This story was produced by The VP Chicago, an independent, community-centered newsroom covering Chicago’s South Side and South suburbs. What does the school board actually do? The Chicago Board of Education oversees a school district serving more than 300,000 students. Board members vote on the CPS budget and capital improvement plan, district policies, major contracts and […]

The post Get ready to vote: Your guide to the school board election on the South and Far South Side appeared first on The Chicago Reporter.

This story was produced by The VP Chicago, an independent, community-centered newsroom covering Chicago’s South Side and South suburbs. Subdistricts 9A and 10A, covering neighborhoods from Auburn Gresham and Englewood to Woodlawn and South Shore, are uncontested this fall, but the board still controls what happens to South Side schools Subdistricts 9A and 10A, covering […]

The post For some South Side voters, Chicago’s first full school board election isn’t much of a choice appeared first on The Chicago Reporter.

This reporting was made possible through the ARCC/Public Narrative Health Science Reporting Fellowship and the Chicago Community, Media & Research Partnership  People in Illinois prisons can identify what they need, request accommodations, and still wait months or years to receive them—if they receive them at all. A man walks down a hallway in an Illinois […]

The post Years after promising accommodations, Illinois prisons still leave people waiting appeared first on The Chicago Reporter.

It is before 8 a.m. and already a continuous stream of trucks filters into Sims Metal Management at 2500 S Paulina Street in Pilsen. They carry dilapidated cars, discarded appliances and scrap to Chicago’s largest metal recycler. On this morning, June 3, the racket of trucks and heavy machinery is met with a rallying cry […]

The post ‘Sims must go:’ as Pilsen residents protest metal shredder with a history of pollution, will Chicago break patterns of environmental injustice? appeared first on The Chicago Reporter.

When someone is arrested, it can come down to their word against an officer’s in court. But what happens when the officer’s own conduct is in question, or when they’re under investigation themself?  Experts told TCR that Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, who took office in 2024, has weakened policies in place to […]

The post When Chicago police officers can’t be trusted on the witness stand appeared first on The Chicago Reporter.