Criminal legal system
How the Illinois Department of Corrections fails to protect transgender prisoners
Incarcerated people and advocates say IDOC staff often fail to listen to transgender prisoners and are disconnected from their needs.
Recapping the Illinois General Assembly’s spring legislative session
A weekly column from the Chicago Reader covering the top stories on our radar and how they impact our communities.
‘If the culture doesn’t change, it’s going to remain the same’
Why are we building prisons—and for whom?
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CTA
The CTA’s missing riders
After a steep drop in ridership, passengers are slowly returning to the CTA. But some Chicagoans have put down their Ventra cards for new ways to travel the city.
CTA failures, Bears stadium, Mayor’s Youth Commission
A weekly column from the Chicago Reader covering the top stories on our radar and how they impact our communities.
City Council talks transit accountability
CTA President Dorval Carter defended his record in front of a City Council committee.
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HOUSING
Kim Foxx’s DNC preparations, Uptown SRO hotel, guaranteed income
A weekly column from the Chicago Reader covering the top stories on our radar and how they impact our communities.
Out with the old, in with the new
How a $1.25 billion bond proposal could slowly, but undoubtedly, alter Chicago’s housing landscape forever
‘They’re cleaning to get rid of us’
Seven days before Christmas and in below-freezing weather, 30 unhoused Chicagoans are forced to leave their tents.
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Police
The fight to protest the DNC
Chicago officials are fighting efforts to protest Israel’s genocide at this summer’s DNC. Demonstrators say they’ll turn out no matter what.
Shelter evictions, City Council spat, mobile DMV
A weekly column from the Chicago Reader covering the top stories on our radar and how they impact our communities.
Downtown curfew, DNC security, police surveillance lawsuit
A weekly column from the Chicago Reader covering the top stories on our radar and how they impact our communities.
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labor
Outfucked
The abrupt closure of Outfox, parent company of Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen, put thousands of workers out of a job with hours’ notice.
Bosses beware
Chicago’s service and cultural workers are unionizing like never before.
Campus protests, sexual abuse in youth prisons, May Day for Palestine
A weekly column from the Chicago Reader covering the top stories on our radar and how they impact our communities.
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FROM THE ARCHIVE
‘House of Screams’ revisited
The reporting is an icon of the paper’s journalism, but John Conroy wonders what it actually accomplished.
Chicago police are spying on citizens
Authorities have conducted surveillance on activists in recent years but won’t say why.
FAIL: The Reader’s Parking Meter Investigation
Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke’s report on the privatization of Chicago’s parking meters, how the deal went down, and its fallout