Chicago

Electronic Filing Lags in Cook County Court Cases
Tue, 02/21/2012
Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown, who is seeking her fourth term in office, often talks about how she has modernized the technology in her office, which maintains the records for one of the largest court systems in the country. But even as court systems elsewhere move ahead in the critical area of electronic filing–or allowing...
Bar, Blagojevich, business, Cook County, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Dorothy Brown, Illinois Supreme Court, Matteson, OLIS, On-Line Information Services, Ricardo Munoz, Thomas Kilbride

County Jail a Large Mental Ward: Dart
Mon, 02/20/2012
The sounds of chaos bounce off the dim yellow walls. Everywhere there are prisoners wearing orange, red and khaki jumpsuits. An officer barks out orders as a thin woman tries to sleep on a hard bench in a holding cell. This is a harsh scene of daily life inside what has become the state’s largest de facto mental institution: the Cook County Jail....
American Civil Liberties Union, Bechara Choucair, Bridget O'Shea, Chicago Police, College, Cook Country Jail, Cook County, Cook County Jail, Criminal Justice, Health, Mental Health, Mental Health Clinics, Mental Illness, Tom Dart

Proposal Would Limit Protests in Council Chambers
Wed, 02/15/2012
Ahead of this spring’s NATO and G8 summits, four influential aldermen on Wednesday proposed prohibiting audience members from waving signs or engaging in any “demonstration of approval or disapproval” during City Council meetings. Under the proposal, the banned conduct in the council chambers would include — but would not be limited to — “cheering...
Austin, business, Carrie Austin, City Council, City Hall, Ed Burke, G8, G8 Summit, Garry McCarthy, George Cardenas, Government, Hunter Clauss, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, NATO, Rahm Emanuel, Ray Suarez, Richard Mell

Power Station's Closing Could Create Problems
Mon, 02/13/2012
For years, environmental and health organizations have called for the closing of the 83-year-old coal-fired State Line Power Station, one of the Chicago area’s top polluters. Now the plant, which is in Hammond, just across the Indiana border on Lake Michigan and adjacent to Calumet Park, is burning through its last stores of coal. It will stop...
Beer, coal, Coal Plant Closings, Discrimination, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Government, Hammond, Health, Indiana, Jobs, Lake Michigan, Market, Metro, Natural Gas, State Line Power Station

School Reform Efforts Show Mixed Results in Study
Thu, 02/09/2012
Chicago elementary schools that underwent various reform efforts since 1997 improved during the first four years of intervention, but still lagged behind the district on state exams, the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research said in a report released Wednesday. The long-awaited report also found that high schools that implemented...
Academy for Urban School Leadership, charter school, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago School Reform, Chicago Teachers Union, CPS, Education, Englewood, Government, Jobs, School Reform, University of Chicago Consortium on School Research