Crime

Violence Weighs Heavily in Englewood
Mon, 02/06/2012
Until recently, the sound of gunfire crackling in the streets of Englewood came from at least two or three blocks away, giving La’Keisha Gray-Sewell and her young family a fragile sense of safety and distance from the mayhem. But Gray-Sewell, who runs a mentoring program for girls, and her husband, Barry Sewell, a disc jockey, have taken no...

Urban Decay Lures Hollywood to Gary
Wed, 08/17/2011
When Gary, Indiana was booming, the city’s factories belched a constant cycle of smoke and steel. When the industrial hub thirty miles south of Chicago went bust, those buildings decayed with equal fervor. The steel industry has not returned, but the crumbling remains of Gary’s last viable economy are offering some small hope of a new one. Last...

Gambling Bill Fears Largely Addressed, Analysis Shows
Mon, 08/08/2011
Former Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis joined the chorus of opposition to the state’s gambling expansion bill last week, warning that if it is implemented, “political corruption and crime syndicate infiltration will follow.” Yet the concerns of Weis and other critics are largely addressed in the actual text of the legislation, a Chicago News...

The Public School Probation Maze
Fri, 04/22/2011
Austin Polytechnical Academy, a school established in 2007 to help broaden the West Side community’s academic opportunities and retool perceptions of vocational education, is facing harsh realities as it prepares to graduate its first senior class: lagging test scores, diminishing attendance and dismal reading levels. Last October, Polytech joined...

Obama Drug Czar Among Outsiders in Running for City’s Top Cop
Tue, 04/19/2011
Despite calls for the promotion of a new police superintendent from within the department’s ranks, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel could yet do as he did in finding a new schools CEO and go far beyond the city limits for Chicago’s next top cop. The Chicago News Cooperative reported Monday that President Barack Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, is...

Deposed 36th Ward Alderman Blasts Challenger
Wed, 04/06/2011
Just a few years ago, the 36th Ward Democrats were an important cog in Mayor Richard M. Daley’s machine who essentially enjoyed control over Chicago’s real estate boom. After Tuesday’s election, though, the once-formidable patronage army no longer could claim even the alderman’s seat in the middle-class ward on the western edge of the city....