The Latest Breaking News from Cook County

CHICAGO — Facing mounting criticism from Republicans over a rise in violent crime, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has proposed spending $20 million on a long-neglected witness protection program for people whose lives are put in danger by helping law enforcement.

Firefighters responded to a call of smoke in one cell of Division 9 Sunday at the jail in the 2600 block of South California Avenue, officials said.

CHICAGO — Thursday evening, his right fist raised in defiance, Jussie Smollett walked out of Judge James Linn’s courtroom and into a monthslong stretch of Cook County custody.

CHICAGO – Staunchly defending her office’s handing of the Jussie Smollett case, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in an exclusive interview with the Tribune late Thursday that the 150-day jail sentence handed down by a judge could be questioned as “revenge” against the actor rather than justice.

Sheriff Tom Dart — whose guards were accused of ‘negligence’ for unwittingly ushering two men in to a cell where a woman was being held — wanted better surveillance ‘immediately.’

Former Cook County Judge Dan Locallo said the state’s attorney’s column amounts to an “attempt to divert any discussion as to why her office acted in the manner that they did.”

CHICAGO — Shortly after being ordered into custody to begin serving 150 days in jail on Thursday, actor Jussie Smollett finally started to speak.

CHICAGO — At the conclusion of a three-year firestorm of allegations he faked a hate crime attack on himself, Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 30 months of probation Thursday for his conviction in the hoax — and he must spend the first 150 days of the sentence in Cook County…

CHICAGO — Actor Jussie Smollett deserves prison time for faking a shocking hate crime on himself in Chicago on a frigid January night in 2019, a special prosecutor argued at Smollett’s sentencing Thursday.

CHICAGO — For the first time since his media-firestorm trial and conviction last year, Jussie Smollett returned to Cook County court Thursday to learn his sentence for orchestrating a fake hate-crime attack that shocked the nation.

CHICAGO — For the first time since his media-firestorm trial and conviction last year, Jussie Smollett returned to Cook County court Thursday to learn his sentence for orchestrating a fake hate-crime attack that shocked the nation.