• article-image
    DCFS Director Marc Smith addresses a legislative committee last year. [Blue Room Steam]

    The sharply criticized director of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Marc Smith, will resign at the end of 2023 along with the leaders of two other state agencies, Gov. JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday.   

  • article-image
    Larry Snelling was sworn is superintendent of the Chicago Police Department on Wednesday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

    Police accountability and the need to prevent and solve violent crimes were both a major focus of comments from alderpersons Wednesday before the City Council voted unanimously to confirm Larry Snelling as the new superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.  

    Snelling agreed with the call to hold members of the police department accountable, as long as it’s done fairly, and acknowledged that while public safety issues may look different across the city, “we have to stand with each other and bring some of these issues to a conclusion, especially violent crime.” 

  • article-image
    Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Secretary Mario Treto speaks to the House Health Care Licenses Committee on Wednesday. [Blue Room Stream] 

    More than a million people need licenses from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), and thousands of them wait months to hear back from the state. 

    The House Health Care Licenses Committee held a hearing Wednesday with department leadership and representatives of professional associations with members that require state licenses to work, but the hearing provided few answers to resolving what the department’s head characterized as a “crisis” anytime soon.

  • article-image

    The City Council is poised to approve Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointment of Chief Larry Snelling to lead the Chicago Police Department. And a committee OKed a measure to ban new late night liquor licenses in the 2nd Ward.

  • article-image
    The Cook County Jail 

    Illinois’ most sweeping criminal justice system reform in decades has largely proceeded smoothly around the state with few reports of major problems implementing the system, though critics remain and attorneys are adjusting to the new process.  

  • article-image
    The above shows an example of GardaWorld’s soft-sided shelters. [City of Chicago contract document] 

    With Chicago's inking of a nearly $29.4 million contract with GardaWorld last week to provide temporary housing for migrants, city officials are planning to move migrants currently housed at police district stations and O’Hare and Midway airports into the potential new shelters before temperatures drop. 

  • article-image
    House Speaker Chris Welch (D-Hillside) and other lawmakers and advocates speak at a news conference outside the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on Monday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

    After more than two years of waiting, Illinois became the first state on Monday to end cash bail as a condition of pretrial release as a law loathed by opponents and praised by supporters took effect.  

  • article-image
    The City Council met at City Hall on Thursday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

    The City Council on Thursday approved a measure allowing Chicago to accept $33 million in federal grants to help the city pay for shelter and services for migrants, and a separate measure granting the city permission to purchase property on the Northwest Side that could house up to 550 migrants. 

    The federal grant funding ordinance spurred a brief discussion as some alderpeople raised concerns that the city has not received federal grants for other urgent issues facing Chicago including flood damage from July storms. 

  • article-image
    Yolonda Morris speaks at an appointment committee in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood on Tuesday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line] 

    Cook County Democratic committeepeople in the 9th House District met Tuesday to select Yolonda Morris, a union organizer from Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood, to be the district’s new state representative.  

  • article-image
    Mayor Brandon Johnson answers questions from Chair Sean Connolly at the Economic Club of Chicago on Sept. 7, 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

    Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke about his policy goals just past the one-hundredth day of his term in office to business leaders at the Economic Club of Chicago Thursday night.

    Following prepared remarks, Johnson answered questions on issues affecting the city such as public safety, education and economic development. He also touched on what to expect from his first budget proposal, which is expected to be unveiled in several weeks.