The BGA's Illinois Answers Project

The BGA's Illinois Answers Project The BGA's Illinois Answers Project is the state's desitnation for nonpartisan investigations and solutions journalism newsroom.

https://linktr.ee/illinoisanswers

05/13/2026

The goal of these courts is to help people with severe mental illness get treatment instead of going to jail or prison. Critics say it's a band-aid on the underlying mental health crisis and mentally ill people should be able to access treatment without being arrested first. What do you think?

Residents in a historic-looking brick building on Chicago’s 61st Street were given bad news this March. Their landlord i...
05/11/2026

Residents in a historic-looking brick building on Chicago’s 61st Street were given bad news this March. Their landlord is renovating the building and will not renew their leases. They have until July to move out.

The new landlord bought the building last summer. Tenants knew nothing about the deal until after it was done. This was a violation of the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance, passed in 2020, which stipulated that tenants had to be notified and given the first opportunity to buy the property before it was put on the market.

We looked at dozens of buildings in Woodlawn where tenants should have been notified about their landlord's sale. None were. It’s one example of how the city’s anti-displacement plan failed to deliver on its promise.

Now, many residents are scrambling to find affordable, comparable apartments in the neighborhood. Twanda Barlow says she’s done trying. With rents rising but public amenities staying the same, she says staying in Woodlawn just isn’t worth it.

🏠 💵 Cook County Property Tax Delays — Here's what is still delayed: ❌ 2900 second installment bills due to go out in Nov...
05/01/2026

🏠 💵 Cook County Property Tax Delays — Here's what is still delayed:

❌ 2900 second installment bills due to go out in Nov. 2025
❌ 4,663 first installment bills due to go out this Spring
❌ 91,000 refunds backlogged, totaling in $200 million due back to taxpayers

Cook County Treasurer's Office blames the county's technology vendor.

What do you think? Is this a failure of government, a vendor or both?

Our Alex Nitkin has been working with the Chicago Tribune to uncover what's going on with property taxes in .

Tune in to In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons on WBEZ this morning, where he will discuss his investigation and other important Chicago news.

We're 1 week away! 🎉 Join us for ✨ Beyond the Byline✨ on May 7, which includes our powerful storytelling panel, "Voices...
04/30/2026

We're 1 week away! 🎉 Join us for ✨ Beyond the Byline✨ on May 7, which includes our powerful storytelling panel, "Voices Behind the Byline," during which we will take you inside the reporting process and you'll meet some of the people whose lived experiences shaped our reporting.
🎟️ Secure your tickets now—don’t miss it: https://bit.ly/4triTgP

For a second year in a row, the Cook County Treasurer's Office is late sending out thousands of property tax bills and r...
04/29/2026

For a second year in a row, the Cook County Treasurer's Office is late sending out thousands of property tax bills and refunds and Maria Pappas, the Cook County Treasurer, is blaming technology vendor, Tyler Technologies.

The vendor is tied to a software issue that’s caused a backlog of thousands of unsent property tax bills and $200 million in refunds – delays that could mean big back-to-back bills for taxpayers and slowed funding for local schools and libraries.

Pappas said they were “the best we can with a bad vendor,” and lambasted the company’s lack of urgency in fixing dozens of issues as "technical incompetence and insanity.”

She doesn’t deny speaking harshly with employees of the company, and as a result, Pappas says she has now been barred from contacting the company directly.

What do you think: vendor failure, government mismanagement, or both?

📣 📣 Did you get your tickets yet? Spots are filling up fast for "Beyond the Byline" next Thursday! Here's what you can e...
04/28/2026

📣 📣 Did you get your tickets yet? Spots are filling up fast for "Beyond the Byline" next Thursday! Here's what you can expect from our celebration of investigative journalism 🕵🏾:

✅ 22nd Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Investigative Reporting 🗞️
✅ Meet the real people impacted by our journalism and hear their stories
✅ A conversation with ✨ Errin Haines, editor-at-large of The 19th News✨
✅ Happy Hour 🥂 and a closing reception

Get your tickets for a $50 donation here: https://bit.ly/4triTgP

04/27/2026

The goal of these courts is to help people with severe mental illness get treatment instead of going to jail or prison. Critics say it's a band-aid on the underlying mental health crisis and mentally ill people should be able to access treatment without being arrested first. What do you think?

There are 31 mental health courts in Illinois. Their goal is to help people suffering from mental illness break cycles o...
04/27/2026

There are 31 mental health courts in Illinois. Their goal is to help people suffering from mental illness break cycles of incarceration that they sometimes face. We wanted to find out if and how well they work, and why critics say they’re a band-aid that doesn’t resolve the underlying mental health crisis. Our and worked with of to hit up all the courts in the state. You can read their investigation and find out what’s going on in your state, through the link in our bio.

There are 31 mental health courts in Illinois. Their goal is to help people battling mental illness break the cycles of ...
04/27/2026

There are 31 mental health courts in Illinois. Their goal is to help people battling mental illness break the cycles of incarceration that they sometimes end up in. We wanted to know if and how well they work and why critics say it's just a band-aid that doesn't solve the underlying crisis. Reported by our Grace Hauck and Andrew Adams with Josh McGhee of MindSite News.

04/24/2026

MEET THE FINALISTS: South Side Weekly's Alma Campos and Max Blaisdell are finalists for the 22nd Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for their work "Fraudsters Target Immigrants Seeking Legal Help." Winners will be announced on May 7, 2026, at our Beyond The Byline event.

04/18/2026

GRAPHIC WARNING: Here's a side-by-side view of the newly released body camera footage of the moments leading up to and after Chicago police officer Krystal Rivera was shot by her partner, Officer Carlos Baker.

The footage released Friday shows that Baker ran up a stairwell after his gun went off when they encountered an armed man, leaving Rivera bleeding for nearly 90 seconds from a gunshot he initially said had been fired by someone else. He later told an investigator he would have risked his life to help Rivera, saying, “I will die for her.”

The Illinois Answers Project, in partnership with Chicago Sun-Times, has covered this case extensively. Our coverage has raised questions about how Baker was assigned to the tactical team with Rivera, given his troubled work record, which includes accidentally firing his Taser during another pursuit.

Read our reporting: https://bit.ly/4tTljEI

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