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It’s a new week. Thaw out this Monday with these stories from WTTW News. |
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Dave Willard accepts the Parker/Gentry Award on Oct. 29, 2025, at the Field Museum. (Courtesy of the Field Museum) |
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In late October, Dave Willard, an adjunct curator at the Field Museum, found himself standing shoulder to shoulder with actor Harrison Ford.
The two received awards at the Half-Earth Day gala, hosted at the Field: the 83-year-old Ford for his environmental advocacy; and Willard, nearly 80 himself, for a career’s worth of achievements, including his tireless work documenting migrating birds’ deadly collisions with buildings in Chicago.
Willard’s work:
When a bird dies after colliding with a building in Chicago, a few things can happen. It can get snatched up by a predator as food. It can get trampled underfoot or tires. It can be treated like garbage and tossed in the trash.
Or, if it’s retrieved by a volunteer with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, its final destination is the Field Museum’s bird lab.
The lab is where a handful of staff members and a small group of volunteers turn dead birds into valuable scientific specimens. Willard started the program more than 40 years ago, almost by accident, and it’s since grown into one of the largest, longest-running datasets of its kind found in a natural history museum.
Each bird is carefully recorded by Willard in an old-school log book, where he notes, in his tidy, handwritten script: the bird’s species; the date and time it was collected; where it was found; the name of the person who collected it; and relevant anatomical measurements like wing, bill and tarsal length, weight and the condition of the skull, which can help determine the bird’s age.
“We’ve sort of said, ‘If it’s dead and it has data, it’s useful to us,’” Willard said.
Willard estimates he’s filled up some 50 notebooks over the years with this data. He’s up to page 148 in the current journal, with nearly three dozen birds per page. The math is staggering.
“There’s a sadness about it,” Willard conceded, in terms of the sheer volume of dead birds he’s handled, but it’s also fulfilling to give purpose to the birds, in terms of their contribution to scientific research, to ensure they didn’t die in vain. |
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Sponsor Message |
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A simple act of kindness, just one flicker of hope, can make all the difference. Catholic Charities of Chicago brings warmth, meals, and hope to families right here in Cook and Lake counties. Learn more at catholiccharities.net. |
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Judge Charles Beach appears on the Dec. 11, 2025, episode of “Chicago Tonight.” (WTTW News) |
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Cook County has a new chief judge for the first time in nearly 25 years.
Judge Charles Beach has inherited the nation’s second-largest unified court system — and it comes with some baggage.
The Office of the Chief Judge now manages the pretrial electronic monitoring system, which has come under scrutiny after some high-profile cases. Last month, a woman was set on fire on a CTA Blue Line train; the man charged in the attack has a lengthy criminal background and was out of jail on electronic monitoring at the time.
Beach promises more transparency, better training and a renewed focus on public safety.
On why he wanted the position:
“I left private practice to get on the bench because I believed in the judiciary. I believed in the positive things it can do. And as I worked my way through and had various supervisor roles, I just thought being in leadership is a way you can further effectuate those positive things in the judiciary. So it’s a long road towards trying to make this a better county.”
On possible challenges:
“There’s approximately 2,600 employees, not including the judges. Chief [Tim] Evans had been there for 24 years, and he did a great job while he was there. I’ll have a different approach to how things are managed than him, just because I’m a different person. But that approach involves getting down and meeting the individuals. I’ve actually, so far, been to almost every courthouse and met not only with the judges, but the support staff, the social service workers, the probation workers. My intention is to be seen by them, to hear them, and to try to improve the way they work more efficiently, make them more efficient so they serve the county better.” |
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(WTTW News) |
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Nearly 180 positions charged with implementing a court order that requires the Chicago Police Department to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights are vacant, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
Of 439 positions in the Chicago Police Department specifically charged with implementing the court order known as the consent decree, 179 positions, or 40%, were empty at the beginning of December, according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by WTTW News.
Between August and December, Chicago officials filled approximately 30 positions charged with implementing the consent decree, records show.
“The city remains committed to filling consent decree-related positions as quickly as possible to continue to make progress on consent decree compliance,” said Cassio Mendoza, a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson.
CPD is in the process of interviewing candidates to fill approximately 130 consent decree positions, Mendoza said. An additional 30 candidates have been selected to be placed into vacant positions charged with implementing the consent decree, Mendoza said. |
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Back in the Day: Dec. 15, 2020 - Chicago’s First COVID-19 Vaccines Administered
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Five years ago today, Illinois administered its first 450 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to health care workers across the state. The first doctor to receive the vaccine was Dr. Marina Del Ríos in Chicago. “The silver lining in the disaster that has been 2020 and this pandemic is that we’re now having more open discussions about social justice and health justice,” Del Ríos said. “I hope that this is the beginning of a more inclusive process for improving the public health of the city.” Within a year, Illinois had administered over 18 million doses, with 71% of all Illinoisans receiving at least one dose, 63% fully vaccinated, and more than 30% getting a booster. |
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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
The City Council has agreed to meet this week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and next week on Dec. 23 in an attempt to hammer out a deal over the $16.6 billion spending plan for 2026. Each meeting begins at 10 a.m. at City Hall. Click here for more details.
City Council’s Committee on Finance
On Tuesday at 11 a.m., the City Council's Committee on Finance will meet to discuss real estate taxes and more.
City Club of Chicago
At noon on Tuesday, the City Club of Chicago will host a roundtable discussion called “Democracy Under Siege: Safeguarding Our Elections and Preserving Voting Rights.” Speakers include Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon, Executive Director at the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions (PLEJ) Carolina Lopez, President and CEO of the Chicago Urban League Karen Freeman-Wilson and President of the Illinois State Conference of the NAACP Theodis Pace. Buy tickets here.
City Council’s Committee on Budget and Government Operations
On Wednesday at 2 p.m., the City Council’s Committee on Budget and Government Operations will take on the 2026 budget, the intergovernmental agreement with CTA and Cook County and Motor Fuel Tax funds. Click here for more details. |
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What's your favorite Chicago-made or Chicago-themed holiday gift?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. |
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5:30 PM | 10:00 PM |
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Want more WTTW News content? Follow WTTW on Instagram to check in with us daily, go behind-the-scenes, and more. |
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
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