Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Practitioners sometimes use the terms "watchdog reporting" or "accountability reporting".
Christopher George Kennedy is an American businessman, politician, and Chair of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc. He is a son of former U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a member of the Kennedy family. Kennedy served as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois from 2009 to 2015. Until April 2012, he was also president of Merchandise Mart Properties, a commercial property management firm based in Chicago.
Lisa Murray Madigan is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as Attorney General of the U.S. state of Illinois from 2003 to 2019, being the first woman to hold that position. She is the adopted daughter of indicted politician Michael Madigan, who served as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2021.
Bank of America Home Loans is the mortgage unit of Bank of America. In 2008, Bank of America purchased the failing Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion. In 2006, Countrywide financed 20% of all mortgages in the United States, at a value of about 3.5% of the United States GDP, a proportion greater than any other single mortgage lender.
Michael Joseph Madigan is an American politician who is the former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. He was the longest-serving leader of any state or federal legislative body in the history of the United States, having held the position for all but two years from 1983 to 2021. He served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021. He represented the 27th District from 1971 to 1983, the 30th district from 1983 to 1993, and the 22nd district from 1993 to 2021. This made him the body's longest-serving member and the last legislator elected before the Cutback Amendment.
Pigasus, also known as Pigasus the Immortal and Pigasus J. Pig, was a 145-pound (66 kg) domestic pig that was nominated for President of the United States as a theatrical gesture by the Youth International Party on August 23, 1968, just before the opening of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The youth-oriented party was an anti-establishment and countercultural revolutionary group whose views were inspired by the free speech and anti-war movements of the 1960s, mainly the opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
Joseph E. Birkett is an appellate court judge on the Illinois Appellate Court – Second District. He was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in December 2010, and was subsequently elected to a full term in November 2012. His current term runs through December 2022. Prior to being elevated to the bench, Justice Birkett was the State's Attorney of DuPage County, an office he had held since 1996.
Kwame Raoul is an American lawyer and politician who has been the 42nd Attorney General of Illinois since 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Mortgage discrimination or mortgage lending discrimination is the practice of banks, governments or other lending institutions denying loans to one or more groups of people primarily on the basis of race, ethnic origin, sex or religion.
Riots often occur in reaction to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. Riots may be the outcome of a sporting event, although many riots have occurred due to poor working or living conditions, government oppression, conflicts between races or religions.
In December 2008, then-Democratic Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris were charged with corruption by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. As a result, Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly and removed from office by the Illinois Senate in January 2009. The federal investigation continued after his removal from office, and he was indicted on corruption charges in April of that year. The jury found Blagojevich guilty of one charge of making false statements with a mistrial being declared on the other 23 counts due to a hung jury after 14 days of jury deliberation. On June 27, 2011, after a retrial, Blagojevich was found guilty of 17 charges, not guilty on one charge and the jury deadlocked after 10 days of deliberation on the two remaining charges. On December 7, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Water contamination in Crestwood, Illinois, a village in Cook County, was discovered in April 2009 by the Chicago Tribune, which reported that the city had been using a well which was contaminated with toxic chemicals as the village's drinking water for 40 years.
Michael Hudson is a Pulitzer-Prize winning American investigative journalist. He is currently on his second stint as a senior editor with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The 2014 Illinois gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, concurrently with the election to Illinois's Class II U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Scott Drury is a former Illinois state representative for the 58th district and a Democratic candidate for Attorney General. The 58th district includes all or parts of Bannockburn, Deerfield, Glencoe, Highwood, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, Northbrook and North Chicago.
The Better Government Association (BGA) is a Chicago-based investigative journalism non-profit organization.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Illinois on November 4, 2014. All of Illinois' executive officers were up for election as well as a United States Senate seat, and all of Illinois' eighteen seats in the United States House of Representatives. Primary elections were held on March 18, 2014.
The Illinois Police Reserves was a nonprofit auxiliary police agency headquartered in Chicago, Illinois providing policing services to suburban Chicago.
The murder of Laquan McDonald took place on October 20, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois. McDonald was a 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a Chicago Police Officer, Jason Van Dyke. Police had initially reported that McDonald was behaving erratically while walking down the street, refusing to put down a knife, and that he had lunged at officers. Preliminary internal police reports described the incident similarly, leading to the shooting being judged as justifiable, and Van Dyke not being charged at the time. This was later disproved after a video of the encounter was released, showing that McDonald was walking away.
The 2018 Illinois Attorney General election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the Attorney General of Illinois. Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who had served since 2003, did not seek re-election to a fifth term. Democrat Kwame Raoul won the election with 55 percent of the vote, while Republican Erika Harold took 43 percent of the vote.
