A three-day sentencing hearing began Wednesday for the mother of a 14-year-old boy who died in his father’s Richmond Township home after ingesting her fentanyl.

The Trump administration’s dismantling of AmeriCorps has shut down a free legal assistance program at the McLean County courthouse that helped self-represented litigants navigate a wide range of court cases. 

Earlier this spring, the U.S. Department of Education closed its regional Office for Civil Rights in Chicago. It investigated potential civil rights violations in schools across Illinois, as well other states in the Midwest.

The City of Chicago and actor Jussie Smollett have reached a settlement in the civil lawsuit over his 2019 false police report.

The attrition rate for associates in law firms was 20% in 2024, up from 18% in 2023 but still lower than the historic high of 26% in 2021, according to the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education.

President Donald Trump has directed the U.S. Justice Department to mobilize law firms to defend police officers unjustly accused of misconduct free of charge, marking the latest effort to steer the work of private lawyers to his administration's ends.

Andrew Boutros left the Northern District as an assistant U.S. attorney around 10 years ago. He is returning as the interim chief prosecutor during a tumultuous time in the Justice Department.

Police departments would not be able to make final offers of employment for probationary or law enforcement officers unless they review all past employment records, including background investigation materials, duty-related physical and psychological fitness-for-duty examinations, work performance records, arrests, convictions, and any records of criminal, civil, or administrative investigations of conduct.