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CHICAGO (WLS) -- City officials said a one-night snapshot of the number of people experiencing homeless in Chicago shows the unhoused population has tripled year over year. Officials say migrants have played a big role in the growing number as well. The snapshot released by the city shows nearly 19,000 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January, roughly three times the number reported in the same analysis in 2023, due in large part to the influx of migrants. "Since August of 2022, we have welcomed more than 43,000 asylum seekers who have crossed the southwest border and traveled...

Police traffic stops have become a hot topic lately, with critics claiming that Chicago police disproportionately stop Black and Brown drivers for minor infractions, intending to turn the traffic violation into a vehicle search that could turn up guns or drugs. Some say that the stops are fishing expeditions. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is one person in that camp. Last month, she announced that she is formulating a policy that could result in her office not pursuing gun and drug cases that result from “pretextual stops,” traffic stops conducted by police intending to look for evidence of other...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 45 people have been shot, eight fatally, in gun violence across Chicago so far this weekend, police said. An 18-year-old woman was sitting in a parked car when she was shot in the head, Chicago police said. Around the same time, a man, 29, was shot near downtown Portillo's in River North, police said. The shooting happened in an alley near Portillo's in the 600-block of North Clark Street around 3:14 a.m., police said. Last weekend, at least 19 people were shot, two fatally, in gun violence across Chicago, police said.

More than 18,800 Chicagoans experienced homelessness on a single night in January — a threefold increase over last year that was largely driven by 13,900 asylum-seekers who had no permanent place to stay. The estimates released Friday come from the city’s annual snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. This year’s point-in-time count was conducted on Jan. 25 — shortly after the city saw its peak of the number of migrants it sheltered. During the count, 13,679 asylum-seekers were living in shelters, with 212 unsheltered. Outside of the population of asylum-seekers, the number of people...

Chicago police and other city officials have been saying for months that the Democratic National Convention in August will not be anything like the riots of 1968. “This will not be 1968,” said Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling. “Our response as a Chicago Police Department will be a lot more deliberate … a lot more controlled because our officers are being trained in the best way possible to respond to any level of civil unrest.” Snelling is not wrong. Chicago in 1968 was a seething mass of anger, rage, and unrest. Riots in April following the death of Martin Luther...

CHICAGO -- At least 31 people have been shot, three fatally, in gun violence across Chicago so far this weekend, police said. On Friday night, two teens and a 12-year-old boy were wounded in a pair of shootings in Douglas. The first shooting happened about 9:20 p.m. in the 500 block of East 31st Street. Someone in a silver sedan opened fire, striking the 12-year-old walking with a group of people and a 15-year-old girl sitting in a car, Chicago police said. A 16-year-old boy was shot less than an hour later and about a half-mile away. He was standing...

Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he was concerned about a presidential debate because former President Donald Trump “lies and lies and lies.” Pritzker said, “Let’s let the courts have their say about Donald Trump’s crimes and I don’t think that Joe Biden needs to be talking about that when he can remind people about what’s at stake for their future when they go into the ballot box at in November.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Senate's minority leader proposed legislation Tuesday to overhaul Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Prisoner Review Board after it released a convicted domestic abuser who then attacked a pregnant Chicago woman with a knife and fatally stabbed her 11-year-old son. Republican Leader John Curran criticized Pritzker and said he plans legislation to require that board appointees have 20 years of criminal justice experience as a prosecutor, defense attorney, probation officer or judge, and that each member undergo annual training on domestic violence and sexual assault and the warning signs that precede repeat attacks. Other proposed measures would...

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) is “proud” of abortionists who end the lives of unborn babies, he said in a video created by the national nonprofit he launched last year to promote abortion across the United States. “Today is Abortion Providers Appreciation Day. Thank you to the doctors, nurses, clinic staff and volunteers who help those in need, treating their patients with dignity and compassion,” he said in the Think Big America video posted to X on Sunday. “You’re on the front lines of this fight, and your sacrifices and your work make me proud.” The Illinois governor also touted...

Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) said Monday on MSNBC’s Iowa caucus coverage that the “weakness” of former President Donald Trump was shown in his 30-plus point win. Pritzker said, “Almost half of the base of the Republican Party showing up for this caucus tonight voted against Donald Trump. Think about that. I mean, this is the most famous Republican. He’s the guy who, you know, basically built the modern Republican Party, the MAGA Republican Party that the Democrats are running against. Half of the people in that party did not vote for Donald Trump.” He continued, “I think that is telling....

During CBS’s Iowa caucus coverage on Monday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) stated that the surge in Venezuelan migrants is the fault of 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump because he “created the chaos that’s happened in Venezuela that’s caused so many people to leave that country and seek asylum in the United States.” And that while immigration will be “an important issue to people,” “what people really care about is their own well-being, their family’s well-being,” and economic issues are “things that really matter to people in their personal lives.” Pritzker said, “Well, I think it’ll be...

Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) claimed Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that Republicans were trying to take away Americans’ freedoms. Pritzker said, “Independents understand that, as Democrats do, that it’s the Republicans that are trying to take your freedoms away. It’s the Republicans that are trying to take away your Social Security and your Medicare. It’s the Republicans that are basically fighting against the working families of America.”

“If you’re a successful governor with $2 billion, where do you go next? The White House,” outlines Pritzker’s fantasy ascendance to the Oval Office, perhaps in 2024 due to the incumbent’s mental and physical decline, or four years later in 2028. Pritzker desperately wants to be a bigger player than he is, and ambitious politicos swaddled in luxury from birth prefer to start at the top. Pritzker’s dark-money organization — Think Big America — is buying him political goodwill all over the country. Are citizens in states across the country hungry for Pritzker’s reforms like the SAFE-T Act, which releases...

Now law is the $750 million in tax increases to fund Illinois’ largest spending plan in state history. But so is a measure increasing the state’s debt by $8 billion while giving schools more taxing authority. Pritzker signed the $53.1 billion budget Wednesday. Friday, he signed the tax measure that includes capping the credit businesses can get for claiming net operating losses and capping the discount retailers get for collecting and remitting sales taxes. Hours later, Pritzker defended another tax increase, the tiered tax on sports betting companies. “In fact, if you look at what we did, really our focus...

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) is pushing to implement a curfew on unaccompanied minors downtown following an attack last week on a couple by a group of teenagers. The couple were on a date Friday night when they were surrounded by a group of teens who began beating them about 9 p.m. near Grand Avenue and McClurg Court in Streeterville, Chicago police said. Police say the man, 40, was hit several times in the head by a 14-year-old boy, and the woman had her hair pulled out by a 17-year-old girl. ...

A Springfield judge on Wednesday ruled unconstitutional a new law that would have prevented Republicans from slating candidates for the November general election in contests where they had not fielded a contender in the March primary.

A group of teens forced a woman to miscarry with a brutal attack after she and her husband dared to stray onto a Chicago street that the youths claimed as their own. The 41-year-old mother was returning home with her husband from a date night on Friday when they were surrounded by at least 10 young people in the city's notorious Streeterville neighborhood. The woman, who gave her name only as Nina, told Fox32 that she was pepper-sprayed in the face, kicked in the stomach and lost a clump of hair as her husband was held back by the mob....

A would-be thief fired shots at a priest Monday morning after he caught two men trying to steal a catalytic converter outside St. Ignatius College Prep.

Way before 5 a.m. people eager to cast a vote for the Mexican presidential election began to form a line outside the Mexican Consulate in Chicago. By noon, thousands of people took over South Ashland Avenue, forcing police to close off streets and set up barricades to control the lines. For the first time, Mexican nationals could cast a vote in person at consular offices around the world, in a historic election where the country is set to elect its first woman president. Voters will decide whether Claudia Sheinbaum, aligned with the left-wing party Morena, or Xóchitl Gálvez, with the...

Students who sued the University of Chicago for tuition refunds due to COVID-19 closures have reached a nearly $5 million settlement agreement with the school. The private Illinois university finalized the class-action lawsuit settlement with the students last week, agreeing to pay $4.95 million, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Students affected by the university’s 2020 decision to switch to online classes due to COVID-19 could receive $25 or more from the settlement, the report states.