Transforming Chicago’s most famous public housing complex will cost taxpayers $2 billion. It also came with often-unkept promises of jobs, city contracts and homes for those forced from the neighborhood.
Follow-Up
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Cabrini-Green Residents Were Promised 2,500 Construction Jobs. They Got 40
To quell a rising controversy 25 years ago that threatened to derail his grand plan to raze the public housing complex, Mayor Richard M. Daley made promises to the residents he was kicking out — including jobs.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
The Costly Toll of Dead-End Drug Arrests
In Chicago, thousands of drug possession arrests are tossed out every year because of an unwritten rule in the courts, a Better Government Association/Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found. The cost to taxpayers? Millions. To those arrested? Jobs, housing, freedom.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
Oregon Is First State to Ticket Narcotics Users, but New Reform Has Yet To Live Up To Promise
In Illinois, possession of even trace amounts of heroin residue is a felony. But in Oregon, it’s not a crime at all any more. Instead, people caught with drugs get a ticket. Oregon’s new drug reform is keeping users out of jail — but the goal of getting them help for their addictions has been elusive.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
Kim Foxx’s Ex-Trainer Caught Up in ‘Unending Cycle’ of Drug Arrests
Drug issue hits every corner of Cook County. ‘It breaks my heart,’ the state’s attorney says.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
Dead-End Drug Arrests: How We Reported This Story
The BGA and Chicago Sun-Times analyzed 280,000 total drug possession arrests made in Cook County over nearly two decades. The data used was provided by The Circuit, the collaborative journalistic enterprise led by the BGA and Injustice Watch.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Joliet Residents Protest Plan To Hike Water Rates
Mayor Bob O’Dekirk’s proposal to build a billion-dollar pipeline to access Lake Michigan water from Chicago rankles some Joliet activists who say the costs should fall harder on major companies that use the most water.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Insurance Firms Reap Billions in Profits While Doctors Get Stiffed for Serving the Poor
Milking Medicaid: State-contracted insurance firms balk at paying frontline medical providers, threatening the viability of leading hospitals and clinics, and imperiling Illinois’ entire Medicaid program.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Illinois’ $16 Billion Health Program Is Riddled with Industry Ties and Potential Conflicts of Interest
Milking Medicaid: The state health care agency has a revolving door for executives from the insurance industry.
Posted inFollow-Up, What the Gov
What Are Your Stories About the Cabrini-Green Community?
The Better Government Association is examining the impact of the city’s decision more than 20 years ago to demolish the Cabrini-Green public housing development and build a new community, and we need your help.