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Hope. Perseverance. Support. Luck. Kiwand Brown is going to need all of those.
Kiwand Brown doesn’t have a brother. But while he was locked up in the Cook County Jail for one of the dumbest things he’s ever done, he met a man who one day would be like one to him. That day,...
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Food-truck gun deal leads to Chicago drug case and witness threats, feds say
Sandwiches weren’t the only things being sold out of Chicago’s Finest Deli on Wheels, the feds say. In 2015, an undercover federal agent bought 24 stolen guns stashed in the food truck, according to...
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Black Lives Matter marchers blast Van Dyke sentence
Hundreds of hardy protesters marched on a chilly Monday afternoon on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to protest the 81-month sentence that former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke got last week for...
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Downstate auctioneer sues to recover unique deathbed photo of Abe Lincoln
It’s the case of the missing Lincoln death photo. The strange case involves a Downstate auctioneer, his ex-wife, a dentist, a distant relative of Lincoln — and even former Illinois Gov. James “Big Jim”...
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City to pay $168,500 over claims cops stole $3,000, forced man to soil himself
The city has agreed to pay out a total of $168,500 in two lawsuits accusing Chicago Police officers of stealing $3,000 from one man and forcing another man to sit in his own excrement, a city official...
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Ald. Edward Burke built ‘special police’ force after Rahm cut bodyguard detail
After he was elected in 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, facing budget problems and a shortage of officers on the streets, said he’d cut the bodyguard detail for Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), paring it from...
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CPD fears revenge killings after assassination of Black Disciples gang leader
He doesn’t have a household name like Larry Hoover, Jeff Fort or other infamous leaders of Chicago gangs. Lawrence “Big Law” Loggins kept a low profile — no mentions in the newspaper and no arrests...
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2 top cartel lieutenants still face a reckoning in Chicago in El Chapo case
Now that Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been convicted of involvement in murders, high-level bribery and billions of dollars of drug dealing, two of his top Sinaloa cartel...
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Police probe if attack on Smollett was staged, question actor linked to ‘Empire’
Chicago police are investigating the possibility that the reported attack on “Empire” star Jussie Smollett was staged as they question two people including an actor connected with the show, a law...
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Dart says task forces should seize illegal guns from people like Aurora shooter
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Friday proposed raising the fee for state firearm licenses to fund county task forces that would seize guns from people with revoked gun cards. Dart said the current...
View ArticleR. Kelly fan posted singer’s $100K bond after meeting him on cruise, friend says
A close friend of R. Kelly said Tuesday the woman who posted bond for the singer met him on a cruise five months ago. Don Russell, a Kelly friend and adviser, said that within a few months of meeting...
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Chicago police keep watch for retaliation after suspected hit on gang leader
They came to mourn a high-ranking member of the Black Disciples street gang, but four men who attended the funeral of Lawrence “Big Law” Loggins wound up in jail on gun charges. The men were arrested...
View ArticleProbation for Chicago chef who tried to land endangered dragon fish for aquarium
A Chicago chef has been sentenced to probation for trying to buy 24 coveted dragon fish for his home aquarium and for a friend in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. Sittipat “Ong”...
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Cartel lieutenant facing trial in Chicago greeted ‘El Chapo’ after escape: feds
A reputed Sinaloa drug cartel lieutenant who’s facing trial next month in a 9-year-old Chicago case was in the greeting party the first time Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera escaped...
View ArticleFederal complaint implicates Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg in strip club shakedown
Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg spent years shaking down a strip-club owner for thousands of dollars a month and allowed prostitution to occur in the club in exchange, according to a new federal criminal...
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Lifer gets new murder trial after appeals court issues scathing ruling
In the summertime, James Gibson has trimmed the trees on the sprawling prison complex at Stateville Correctional Center. In the winter, he’s driven a snowplow. But last week, the 53-year-old man...
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Chaos in Preckwinkle’s Hyde Park condo: neighbors say she ignored their concerns
Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle owns a Hyde Park condominium where Chicago police have repeatedly responded to domestic-disturbance calls involving her 37-year-old son — and some residents say she...
View ArticleHow CPD protected key players in Smollett case — including the actor himself
The brothers whose interrogations led to charges that “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett staged a phony racist and homophobic attack were given special treatment to avoid the media during their grand-jury...
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A wedding, a wake and warrants: FBI grilled judge with ties to indicted CPD cop
Cook County Judge Mauricio Araujo attended the wake for the mother of Chicago cop David Salgado. Araujo dropped by Salgado’s bachelor party — in South America. And Araujo was invited to his wedding....
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Reputed El Chapo lieutenant doesn’t want kingpin’s name uttered during his trial
Jesus Raul Beltran Leon is related to Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, through marriage, according to federal prosecutors in Chicago. And he was a top lieutenant in...
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New tech center helping cops process videos, solve crimes faster, police say
A new technology center in a South Side police station will allow detectives to quickly process videos from private surveillance cameras — along with information from seized cell phones — for evidence...
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CPD to probe whether serial killer at work in 51 unsolved murders of women
Facing pressure from activists over the unsolved killings of 51 women since 2001, the Chicago Police Department has begun to review those cases to determine if a serial killer was at work. A report by...
View ArticleLightfoot’s chief of staff no stranger to politics or controversy
Of all the jobs Lori Lightfoot must fill, one has the greatest potential to make or break her day-to-day performance as Chicago’s 56th mayor. It’s chief of staff, a $195,000-a-year, pressure-cooker of...
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Felon on electronic monitoring jumped from high-rise to escape murder arrest
Derrick Swanson escaped through a window when officers tried to arrest him on a murder warrant Thursday. But his freedom lasted only a few seconds. Swanson — who was wearing an electronic monitoring...
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Chicago street gang members give ‘peace circles’ a chance to prevent shootings
‘Lil Neil had survived two shootings. But he was about to get shot again. The 32-year-old West Humboldt Park man burglarized an apartment in another part of the West Side, known as K-Town. He stole...
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