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 […]

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Once heralded by Gov. JB Pritzker as an economic engine that would bring jobs and investment to Chicago’s Southeast Side, the proposed Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) is facing growing opposition from residents.  Community groups have mobilized against the 440-acre technology park—planned for the U.S. Steel South Works site—citing concerns over green space, pollution, […]

The post Southeast Side residents demand investment over quantum campus appeared first on The Chicago Reporter.

This story was co-published with the Chicago Reader. Gary Sams could hardly breathe. He had begun experiencing early symptoms of rapidly progressing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive and fatal neurological disease, in April 2024. By June 2025, ALS had robbed him of his ability to walk or use his hands. Now it was suffocating […]

The post Gasping for air appeared first on The Chicago Reporter.

Illinois could become the first state in the nation to restore voting rights that were stripped from people serving prison sentences.  Under proposed legislation backed by a coalition of voting rights and legal justice reform advocates, Illinois would join only Maine, Vermont, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.— where the voting rights of incarcerated people have […]

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