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Happy Labor Day, Chicago. If you have some spare time today, check out long-form journalism from our team of investigative reporters. WTTW News compiled a short roundup of recent highlights below.
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Federal immigration agents in Chicago in a file photo. (WTTW News via CNN) |
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The Adams County Sheriff’s Office has transferred at least two men into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, in apparent violation of the state’s TRUST Act and Way Forward Act, according to a lawyer who helped provide technical support for the legislation. Both men were later deported.
In addition, the Adams County Jail also has a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service that authorizes ICE to utilize the jail to detain people for $80 a day. Such contracts also appear to run afoul of state law. The acts generally prohibit collaboration between Illinois law enforcement officers and federal immigration agencies.
“All of those things are violations,” Mark Fleming, associate director of federal litigation with the National Immigrant Justice Center, said of both the men handed off to ICE by Adams County and the jail contract.
WTTW News detailed these apparent violations to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, which oversees compliance and enforcement of the state’s sanctuary laws. The office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
WTTW News also laid out the apparent violations to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment. |
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Mount Sinai Hospital, 1500 S. Fairfield Ave., Chicago, is pictured on Aug. 4, 2025. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News) |
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Hospitals and medical professionals said Medicaid cuts enacted by a sweeping federal rescission bill could become a looming health crisis threatening outcomes and accessibility for all patients, crossing political and demographic lines. The problems would only grow if the cuts lead to hospital closures. Recent figures estimate 330,000 Illinois residents could lose health coverage under the plan. Many who spoke with WTTW News said the law will lead more uninsured patients to seek emergency care, often with advanced conditions.
Medicaid covers more than 3.4 million people in the state including children, seniors and adults with disabilities, according to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. Estimates show 35.6% of Illinois residents had public health insurance in 2023, up 2.1 percentage points from 2019, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Health care leaders are still sorting out exactly what the complex 800-page law means for how they provide care for their patients. The reductions will take place over the next decade, and there will be consequences both short- and long-term, they said. |
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(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News) |
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The city of Chicago spent approximately $510.9 million on employee overtime in 2024 — 1.5% less than in 2023, with more than half of the total amount used to compensate Chicago Police Department officers for working extra hours, according to records obtained by WTTW News. The Chicago Police Department spent $273.8 million on overtime last year, 6.5% less than in 2023 and but still more than two and a half times the $100 million earmarked for police overtime by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2024 budget, according to data published by the city’s Office of Budget and Management.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a City Hall news conference he was not satisfied with the reduction in spending on police overtime, saying the department has “ways to go.”
“No, it’s not enough,” Johnson said, while praising Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling’s efforts to reduce overtime expenses. “That’s why that number has not been as pronounced and as realized. And so, we’re going to continue to do the necessary work to cut the cost of overtime.”
The amount of taxpayer funds spent on overtime by all city departments, including CPD, dropped in 2024 for the first time since 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic upended the city’s operations.
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(txking / iStock) |
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About three years into his incarceration, Calvin Merritte said he saw Menard Correctional Center’s cafeteria for the first time this summer.
Up until then, he’d only received food in his cell. The prison, located along the Mississippi River in southern Illinois, did not run out-of-cell food service from Jan. 1 through mid-July of this year, according to records. Not only that, the general population was provided outside time in the yard just 56 times, law library 40 times and commissary 95 times.
Menard has been on lockdown nearly every day since September 2023, according to data from the Illinois Department of Corrections. Lockdowns, according to officials, are largely the result of short staffing. On average, Menard has only been able to staff 44% of the prison so far this year, according to emails.
Menard, the largest maximum-security prison for men in the state, isn’t the only facility facing heightened lockdowns — Illinois is currently experiencing the highest amount of prison lockdowns in the state since 2020.
Lockdowns can be indistinguishable from solitary confinement-like conditions, with those incarcerated given little yard time and limited access to educational programming and commissary. To understand the impact of lockdowns, WTTW News sent a list of questions to those incarcerated at three Illinois prisons with particularly high lockdown numbers. Read their responses here. |
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What's been the best part of your Chicago summer so far?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. |
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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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