On paper, Cook County circuit judges have great jobs. They make $258,000 a year, hold extraordinary power, and almost never get fired or even disciplined. But fewer and fewer attorneys are seeking the ...

Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday, Jan. 27 to include comments from Judge James Brown. Cook County Circuit Judge James R. Brown has been removed from the bench weeks after his ...

Update (Jan. 26): The Illinois Supreme Court removed Brown from the bench, saying his comments had violated the Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct. Two lawyers’ associations are calling on the Illinois ...

Zella Croff, 73, lost her house in south suburban Markham to tax foreclosure in 2023. Credit: Taylor Glascock for the Investigative Project This is a joint project of Injustice Watch and the ...

Illinois has strengthened its labor laws and improved efforts to collect stolen wages. But hundreds of cases linger in Cook County court, leaving workers waiting years to be fully compensated, an ...

Leonard Dixon, who ran the Cook County Temporary Detention Center since 2015, resigned Dec. 1. Credit: José Alejandro Córcoles for the Chicago Reporter The superintendent of the Cook County Juvenile ...

Surveillance video from inside the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center shows former guard Kevin Walker leaving a holding cell after he pushed a 15-year-old boy to the floor on Dec. 14, ...

For decades, allegations of child abuse and employee misconduct have swirled around Chicago’s juvenile detention center. But on Thursday, a Cook County judge will begin proceedings in a rare trial of ...

This story is a collaboration between Injustice Watch and Bolts, a nonprofit publication that covers criminal justice and voting rights in local governments. Renwick Wells and Mickey Mason say Chicago ...

Cook County Circuit Judge Ruth Gudino was reassigned from her post in a domestic violence courtroom in the Markham courthouse. Credit: Eric Allix Rogers, via Flickr (licensed under Creative Commons); ...

In the last two decades, the share of multifamily rental properties in Chicago owned by LLCs has increased fivefold, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of 26 million property records from WBEZ, ...

Cook County Circuit Judge Charles "Charlie" Beach at the Richard. J. Daley Center on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, after he was elected chief judge, defeating 8-term incumbent Timothy Evans. Credit: ...