[Danielle Scruggs, special to ProPublica]

This article was first published in ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

The bank’s board meeting on April 28, 2016, started with a prayer. Then it turned to plans for keeping the bank alive.

That week, federal regulators had signed off on a deal allowing new owners to take control of Illinois Service Federal Savings and Loan, one of the last Black-owned banks in the country. For more than a year, regulators had warned the bank could be shut down if it didn’t raise capital. They had also ordered it to improve its management.

Caption: Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) is a lead sponsor on a resolution calling for the city to increase its stock of public bathrooms. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Nearly 20 aldermen support a new measure calling for the city to consider a pilot program that would bring more public bathrooms to Chicago.  

A jogger uses a trail in the Busse Woods, one of 22 Cook County Forest Preserves [Facebook/Forest Preserve District of Cook County]

For the second time in two years, Cook County voters are set to see a ballot question in November asking them to authorize a tax hike.

But proponents of a property tax levy uptick to benefit the Cook County Forest Preserves say there’s a world of difference between their campaign and Gov. JB Pritzker’s failed 2020 push for a statewide graduated income tax. For one thing, no one has organized to stop it yet.

 Ald. Matt Martin (47) and Ald. Howard Brookins (21) speaking during a committee meeting on Friday. 

Aldermen, city officials and policy experts last week launched into a discussion on increasing electric vehicle charging stations across Chicago, as stations are currently clustered mainly around the Loop and the North Side.  

Cook County Health will use American Rescue Plan dollars to launch a new department aimed at improving mental health services, including at Stroger Hospital. [Cook County Health]

Cook County leaders plan to spend nearly $36 million in federal dollars next year on a panoply of programs designed to reverse a crippling spike in violent crime — but none of it will go toward policing.

The Chicago Plan Commission advanced Hispanic Housing Development Corporation’s plans for an affordable housing development in Humboldt Park. 

A Humboldt Park affordable housing development plan nearly five years in the making spurred debate on Thursday over the weight that design should play in affordable housing.

Aldermen are set to hold a hearing on Friday to discuss a citywide plan for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. And the Zoning Board of Appeals will consider a handful of cannabis-related applications as state licensing remains stalled.

Emails show Mayor Lori Lightfoot learning about the wrongful police raid of Anjanette Young's home in November of 2019. The emails also show efforts by the Chicago Police Department to block the release of body camera footage.

This article originally published in Block Club Chicago.

An outside investigation of the city’s response to the Anjanette Young raid found “failures in oversight and accountability” by the four city departments responsible for responding to the aftermath of the search.

Plan commissioners are set to consider a proposal for a 133-unit affordable senior-housing development in Pullman. 

A 133-unit affordable senior housing development proposed for Pullman and a 73-unit affordable senior housing development in Uptown will both come one step closer to reality Thursday if they net approval from the Chicago Plan Commission. 

Cook County Comm. Larry Suffredin (D-13) speaks during a meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Tuesday.

A years-in-the-making push to tighten and modernize Cook County’s ethics rules is inches from the finish line after a fresh round of tweaks designed to further empower the county’s Board of Ethics and bring county lobbying rules in line with a new state law.

The City Council approved a proposal from Ald. Walter Burnett (27) to allow sports betting at Chicago stadiums and ballparks. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Chicago professional sports teams got the green light on Wednesday to build physical locations for people to place sports bets at and around the city’s stadiums and ballparks. 

Aldermen voted 12-5 to approve a proposed apartment complex near the Cumberland Blue Line station. [Glenstar/Department of Planning and Development]

A key City Council committee advanced a long-stalled proposal to build a 297-unit apartment complex near the Cumberland Blue Line CTA station, delivering a blow to a Northwest Side alderman’s so-called aldermanic prerogative. 

A rendering of a DraftKings betting facility proposed to open at Wrigley Field by Opening Day 2023. [provided]

Aldermen are set during the final City Council meeting of 2022 to vote on allowing sports betting at Chicago stadiums and ballparks over the objections of would-be casino operators and some aldermen. 

Ald. George Cardenas (12) speaks during the Cook County Democratic Party slating session on Tuesday [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The Cook County Democratic Party anointed Chicago Ald. George Cardenas (12) on Tuesday as its chosen candidate to take down incumbent county Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) for the right to represent a freshly redrawn district on the tax appeals board.

Aldermen on Monday approved a $2.9 million payment to settle a lawsuit by Anjanette Young. 

Aldermen gave unanimous initial approval to a $2.9 million payment to settle a lawsuit by Anjanette Young, nearly one year after video was released showing police in 2019 wrongly raiding the Chicago woman’s home as she was handcuffed while naked and repeatedly telling police they had the wrong house.