raoul warned.
A ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court siding with the city’s largest police union — which would allow an arbitrator to determine behind closed doors whether officers accused of the most egregious misconduct should be terminated — would result in a “loss of public trust in CPD,” Raoul wrote in a friend of the court brief filed June 2.
More context:
The Illinois Supreme Court will hold oral arguments at 9 a.m. Thursday in the case that has frozen the system Chicago officials used for 60 years to hold accountable officers accused of the most egregious misconduct amid a legal dispute between the city and the city’s largest police union that has lasted for more than two years.
Attorneys for the city are expected to argue that Chicagoans have a right to know what happens to officers accused of the most serious misconduct, while police union lawyers are set to tell the justices that Chicago police officers should be treated no differently than other municipal employees facing termination or lengthy suspensions and have those decisions made in private.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said the right of public sector employees to have allegations of misconduct resolved by an arbitrator in private is well established in state law, according to initial and final arguments filed with the Illinois Supreme Court.
Raoul, whose predecessor sued the city to force it to agree to federal court oversight of CPD, is responsible for enforcing the federal court order known as the consent decree, which requires CPD to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights.
For more than seven years, Raoul and Chicago leaders have worked to implement the requirements of the consent decree, which were crafted in an effort to put an end to the decades of scandals, misconduct and brutality that have defined CPD and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell and Craig Futterman, a law professor at the University of Chicago and one of the attorneys representing the coalition of community groups that also sued the city to force it to agree to the consent decree, told the Supreme Court that “the stakes of this appeal could not be greater.” |
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Sponsor Message |
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On Tuesday, September 22nd, 5 pm to 8 pm, join Full Spectrum Education, Northeastern Illinois University’s Goodwin College of Education, and NEIU Libraries for the launch of “Reckoning with Redress,” a cinematic digital history project on the Japanese American Redress Movement.
The event also commemorates the 45th anniversary of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians hearings held on Northeastern Illinois University’s Main Campus. Refreshments, Taiko drumming performance, film screenings of “Enough” and “Reckonings,” and a panel discussion are scheduled.
This free event is part of the “Reckoning with Redress” exhibition, ongoing through October 31st.
RSVP at NEIU.edu/reckoning-redress. |
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(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News) |
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As members of the Chicago City Council turned up the pressure on its attorneys to resolve lawsuits tied to disgraced former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, city lawyers have agreed to resolve three more suits, federal court records show.
Those proposed settlements, which still must be approved by the City Council, come as a final vote looms Wednesday on a proposal that will resolve two separate lawsuits by paying $13.75 million to two men who spent a combined 38 years in prison after they were coerced into confessing to a gruesome double murder and kidnapping in 1998, records show.
Chicago taxpayers have paid an additional $6.2 million to defend both lawsuits, which were filed more than eight years ago.
The total cost to Chicago taxpayers to defend and settle 16 lawsuits naming Guevara is set to reach at least $206 million on Wednesday, records show.
The additional lawsuits city lawyers have agreed to settle were brought by three men who spent a combined 82 years in prison before their convictions were overturned, records show. Taxpayers have spent at least $3.2 million to defend those cases, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
It is unclear how much lawyers for the city will recommend to the City Council that taxpayers pay to resolve the three separate lawsuits. Settlements of more than $100,000 must be authorized by the City Council.
Some backstory:
As part of the city’s first-ever global settlement of lawsuits tied to a single Chicago police officer, the City Council agreed in September 2025 to pay $90 million to 180 people who spent a combined nearly 200 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted based on what they allege was fabricated evidence gathered by former Sgt. Ronald Watts, who was convicted in 2013 of taking bribes, and other officers.
That has prompted many alderpeople to suggest a mass agreement could be crafted to resolve the lawsuits naming Guevara and relieve the burden on taxpayers. In all, 41 cases naming Guevara remain pending.
Court records give no indication that the city has resolved or is close to reaching a settlement in 34 other cases. |
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(Joe Hendrickson / iStock) |
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Northwestern University and the University of Chicago remain among the top 10 colleges in the country, according to new rankings published by U.S. News and World Report.
Both Chicago-area universities fell slightly in the rankings published Tuesday, coming in a tie for ninth place, but they remained the highest-ranked schools both in Illinois and the Midwest as a whole.
Northwestern ranked in seventh place last year, while the University of Chicago was sixth.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was the next highest-ranked Illinois school, jumping up two spots into a tie for 34th place in the new rankings. The University of Illinois Chicago was tied for 95th place, while the Illinois Institute of Technology and Loyola University Chicago tied for 121st place.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top spot in the latest rankings, unseating Princeton University, which fell to second place. Harvard and Yale were ranked third and fourth, respectively, followed by the California Institute of Technology and Stanford in a tie for fifth.
Beyond the top universities, U.S. News and World Report also published rankings of the top liberal arts schools and regional colleges. Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington (No. 2) and Illinois College in Jacksonville (No. 4) were ranked among the top five regional colleges in the Midwest. |
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More From WTTW News:
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Back in the Day: September 22, 1985 - Farm Aid Debuts in Illinois |
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During the 1980s, American farmers faced a crisis, with the worst economic and climate conditions since the Great Depression. They were hit with plummeting prices, drought and widespread bank failures, and by the end of the decade, 300,000 farmers defaulted on their loans. At a Live Aid benefit concert for the Ethiopian famine, Bob Dylan commented on the plight of American farmers, which led Willie Nelson to organize another benefit concert called Farm Aid. On this day 41 years ago, it debuted in Illinois at Champaign’s Memorial Stadium. A crowd of 80,000 people showed up to see Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker and dozens more. The next Farm Aid will take place on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach, Virginia. |
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This Week’s Staff Recommendations |
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Every Tuesday, WTTW News staffers highlight their favorite things in Chicago. This week, it’s Blake Thor, Minow Fellow for WTTW News and “Chicago Tonight,” on the most-promising local pro athletes.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned after living in Chicago for a year, it’s that you guys love your sports teams. And it’s hard to blame you. Anyone with a working pair of eyes can tell there’s something special brewing in Chicago's sports world. Here are some young players I recommend you bet on to become future stars of the city.
Matas Buzelis: If you asked a gaggle of NBA executives to describe a modern NBA superstar, Bulls forward Matas Buzelis would check about 95% of the boxes. He’s 6 foot, 10 inches tall with shoes on, but moves like a guard. He’s got a picturesque outside shot but prefers scoring in the paint. Coming off a 16-point-per-game season last year, I expect Buzelis to take a jump and insert himself into the NBA’s Most Improved Player conversation.
Colston Loveland: Bears tight end Colston Loveland is a freak athlete. That term gets thrown around nowadays, but in this case it’s true. At 6 foot, 5 inches tall, he moves like a gazelle across the middle of the field, catching passes over or through defenders. At no point was his skill set on display more than Loveland’s monster performance in the NFC wild card last year, totaling 8 receptions for 137 yards and sending archrival Green Bay packing into the offseason.
Sydney Taylor: Despite going undrafted and the Sky sitting at 15-27 on the season, there’s no denying that guard Sydney Taylor has what most sports pundits consistently rank as the most coveted asset in athletics — a “killer instinct.” Taylor came out of nowhere this season to become the first-ever rookie to hit multiple game-winning shots with 5 seconds or less on the game clock. If not for the unprecedented season Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles is having, Taylor might’ve had a shot at rookie of the year honors. |
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What was the best local festival you attended this year? Tell us why. |
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. |
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