Author: staff

Chicago is one step closer to a potential big revenue boost and achieving a goal that has eluded local mayors for decades: its first casino.Still, the project will have to clear major hurdles as Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration sorts through the proposals — which have been whittled down from five to three — and picks a winner.The three remaining bids advanced by the city may represent the path of least resistance for a Chicago casino. But none has landed without some objections or concerns, which the city may have to confront before it narrows the group down to a single favored plan, which officials said will be by early summer. It would still need to win state approval.A Chicago casino study in summer 2019 pointed to the merits of a downtown location close to hotels and other attractions, instead of in outlying neighborhoods that out-of-towners with money to spend might deem unsafe. But the same study also argued that the project could fail to attract developers because the original tax structure lawmakers approved was “very onerous” and would have left razor-thin profit margins for the potential owner.Lightfoot plans to select the operator and location of a Chicago casino in “early 2022,” officials said.Here’s what you need to know about the whole process, from the bids to their locations.Proposed $1.6 billion Bally’s Chicago casino, hotel and entertainment complex at the site of the Chicago Tribune Publishing Center, located on the corner of Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street. It is one of three bids remaining after the city rejected two proposals involving McCormick Place. (Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB))The rejected proposals for what is expected to be Illinois’ largest gambling establishment include a $1.3 billion Rivers Chicago McCormick bid to redevelop Lakeside Center, which developers touted as an opportunity to repurpose and renovate the 50-year-old steel-and-glass exhibition hall. McCormick Place said it has 235 events scheduled there that could not be rescheduled without a replacement.The city also turned down Bally’s proposal for a $1.6 billion casino at the McCormick Place Truck Marshaling Yards, a 28-acre freight staging area at 31st Street and Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The proposed site not only faced opposition from nearby Bronzeville residents, but was also committed to another developer by McCormick Place until 2023. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementAld. Tom Tunney, 44th, speaks during a community engagement meeting about a proposed casino by Bally’s Corporation on April 6, 2022. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)The city, which is banking on a casino to generate $200 million in annual tax revenue to plug its public pension funding holes, plans to submit its choice to the Illinois Gaming Board for approval in time to include upfront payments from the winning bidder in the 2023 fiscal budget this fall, said Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, chairman of the the Special Committee on the Chicago Casino.“We would like to be able to, hopefully, within the next month, get narrowed down to one and then obviously go through this process with the nominee,” Tunney said April 25. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementRendering of Rivers Casino at The 78, a 62-acre South Loop mixed-use development site where Rush Street Gaming and developer Related Midwest have partnered to build a proposed Chicago casino. (Related Midwest)If Rivers 78 gets the nod as the Chicago casino, developers plan to launch the temporary facility in an old-school vessel: a renovated riverboat docked at the South Loop site along the Chicago River.The riverboat, which holds about 1,000 gaming positions, could be up and running within six months of approval, providing a temporary “mini-Rivers” casino on the river while the permanent facility is built, Tim Drehkoff, the new CEO of Rush Street Gaming, said during a community engagement meeting April 7. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementChicago Tribune Freedom Center along Chicago Avenue between the Chicago River and Halsted Street on March 22, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)Bally’s plans to use a former Tribune Publishing warehouse once earmarked for a residential and office development as its temporary casino while Freedom Center is demolished and the permanent facility is built.That was perhaps the biggest takeaway as Bally’s met with hundreds of skeptical River West neighbors inside the vacant 120,000-square-foot building April 6 to pitch a proposed $1.74 billion casino, hotel and entertainment complex that would supplant the nearby Freedom Center printing plant, if approved as the Chicago casino. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementInformation packets are left on chairs for attendees during a community engagement meeting about a proposed casino by Bally’s Corporation at the site of the Chicago Tribune printing plant on April 6, 2022. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)“Big changes can be made,” said Curt Bailey, president of Related Midwest, the developer behind the proposed Rivers 78 casino in the South Loop. “We want to be great neighbors and want the neighbors to want to be around us.”The effort to win over neighbors and the mayor’s office before the city’s anticipated early summer decision to forward a proposal to the Illinois Gaming Board for final approval has already led to some changes. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementRendering for the proposed Rivers Chicago McCormick, a partnership between Rush Street Gaming and Farpoint Development that would redevelop the mostly vacant Lakeside Center — formerly the East Building — at McCormick Place, as a casino. (RM Design Studio / HANDOUT)As Chicago nears a decision on a winning casino bid, there is a lot at stake for the city, which could boost its financial fortunes and help plug its public pension funding holes with upward of $150 million in annual casino tax revenue, according to projections.But with three of the five proposals planning to use the McCormick Place campus, there may be a wild card in the works. McCormick Place has yet to strike a deal with the city or the developers, and is something less than all in on repurposing any of its convention center facilities as a casino. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementView looking north from approximately 18th Street, west of Lake Shore Drive to illustrate plans for a 34-acre development near Soldier Field, mostly on platforms built over Metra tracks on March 13, 2019. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)City officials are sifting through the bids, including one from Hard Rock International that would set the gambling emporium in a massive mixed-use project, One Central, which developers hope to build over train tracks west of Soldier Field. City Hall staff members are tasked with recommending to the mayor which casino plan she should present to aldermen for approval. > > > Read more here

Chicago is one step closer to a potential big revenue boost and achieving a goal that has eluded local mayors for decades: its first casino.Still, the project will have to clear major hurdles as Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration sorts through the proposals — which have been whittled down from five to three — and picks a winner.The three remaining bids advanced by the city may represent the path of least resistance for a Chicago casino. But none has landed without some objections or concerns, which the city may have to confront before it narrows the group down to a single favored plan, which officials said will be by early summer. It would still need to win state approval.A Chicago casino study in summer 2019 pointed to the merits of a downtown location close to hotels and other attractions, instead of in outlying neighborhoods that out-of-towners with money to spend might deem unsafe. But the same study also argued that the project could fail to attract developers because the original tax structure lawmakers approved was “very onerous” and would have left razor-thin profit margins for the potential owner.Lightfoot plans to select the operator and location of a Chicago casino in “early 2022,” officials said.Here’s what you need to know about the whole process, from the bids to their locations.Proposed $1.6 billion Bally’s Chicago casino, hotel and entertainment complex at the site of the Chicago Tribune Publishing Center, located on the corner of Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street. It is one of three bids remaining after the city rejected two proposals involving McCormick Place. (Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB))The rejected proposals for what is expected to be Illinois’ largest gambling establishment include a $1.3 billion Rivers Chicago McCormick bid to redevelop Lakeside Center, which developers touted as an opportunity to repurpose and renovate the 50-year-old steel-and-glass exhibition hall. McCormick Place said it has 235 events scheduled there that could not be rescheduled without a replacement.The city also turned down Bally’s proposal for a $1.6 billion casino at the McCormick Place Truck Marshaling Yards, a 28-acre freight staging area at 31st Street and Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The proposed site not only faced opposition from nearby Bronzeville residents, but was also committed to another developer by McCormick Place until 2023. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementAld. Tom Tunney, 44th, speaks during a community engagement meeting about a proposed casino by Bally’s Corporation on April 6, 2022. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)The city, which is banking on a casino to generate $200 million in annual tax revenue to plug its public pension funding holes, plans to submit its choice to the Illinois Gaming Board for approval in time to include upfront payments from the winning bidder in the 2023 fiscal budget this fall, said Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, chairman of the the Special Committee on the Chicago Casino.“We would like to be able to, hopefully, within the next month, get narrowed down to one and then obviously go through this process with the nominee,” Tunney said April 25. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementRendering of Rivers Casino at The 78, a 62-acre South Loop mixed-use development site where Rush Street Gaming and developer Related Midwest have partnered to build a proposed Chicago casino. (Related Midwest)If Rivers 78 gets the nod as the Chicago casino, developers plan to launch the temporary facility in an old-school vessel: a renovated riverboat docked at the South Loop site along the Chicago River.The riverboat, which holds about 1,000 gaming positions, could be up and running within six months of approval, providing a temporary “mini-Rivers” casino on the river while the permanent facility is built, Tim Drehkoff, the new CEO of Rush Street Gaming, said during a community engagement meeting April 7. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementChicago Tribune Freedom Center along Chicago Avenue between the Chicago River and Halsted Street on March 22, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)Bally’s plans to use a former Tribune Publishing warehouse once earmarked for a residential and office development as its temporary casino while Freedom Center is demolished and the permanent facility is built.That was perhaps the biggest takeaway as Bally’s met with hundreds of skeptical River West neighbors inside the vacant 120,000-square-foot building April 6 to pitch a proposed $1.74 billion casino, hotel and entertainment complex that would supplant the nearby Freedom Center printing plant, if approved as the Chicago casino. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementInformation packets are left on chairs for attendees during a community engagement meeting about a proposed casino by Bally’s Corporation at the site of the Chicago Tribune printing plant on April 6, 2022. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)“Big changes can be made,” said Curt Bailey, president of Related Midwest, the developer behind the proposed Rivers 78 casino in the South Loop. “We want to be great neighbors and want the neighbors to want to be around us.”The effort to win over neighbors and the mayor’s office before the city’s anticipated early summer decision to forward a proposal to the Illinois Gaming Board for final approval has already led to some changes. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementRendering for the proposed Rivers Chicago McCormick, a partnership between Rush Street Gaming and Farpoint Development that would redevelop the mostly vacant Lakeside Center — formerly the East Building — at McCormick Place, as a casino. (RM Design Studio / HANDOUT)As Chicago nears a decision on a winning casino bid, there is a lot at stake for the city, which could boost its financial fortunes and help plug its public pension funding holes with upward of $150 million in annual casino tax revenue, according to projections.But with three of the five proposals planning to use the McCormick Place campus, there may be a wild card in the works. McCormick Place has yet to strike a deal with the city or the developers, and is something less than all in on repurposing any of its convention center facilities as a casino. > > > Read more hereAdvertisementView looking north from approximately 18th Street, west of Lake Shore Drive to illustrate plans for a 34-acre development near Soldier Field, mostly on platforms built over Metra tracks on March 13, 2019. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)City officials are sifting through the bids, including one from Hard Rock International that would set the gambling emporium in a massive mixed-use project, One Central, which developers hope to build over train tracks west of Soldier Field. City Hall staff members are tasked with recommending to the mayor which casino plan she should present to aldermen for approval. > > > Read more here

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley on Thursday announced he will not run for Chicago mayor in 2023, ending weeks of speculation that began earlier this month when he launched a local political campaign committee and polled potential voters about his potential candidacy.A longtime Chicago resident who has been congressman of Illinois’ 5th Congressional District since 2009, Quigley said in a statement released Thursday morning that he considered running for mayor but couldn’t due to the crisis in Ukraine.Advertisement“After much consideration, I simply cannot walk away from my duty to safeguard democracy, fight for American values abroad, and stand up for the brave Ukrainian people in their time of maximum peril. Campaigning to serve as Mayor of Chicago would not allow me to fulfill this critical obligation,” said Quigley, a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and also co-chair of the House Ukrainian Caucus.Quigley said he recently returned from an official trip to the Ukraine-Poland border and said running for Chicago mayor would interfere with his focus on “stopping Putin’s genocidal war in Ukraine.”AdvertisementEarlier this month, Quigley created a local political committee named “Quigley for Chicago.” The paperwork filed in connection with its formation stated the committee’s purpose was “To Support Mike Quigley for Public Office.”Mayor Lori Lightfoot has not formally declared that she will run for reelection but it is widely expected that she will seek a second term. In January, she told the Tribune her work as mayor isn’t done “and I’m yielding to no one.”Chicago businessman Willie Wilson has announced he intends to run for mayor. Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, has also announced he intends to run.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.

Liam Hendriks is not a fan of intentional walks.“Don’t ever put anyone on when I’m on the mound,” the Chicago White Sox closer said Wednesday, displaying his competitiveness.AdvertisementThe topic came up in the aftermath of the team’s decision to pitch to Byron Buxton with first base open in the 10th inning of Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Twins. Buxton hit a three-run homer off Hendriks as the Twins beat the Sox 6-4.“(A) 3-1 (count), he’s 0 for 2 career off me,” Hendriks said. “Obviously it’s not the middle of the stretch that he’s on right now. This is a guy that was drafted (No. 2 overall in 2012) for a reason. He’s got all the talent in the world.Advertisement“But I’ve been able to beat him on pitches in similar locations before in my career and I know that I trust my stuff no matter what. I’m never thinking about putting somebody on base or pitching scared because that’s when you get into trouble.”Hendriks, who is tied for second in the American League with four saves, has been recovering from a “back spasm issue” since Sunday. Kendall Graveman pitched the final two innings of the Sox’s 7-3 win against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday at Guaranteed Rate Field.“We are taking it day by day and it all depends on how the next step goes,” Hendriks said.The issue popped up between the ninth and 10th innings at Target Field, he said.“I don’t know what happened,” Hendriks said. “I went to grab a towel and walked slowly on the tile in cleats and just couldn’t stand up right after that. They tried to take me out and I just kept telling them no. Probably in hindsight it would have been a good thing. But my stubborn (butt) is going back out there no matter what.“The pain came without slipping. It just clenched while walking on tile. I deal with it every now and then, but this one just didn’t go away. Usually it will happen and then I’ll be able to walk around for a little bit and it’s fine. It just didn’t go away this time unfortunately.”Hendriks said he felt it “a little bit” while on the mound.“Not so much actually pitching,” he said. “There were a couple of throw backs (to the mound) that tweaked it a little bit. You see everything was up, a lot higher than usual, and I think it was a little factor of not being able to finish my pitches and stuff like that.AdvertisementThe Twins’ Byron Buxton watches his three-run homer off White Sox closer Liam Hendriks in the 10th inning Sunday, April 24, 2022, in Minneapolis, (Jerry Holt/AP)“Still no excuses for what happened in that game. I should have been able to get it done regardless of how I’m feeling. I usually have that tack of being able to throw the pitch when I need to. Unfortunately it didn’t work.”Hendriks, the AL Reliever of the Year in 2020 and 2021, said of Buxton’s 469-foot home run: “If you’re going to give up a walk-off homer, you might as well make it the longest in Statcast-era history, right?”Hendriks has one intentional walk this season after having only one in 2021 and one in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season with the Oakland Athletics.“I have no fault with me attacking (Buxton) because he’s a free swinger,” Hendriks added. “If I get it into a better location, he doesn’t do that much damage with it. And then I have a chance of facing a guy who I have always had tough at-bats with, with (Luis) Arraez (2 for 4 career vs. Hendriks) on deck. I’m not trying to put a guy on for a contact guy with the winning run on second base.”Hendriks met with reporters before the Sox snapped their eight-game losing streak Wednesday.“I have complete faith in this group,” Hendriks said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys, bench guys on this team who on any other team are starters. That’s a tribute to the talent level in this clubhouse and what we are able to do.Advertisement“If we get those couple of dink hits that will fall in or make a pitch or a lineout here and there, the entire vibe changes. I spoke to (second baseman Josh Harrison) about it (Tuesday). We still need to remain that cocky, that arrogant, that confident group because no matter what, we know we’ve got the talent in this clubhouse and we can go on a run.”

After ending his last season under contract with the Chicago Bulls in COVID-19 isolation, the future is uncertain for guard Zach LaVine. But teammate DeMar DeRozan feels certain about one thing — whoever lands LaVine will need to dig deep into their wallet.As LaVine enters free agency eligible for the NBA’s maximum contract, DeRozan advocated for the two-time All-Star.Advertisement“Max player, max talent, max everything,” DeRozan said. “He’s one of those players in this league that you don’t see too often. I tell him all the time how envious I am of the things he’s able to do. He deserves everything that’s coming to him.”DeRozan and LaVine created the one-two punch this season that the Bulls had needed for years to lift them to their first postseason berth since 2017. The duo combined for 52.3 points per game in the regular season, providing the bulk of the Bulls offense.Advertisement[ [Don’t miss] DeMar DeRozan is stymied by the Bucks in the Bulls’ season-ending 116-100 loss in Game 5 ]Their relationship began last summer when they spent time together in Chicago and flew back and forth to Los Angeles to discuss the future of the Bulls.“We had a lot of dialogue before we even stepped out there on the court,” DeRozan said. “That sort of set the foundation from there. Everything just carried over once we got on the court.”While LaVine’s athleticism and playmaking stood out, DeRozan said he was most impressed by LaVine’s intense competitive edge.Chicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.“He’s just the ultimate competitor,” DeRozan said.ExpandAutoplayImage 1 of 27Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan, center left, congratulates Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo after the Bucks’ 116-100 win in Game 5 on April 27, 2022, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)That drive carried off the court. LaVine once spent an entire flight playing tic-tac-toe against DeRozan, who kept beating his younger teammate using a few tricks he picked up from his daughter. No matter how many times DeRozan won, LaVine insisted on a rematch.“He wouldn’t leave me alone until he beat me,” DeRozan said with a laugh.Re-signing LaVine will be a priority for the Bulls, who spent the recent years of their rebuild forming a team around him. [ [Don’t miss] Column: Bulls coach Billy Donovan had to deal with adversity all season, and Game 5 was no different ]LaVine never has controlled his NBA destination. He was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2014 and traded to the Bulls in 2017. He agreed to an offer sheet with the Sacramento Kings in 2018 as a restricted free agent, but the Bulls exercised their right of first refusal to retain him for four additional years.AdvertisementDespite spending eight years in the NBA, this was LaVine’s first winning season. Before his first playoff series, LaVine emphasized his loyalty to both franchises despite that lack of success.“Everybody’s got to play the card that they’re dealt,” LaVine told the media before Game 1. “It just took me a little longer than everybody else, but I didn’t cop out and go to a different team.”

During one of the busiest periods of the predraft process, new Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles sat in a room inside the Indianapolis Convention Center and acknowledged his responsibility in procuring more offensive talent for quarterback Justin Fields. At that week’s scouting combine, Poles was eager to identify players who could fit what the Bears are looking for.Naturally, as a former offensive lineman, Poles emphasized the need to fortify the protection in front of Fields. But he also recognized Fields’ Year 2 growth curve will be heavily influenced by the pass-catchers he has and stressed the need to find “a dependability piece” for the starting quarterback.Said Poles: “For a lot of the really good quarterbacks, especially the young ones, when things go crazy who can they go to that they trust and is dependable and can make plays?”It’s no secret that Poles will head into this week’s draft — his first in the Halas Hall captain’s chair — determined to add to the receiving corps. The Bears currently own a pair of second-round picks (Nos. 39 and 48) and have a third-round selection at No. 71. Smart money says Poles will grab at least one receiver out of a deep draft class before Friday night is over. But there’s not necessarily a specific mold he’s looking to fill.“They come in different shapes and sizes and speeds,” Poles said in early March. “(It’s about) guys who can make plays when their number is called. That’s what we look for.”[ [Don’t miss] When do the Chicago Bears pick? What do the mock drafts say? Everything you need to know about the 2022 NFL draft. ]Without a first-round pick — the Bears’ No. 7 selection was traded to the New York Giants a year ago in the deal to land Fields — Poles and his staff may have to sit patiently as the best receivers come off the board. Ohio State’s Garrett Wilson. Southern California’s Drake London. Alabama’s Jameson Williams. Arkansas’ Treylon Burks.Poles may find himself in a bit of a fingers-crossed exercise, hoping the board breaks in a way that gives the Bears an opportunity to land one of the receivers they most covet. Many draft experts expect at least a half-dozen receivers to be taken on the first night. But with an impressively deep class, Poles should still have an intriguing menu to peruse Friday. With that in mind, the Tribune takes a look at 12 receivers who could be on the team’s radar.Ohio State wide receiver Chris Olave dives into the end zone to finish a 5- yard touchdown catch during the fourth quarter against Purdue on Nov. 13, 2021. (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images North America/TNS)Height, weight: 6-1, 188Why the Bears will draft him: Are the Bears looking for a dependability piece for Fields? Do they want their young quarterback to have a receiver he inherently trusts and can build chemistry with? Through that lens, the dream scenario would be for Olave to somehow slip to Day 2 — or at least remain on the board late enough in the first round that Poles could consider an aggressive trade up. As teammates at Ohio State in 2020, Fields and Olave had impressive harmony. Olave was Fields’ leading receiver with 50 catches, 729 yards and seven touchdowns over seven games in that COVID-shortened campaign. He followed up this past season with 65 grabs, 936 yards and 13 touchdowns. This is a pie-in-the-sky situation for the Bears. But Olave is a Day 1-starter. He’s a fluid route runner with impressive speed and ball skills and proven big-play production. A raucous Halas Hall celebration would be on tap if Poles were somehow able to land him.Why they won’t: The idea of Olave being available to the Bears at No. 39 is extremely far-fetched. The possibility of him slipping out of the top 20 Thursday night is a longshot. Some talent evaluators question whether Olave has a sturdy enough build and enough strength to excel against some of the NFL’s more physical corners. But that likely wouldn’t be a deterrent for the Bears.Analyst’s take: “I love the route running. He’s so smooth as a route runner. He knows where he needs to be versus zone coverage. And when you study his game, he has speed as well. … He’s a vertical threat. That’s what he does. Track star. He ran a 4.39(-second 40-yard dash) at the combine. And it’s not just track speed. He’s great at tracking the ball vertically.” — ESPN senior draft analyst Todd McShayAdvertisementPenn State wide receiver Jahan Dotson participates in a drill at the NFL combine on March 3, 2022. (AJ Mast/AP)Height, weight: 5-11, 178Why the Bears should draft him: Dotson was Penn State’s leading receiver in 2021, totaling 91 catches for 1,182 yards and 12 touchdowns on the way to being named an AP third-team All-American. After four seasons with the Nittany Lions, he tied for second in school history with 183 catches and 25 receiving touchdowns. McShay called him “a burner” and raved about his ball skills, body control and speed. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said he has the best hands in the draft. Dotson also returned 19 punts for 338 yards and a touchdown — and his career average of 17.8 yards per return is a Penn State record.Why they’d stay away: There’s a possibility Dotson might be off the board before the Bears pick. The Athletic and ESPN each ranked him the sixth-best receiver in the class, with the possibility of him going in the first round. Dotson’s size and strength are the biggest question marks for draft analysts. Multiple analysts noted he doesn’t break a lot of tackles.Analyst’s take: “He really attacks the football. He’s got outstanding ability to adjust. He can catch it back hip, above the rim. You name it, he can do it.” — NFL Network analyst Daniel JeremiahAdvertisementGeorgia wide receiver George Pickens celebrates his touchdown catch against Cincinnati during the first half of the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1, 2021. (Brynn Anderson/AP)Height, weight: 6-3, 195Why the Bears should draft him: Jeremiah called Pickens “really, really gifted” and “a fun one.” McShay said he thought Pickens might make it into the first round before the ACL tear that limited his 2021 season. Pickens made a big impact as a freshman when he led the Bulldogs with 49 catches for 727 yards and eight touchdowns. He had 36 catches for 513 yards and six touchdowns in eight games in 2020. Analysts call him a vertical threat with quickness, speed, strong ball-tracking skills and an ability to make in-air adjustments.Why they’d stay away: The ACL injury that Pickens suffered during 2021 spring practices is the major question mark. He made a quick recovery and returned to play in four games, making five catches for 107 yards, including a 52-yarder in the College Football Playoff National Championship game against Alabama. He also did on-field work at the combine, running a 4.47-second 40-yard dash. But it’s a matter of a team being comfortable with his medical evaluations and the missed development of most of his junior season.Analyst’s take: “That guy, he can really go up and get the football. He just has that ability to play above the rim, and he’s a pretty crisp route runner for somebody who’s 6-3.” — JeremiahAdvertisementWestern Michigan wide receiver Skyy Moore runs the 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine on March 3, 2022. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)Height, weight: 5-10, 195Why the Bears will draft him: Moore was an immediate difference maker at Western Michigan, an all-conference player as a freshman and able to remain consistently productive over his three seasons. He totaled 95 catches, 1,292 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Broncos in 2021. Moore projects to be used primarily in the slot and can excel there with his feel for the game and willingness to make contested catches. McShay calls him “silky smooth.” Talent evaluators have lauded his crisp route running and overall savvy in getting open. He is also productive after the catch, which would give him added value in Luke Getsy’s new offense.Why they won’t: Moore’s overall burst and athleticism isn’t freakish, and some evaluators question his ability to consistently create separation at the next level. Furthermore, with Darnell Mooney (5-11, 173 pounds) and Byron Pringle (6-1, 203) currently slotted in as the Bears’ top two receivers, Getsy may prefer to add more size to the receiving corps first.Analyst’s take: “I saw some Antonio Brown traits from him when you studied him. … That dude will just eat cushion. He’s really dynamic and crisp. … He’s quicker than a hiccup and just puts guys in a blender. Just really fun to watch.” — JeremiahAdvertisementWide receiver Alec Pierce runs a drill during Cincinnati pro day on March 24, 2022. (Aaron Doster/AP)Height, weight: 6-3, 211Why the Bears should draft him: Pierce is a former Glenbard West football, basketball, volleyball and track athlete who played four seasons — including three as a starter — at Cincinnati. As a sophomore, he had 37 catches for 652 yards and two touchdowns, and he put together his best season in 2021 with 52 catches for 884 yards and eight touchdowns. Pierce utilizes size, athleticism and speed that resulted in a 4.41-second 40-yard dash at the combine. McShay said he’s “really good on vertical throws and good after the catch for a long-levered receiver.” He also has special teams experience.Why they’d stay away: Multiple analysts, including Jeremiah, suggested his route tree is limited, and The Athletic’s Dane Brugler wrote Pierce is still honing his separation skills. He battled knee and shoulder injuries in 2020.Analyst’s take: “You’ve got big-time sprinter speed. He’s just real strong and powerful in what he does. You can watch the Notre Dame game, and you can see the big-time catches, kind of those wild catches. In scouting a lot of times we use the phrase ‘quicker than fast.’ He’s the opposite. He’s faster than quick. He’s got big-time speed. Some of the subtleties getting in and out, that’s going to be a little bit more of a challenge with him at the break point.” — JeremiahAdvertisementNorth Dakota State wide receiver Christian Watson catches a pass during a drill at the NFL scouting combine on March 3, 2022. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)Height, weight: 6-5, 208Why the Bears will draft him: Watson’s most bullish believers are tempted to stamp him with the “Cooper Kupp 2.0″ label, seeing a star from the Football Championship Subdivision who has both the talent and drive that will translate to the NFL. Watson put together a head-turning week at the Senior Bowl in late January, then ran his 40-yard dash in an eye-opening 4.36 seconds at the combine. Over four seasons at North Dakota State, he averaged 20.4 yards per catch. Last season, his four longest touchdown receptions were for 71, 85, 67 and 65 yards, a testament to his big-play ability. Watson had 43 catches, 801 yards and seven touchdowns in 12 games last season but also has the ability to contribute as a ball carrier and kickoff returner. With his dedication, Watson would fit well into the culture Poles and Matt Eberflus are trying to build.Why they won’t: Questions persist about Watson’s overall strength and how that might limit his effectiveness. He also had drop issues at times in college and may need time to adjust to the jump in competition. Some evaluators point out that Watson’s route running will need significant polish in the early stages of his career.Analyst’s take: “Ridiculously fast. That’s the way he plays. He just has that explosiveness in his routes. So you have to respect him on the underneath stuff but he will also beat you over the top. Throughout his career, he’s had high-end production. … I really like the way he competes and the way he fights for the football. The only thing you get a little nervous on is he has shown that he can struggle with concentration drops. I don’t think he has bad hands. I think it’s concentration. You’d have to work through that with him.” — Mark Dominik, Sirius XM draft analystAdvertisementAlabama wide receiver John Metchie III goes up for a pass in front of Auburn cornerback Roger McCreary during the second half of a game on Nov. 27, 2021. (Butch Dill/AP)Height, weight: 5-11, 187Why the Bears should draft him: Metchie had 96 catches for 1,142 yards and eight touchdowns over 13 games in his junior season while playing alongside wide receiver Jameson Williams, a likely first-round pick. Metchie finished his career at Alabama with 155 catches for 2,081 yards and 14 touchdowns. Jeremiah called him “a ready-made slot,” noting his toughness, strength and route running. Metchie has earned strong reviews for his work from coach Nick Saban, who called him “the epitome of what you look for in a wide receiver.” This may not affect his draft status, but he also has made quite a journey on his path to the NFL. He was born in Taiwan and lived in Ghana and Canada before moving to a U.S. boarding school when he was 14 to pursue athletic opportunities.Why they’d stay away: Metchie tore the ACL in his left knee in December and didn’t participate in on-field, predraft activities. He also played through multiple injuries in 2020. He doesn’t have elite size or speed and didn’t have a catch of more than 46 yards as a junior. But Jeremiah believes he could be a good value pick in the third or fourth rounds.Analyst’s take: “Jameson was such a huge part of the offense and was a big-play guy. But Metchie does all of the dirty work, over the middle, third downs. When you have to rely on a receiver, he finds a way to separate and get open. He made a lot of tough catches, and I think he’s a lot better after the catch than people give him credit for.” — McShayAdvertisementSouth Alabama wide receiver Jalen Tolbert participates in a drill at the NFL scouting combine on March 3, 2022. (Steve Luciano/AP)Height, weight: 6-1, 195Why the Bears will draft him: The college video of Tolbert shows playmaking ability. In his final two seasons, he had 146 catches for 2,659 yards with 16 touchdowns. In 2020, he set a single-game school record with 252 receiving yards against Arkansas State. The operative word with Tolbert is “smooth.” He is crisp getting into and out of his breaks and has a feel for adjusting to passes that aren’t on target. He has the ability to play outside, but can easily move inside and has shown a willingness to block as well.Why they won’t: Playing in the Sun Belt Conference, Tolbert wasn’t tested as much as other talented receivers in this class. (It should be noted that he made seven catches for 143 yards against Tennessee last fall.) He doesn’t project to be a significant run-after-the-catch threat and will have to focus on improving his run blocking.Analyst’s take: “He’s a guy I really like a lot. You see the big plays out of him. And the beautiful thing about him is he was a kid who improved every year at South Alabama, both (skillfully) and production-wise. I like the fact that he is able to contort his body and make the difficult catch adjustments. And he has that top-end speed where you feel like he can be that vertical threat for you.” — DominikAdvertisementMemphis wide receiver Calvin Austin III plays against SMU in the first half of a game on Nov. 6, 2021. (Mark Humphrey/AP)Height, weight: 5-9, 162Why the Bears will draft him: Coming up through the scouting ranks with the Chiefs, Poles learned to adjust his mindset as he evaluated prospects, focusing on what a player does really well rather than being driven away by limitations. Poles should recognize Austin as a receiver who is passionate, fearless and lightning quick. After joining Memphis as a walk-on and redshirting in 2017, Austin grinded to become a key contributor for the Tigers and finished his college career with 137 catches, 2,202 yards and 19 touchdowns over his final two seasons. He can be a bottle rocket just waiting to be lit. Austin ran the 40 in 4.32 seconds at the combine, the third-fastest time in the receiver class, and added a vertical leap of 39 inches. That kind of explosion is intriguing. Why they won’t: Slight. Small. Diminutive. Tiny. Any other synonyms we should add? Quite simply, the NFL is a physical freak show. And it takes a whole lot of intangibles to overcome the size disadvantage Austin has. That’s height. That’s arm length. That’s overall bulk. All of that will limit Austin against press coverage and in making contested catches and ru-blocking. Many talent evaluators believe Austin has a chance to carve out a complementary niche in an NFL offense. But he may have a ceiling as a third receiver at best in a productive passing offense.Analyst’s take: “Man, he’s fun to watch. He really is. He’s so quick and he has the speed that you look for. He’s obviously undersized. So you worry a little about that frame, getting off press (coverage) and those sorts of things in the league. But if you move him around, from what I saw on tape, he’s so quick with those first two or three steps. That jitterbug move and the quick shuffle with his feet, he’s able to get himself off press coverage.” — McShayAdvertisementPurdue receiver David Bell catches a pass in front of Ohio State defensive back Denzel Burke during the second half on Nov. 13, 2021. (Jay LaPrete/AP)Height, weight: 6-1, 212Why the Bears should draft him: Bell topped 1,000 yards receiving in both 2019 and 2021, when he was Big Ten freshman of the year and then receiver of the year, respectively. He finished his three-year Purdue career with 232 catches for 2,946 yards and 21 touchdowns. Jeremiah said the former basketball player has outstanding hands and a huge catch radius that wins him a lot of 50/50 balls. Brugler touted his body control and dependability, as Bell uses savvy and technique to be productive. Jeremiah also called him tough and physical after the catch, noting he could be a good third- or fourth-rounder.Why they’d stay away: Bell is not the fastest option among the top 15 receivers in the draft. He ran a 4.65 40-yard dash at the combine and 4.71 at his pro day. Jeremiah called him “more smooth than explosive,” and Kiper said the big question is if he will be able to separate from defenders at the NFL level.Analyst’s take: “His consistency was outstanding. The separation? How will that be in the NFL? Those types of things will dictate what kind of pro he is. … The production and the consistency was there (at Purdue). But will NFL corners be in his hip pocket? Will he be able to get open (regularly) against NFL-caliber corners?”— KiperAdvertisementClemson wide receiver Justyn Ross catches a pass during the second half of a game against Florida State on Oct. 30, 2021. (Hakim Wright Sr./AP)Height, weight: 6-4, 205Why the Bears should draft him: Over three seasons at Clemson, Ross had 158 catches for 2,379 yards and 20 touchdowns. That included a career-high 1,000 receiving yards and nine touchdowns as a freshman, including an eye-catching performance in the national championship win over Alabama. After spinal surgery kept him out in 2020, he was determined to play his redshirt junior season, continuing through a stress fracture in his foot to make 46 catches for 514 yards. Ross had good size and length and analysts tout his body control and ball skills.Why they’d stay away: Ross has some of the most questions of any prospect on this list and could be a Day 3 option because of the congenital fusion discovered in his spine. He had surgery in June 2020 and returned to play in 2021 after receiving advice from a panel of experts, some of whom did not think he should play, according to ESPN. Crucial for teams will be medical evaluations on his neck and spine, as well as his foot, which also required surgery.Analyst’s take: “He’s an elite talent, he’s an explosive leaper, unbelievable body control and ball skills. He’s incredibly explosive in and out of his cuts, great change of direction, lateral movement. He’s fast and a great finisher on the ball, so there’s a lot of good to talk about Justyn Ross as a football player.” — Clemson coach Dabo Swinney told ESPN.com.AdvertisementNevada wide receiver Romeo Doubs tries to get past Fresno State defensive back Wylan Free during the first half of a game on Oct. 23, 2021. (Gary Kazanjian/AP)Height, weight: 6-2, 200Why the Bears will draft him: If the Bears opt to address other needs in Rounds 2 and 3 — namely offensive line and cornerback — they can do so with comfort that talented receivers like Doubs could still be around. Doubs plays with a nasty competitive edge, which figures to make him attractive to Poles. He was also consistently productive in college, a two-time All-Mountain West selection who eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards in each of his final two seasons. Doubs’ highlight reel showcases both his tenacity and intriguing ball skills. He has potential to become a reliable punt returner as well, averaging 11.9 yards per return at Nevada.Why they won’t: Doubs may be a bit of a project initially, needing much more sophistication in his route running. He must also learn how to create separation consistently at the NFL level while also understanding how to finish contested catches against more talented defensive backs.Analyst’s take: “That was a deep-strike offense with him at Nevada. It was fun to watch. They’d get him vertical a lot. A lot of deep posts. He tracks the ball really well. Now, he has a little bit of tightness to him, a little bit of stiffness there. But I think he can get over the top and can track the ball well. The other issue with him … is he had what I would call ‘face-up drops.’ Some guys track the ball over the shoulder really well but sometimes when you’re facing the quarterback and you’re squared up, you have some drop issues. That’s what his thing was.” — Jeremiah

As Masud Arjmand sat in a Naperville coffee shop last week, describing the 15-year odyssey that turned his would-be dream house into a target for demolition, an excavator was already taking bites out of the unfinished Spanish-style mansion and piling the rubble into a huge heap.Informed of that by a Tribune reporter, Arjmand appeared stunned.Advertisement“It’s being torn down?” he said. “How could they do that?”He was apparently the last to know. Four days earlier, DuPage County had tweeted a video of the demolition in progress. That very morning, Arjmand’s lawyer was in front of a judge trying in vain to stop it.AdvertisementA mansion at 7S745 Donwood Drive near Naperville is demolished on April 19, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)Arjmand’s surprise was an odd twist to an unusual suburban story, in which a stucco and stone showpiece in one of the ritziest neighborhoods this side of the North Shore became an involuntary teardown.Arjmand, 69, said he came to the U.S. from Pakistan 45 years ago to attend graduate school, a mere $300 in his pocket. He went on to become a partner at the Accenture consulting firm, retiring in 2008 with millions of dollars’ worth of shares.Just before that, in 2007, Arjmand and his wife of six years began to build a new home on Donwood Drive, a street in unincorporated Naperville adorned with gated estates. After buying the 2-acre plot for $625,000, they designed a house fit for that grand setting, complete with five bedrooms, a two-story dining room, a rotunda and an elevator.“It was both for living in and an investment,” he said. “ … I hoped to make a lot of money.”But the marriage soured, and in 2009 Arjmand filed for divorce. According to court documents, he and his wife came to an agreement that gave her assets he estimated to be worth $1 million, while he kept the house and other real estate, as well as his Accenture shares.Two years later, his ex-wife returned to court to contest the agreement, saying she had been the victim of “coercion and the fraudulent concealment of assets.” After an 11-day hearing, a DuPage County judge concluded the arrangement was “unconscionable” and reopened the divorce.Arjmand’s ex-wife directed the Tribune’s interview request to her attorney, who declined to comment.AdvertisementMeanwhile, after sinking about $2 million into the construction of the Donwood Drive house, Arjmand paused when the financial crisis struck. He said the resulting slump put all of his real estate investments, which included two suburban strip malls, underwater.A mansion at 7S745 Donwood Drive near Naperville is demolished on April 19, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)Arjmand contends in court papers that his assets were frozen during the divorce case, endangering his real estate. When it appeared he wouldn’t be able to pay his property taxes, he said, banks called in $8 million of loans and forced the liquidation of much of his Accenture stock.He was also left unable to access the roughly $1 million he needed to finish the house, he said. When he tried to sell the property, he said, he received only one lowball offer.So there it sat for a decade, an earth-toned eyesore amid the many-gabled splendor of its neighbors. Dr. Andrew Korcek, who lives across the street, said the lot became an unsightly, overgrown nuisance.“We had to treat our lawn with extra weedkiller because of the seeds that would come over,” he said. “It was always a problem.”Worse than that were the trespassers who poked around the property. Teenagers with flashlights frequently wandered the house and yard, Korcek said, and some even crawled onto the tile roof during an ice storm.AdvertisementAffidavits from DuPage County sheriff’s deputies describe the apprehension of numerous intruders, including kids who used the house as a hideaway to smoke weed. A police report from 2020 recounts how deputies snared three young trespassers who said they were just exploring.“Other kids at school had told them to come and check it out,” the report says. “They did not think that they were trespassing since the house is abandoned.”Arjmand said he naively believed the neighborhood was immune to vandalism. When trespassers were caught, he said, he didn’t have the heart to press charges.A building inspector’s affidavit from 2020 outlines how dangerous the structure had become. Every door and window was broken, trash and graffiti were everywhere, 4 feet of water filled the basement, the second floor bounced under the weight of two adults, and an overhang at the front entrance was pulling away from the house.Mounds of debris are what is left of a demolished home at 7S745 Donwood Drive near Naperville. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)With that, DuPage officials sought to force Arjmand to fix or demolish the house under the county’s “clean and lien” program, which uses grant money and liens to pay for the cleanup of blighted properties.Sam Tornatore, chair of the county’s development committee, said DuPage has cleaned up or torn down a dozen properties since the program began eight years ago, though none has been as large or upscale as Arjmand’s.Advertisement“It’s been a very popular program, as you can imagine, with the (affected) neighborhoods,” he said.Arjmand said he did all he could to protect the property, spending $100,000 on mitigations that included a fence, security cameras and alarms, as well as new sump pumps and basement support columns.He wanted to finish construction, he said, and in February hired a contractor to get the permits that would forestall demolition. That never happened — Arjmand blamed mishaps with the county’s online permitting system — and in March, a judge denied his request for more time and gave the order: The teardown could begin.Arjmand’s lawyer, Bryan Sims, filed an appeal but that didn’t halt the bulldozers. On April 18, DuPage County tweeted a video of the house and garage, their exterior walls peeled away to expose the framing and drywall.In court papers, Sims said the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office, which is representing the county, informed him three days later that work had begun. He sought an emergency order to pause the demolition until Arjmand’s appeal could be heard, but the judge wouldn’t grant it.Paul Darrah, a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office, defended the county’s actions.Advertisement“Everything we’ve done has been authorized by court order,” he said.Arjmand’s problems won’t end once the house is gone. The county plans to bill him $138,000 for the demolition and fine him $2.8 million for violating the county’s public nuisance ordinance and various building regulations.A public notice is posted at the site of the demolished home. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)Failing to pay could cost Arjmand the property, but the financial penalties appear to be far more than the land is worth. Real estate agent Michael LaFido, who is trying to sell a mansion listed at $6.5 million just north of Arjmand’s property, estimated the empty lot would fetch between $750,000 and $900,000.He’s glad to see Arjmand’s house go, saying it has been “an elephant in the room” during his showings. Korcek said he and his wife have joked about watching the demolition with lawn chairs and a bottle of Champagne.Arjmand still has his strip malls, a Chicago condo and a much smaller Naperville house. But with his shares drained, his divorce still unresolved and an IRS tax case hanging over his head, he said his finances have become precarious.As for his dream house, not a single wall remained standing Tuesday evening. By the end of the week, if the county keeps to its schedule, it will be no more than a memory.AdvertisementArjmand couldn’t bear to look at the remains, but he vowed to follow through with his appeal.“If the appellate court finds I should have been given (more time before the demolition), then who’s responsible for my losses?” he said.House or no house, the Battle of Donwood Drive goes on.jkeilman@chicagotribune.comTwitter @JohnKeilman

Published April 28, 2022
The courthouse lobby echoed like a crowded school cafeteria. Teenagers in sweatshirts and sneakers gossiped and scrolled on their phones as they clutched the yellow tickets that police had issued them at school.Abigail, a 16-year-old facing a $200 penalty for truancy, missed school again while she waited hours for a prosecutor to call her name. Sophia, a 14-year-old looking at $175 in fines and fees after school security caught her with a vape pen, sat on her mother’s lap.A boy named Kameron, who had shoved his friend over a Lipton peach iced tea in the school cafeteria, had been cited for violating East Peoria’s municipal code forbidding “assault, battery, and affray.” He didn’t know what that phrase meant; he was 12 years old.“He was wrong for what he did, but this is a bit extreme for the first time being in trouble. He isn’t even a teenager yet,” Shannon Poole said as her son signed a plea agreement that came with $250 in fines and fees. They spent three hours at the courthouse as Kameron missed math, social studies and science.The nearly 30 students summoned to the Tazewell County Courthouse that January morning were not facing criminal charges; they’d received tickets for violating a municipal ordinance while at school. Each was presented with a choice: agree to pay a fine or challenge the ticket at a later hearing. Failing to pay, they were told, could bring adult consequences, from losing their driving privileges to harming their future credit scores.Across Illinois, police are ticketing thousands of students a year for in-school adolescent behavior once handled only by the principal’s office — for littering, for making loud noises, for using offensive words or gestures, for breaking a soap dish in the bathroom.Ticketing students violates the intent of an Illinois law that prohibits schools from fining students as a form of discipline. Instead of issuing fines directly, school officials refer students to police, who then ticket them for municipal ordinance violations, an investigation by the Tribune and ProPublica has found.Another state law prohibits schools from notifying police when students are truant so officers can ticket them. But the investigation found dozens of school districts routinely fail to follow this law.“Basically schools are using this as a way to have municipalities do their dirty work,” said Jackie Ross, an attorney at Loyola University Chicago’s ChildLaw Clinic who specializes in school discipline. “It’s the next iteration of the school-to-prison pipeline. Schools might be patting themselves on the back and saying it’s just the school-to-municipality pipeline, but it’s the same philosophy.”Kameron, 12, and his 14-year-old brother, Phoenix, hang out on the steps of their East Peoria home. In January, Kameron received a ticket for “assault, battery, and affray” after shoving another seventh grader over a bottle of iced tea.
At the assembly-line hearings where many of these cases are handled, students have no right to legal representation and little chance to defend themselves against charges that can have long-term consequences. Ticket fines can be hundreds of dollars, presenting an impossible burden for some families, and administrative or court fees of up to $150 are often tacked on.Unpaid fines are sometimes sent to collections or deducted from parents’ tax refunds. And, unlike records from juvenile court, these cases can’t be expunged under state law.No government entity tracks student ticketing, either in Illinois or nationally. Though a handful of communities in other states have sought to limit the practice, Illinois has not tried to monitor it, even after lawmakers attempted several years ago to stop schools from fining students as discipline. The Tribune and ProPublica quantified school tickets through more than 500 Freedom of Information Act requests to school districts and police departments, focusing on nearly 200 high-school-only districts and large K-12 districts. > > > Para leer en español, haga clic aquíThe principal is listed as the complainant on this ticket written to a girl at Orland Junior High School for possessing “tobacco or an alternative nicotine product.” (Gray redactions and orange highlights added by ProPublica.) In all, the investigation documented more than 11,800 tickets issued during the last three school years, even though the COVID-19 pandemic kept students out of school for much of that period and even though records show no students were ticketed in the state’s biggest district, the Chicago Public Schools.The analysis of 199 districts, which together encompass more than 86% of the state’s high school students, found that ticketing occurred in at least 141. In some K-12 districts, tickets were issued to children as young as 8.[ Do police issue tickets in your school district? Find out here ]Though school officials and police say ticketing keeps students from facing more serious criminal charges, the process routinely draws them into a legal system for infractions that would never be considered sufficiently serious to be heard in juvenile court. Many parents noted angrily that their children already had been suspended, given detentions or otherwise disciplined at school for their behavior.The quasi-judicial hearings for these tickets often take place at police stations or village halls, and they’re presided over by lawyers who are not judges. Even when tickets are handled at a courthouse, as in central Illinois’ Tazewell County, local prosecutors resolve most cases informally before getting a perfunctory signoff from a judge.Tribune and ProPublica reporters attended more than 50 hearing dates, observing hundreds of cases around the state. Some communities hold as many as three sessions a month, with students making up the vast majority of cases.The revenue from the student tickets goes to the municipalities, not the schools, and essentially funds the ticketing system, including the employees who manage the hearings, lawyers who prosecute the cases and hearing officers who rule on them.ExpandAutoplayImage 1 of 8The Tazewell County Courthouse in Pekin, where local students who are ticketed at school for violating municipal ordinances attend hearings. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)With few watchful eyes on the school ticketing system and few rules to govern it, inequities have gone undetected. The investigation examined the race of students ticketed in dozens of school districts and found that police had issued tickets disproportionately to Black students. Even in predominantly white schools, Black students sometimes received most of the tickets. In some communities, Latino students also were ticketed at disproportionate rates.[ Read more on how we reported this story ]The fines and punishments, which are set by local governments, vary widely. That means the penalty for disorderly conduct violations might be $450 in one town, $50 in another and community service in a third. Towns also have different policies about whether and when they pursue unpaid ticket debt.Some police departments choose not to ticket students at school; they say it’s not an effective way to change behavior or help young people. Some schools have police officers on campus but direct them to stay out of minor disciplinary matters.At schools where police routinely ticket students, officials argued that some young people need consequences beyond school discipline. They said students returning to school after pandemic closures have shown an increase in troubling behavior that has been difficult to manage.That’s reflected in recent patterns of police ticketing.At Pekin Community High School near Peoria, police issued 62 tickets totaling more than $10,000 before Halloween. Officers wrote 13 tickets for truancy on a single November day at Dundee-Crown High School in suburban Carpentersville. At McHenry Community High School this fall, police issued dozens of tickets for disorderly conduct, property damage, or possession of e-cigarettes or cannabis.One woman kept track of students’ fines and hearing fees in a notebook while accompanying her 15-year-old daughter to a packed December hearing in the McHenry City Council chambers. The total came to more than $5,000, including her daughter’s $450 ticket for disorderly conduct.“Merry Christmas,” the hearing officer said sarcastically as he handed down the punishments.“Instead of counseling these children, they are giving them tickets,” said the mother. “When they are handing out citations in this volume, you have to stop and say, ‘What’s going on here?’”Joliet Municipal Building, 9 a.m., Nov. 9“Morning, your honor,” Angelique Adams said, holding the ticket her 16-year-old daughter had received at Joliet Central High School. The ticket, for disorderly conduct, was issued after a school worker had spotted pepper spray dangling from the teen’s backpack, next to hand sanitizer.“The spray caused alarm to the school environment,” the ticket states. (A district spokesperson would not comment on the case, citing student confidentiality, but said school employees contact police when a chemical spray is discovered.)“Ms. Adams, what would you like to tell me?” asked Michael Knick, a lawyer hired by the city to hear such cases.Adams said she’d given her daughter the pepper spray to keep the girl safe while walking to school.“She doesn’t have the pepper spray to attack another student. She was walking. I’m not sure how she alarmed or put the school in a deadly environment,” Adams told Knick. “Instead of telling her, ‘You can’t have it, you’re not supposed to have it,’ instead you hit her with a $150 fine? I don’t have $150. I can barely pay her school fees.”Knick wasn’t swayed. He waived the $50 in hearing costs but handed down a fine of $150. The student would owe $350 if the fine wasn’t paid by the end of the year.“Y’all is crazy,” Adams told him before walking away.(Laila Milevski/ProPublica)Schools aren’t allowed to fine students for misbehaving in Illinois. When legislators passed a broad overhaul of school discipline in 2015, they specifically banned fines as a “disciplinary consequence.” That change was inspired by a Chicago charter school that had been fining students for issues like tardiness and uniform infractions.But the law, still known to educators as Senate Bill 100, doesn’t apply to police. Some school officials argue they are following the rules as long as police officers write the tickets and municipalities issue the fines.“We’re not the issuer of the ticket,” said Marjorie Greuter, superintendent of East Peoria Community High School District 309. One of the deans there pointed out that the high school also does not make money from the tickets.But families and advocates for children see little distinction — they just know there’s a financial consequence for misbehavior at school.“If the school is involving police, the school is issuing the ticket. There really is no difference between the officer and the school,” said Jessica Gingold, an attorney who encountered the ticketing system while representing a child through Equip for Equality, the federally appointed watchdog for people with disabilities in Illinois.In an emailed statement, the Illinois State Board of Education’s spokesperson said it is unfortunate that state law doesn’t clearly prohibit using police to ticket students at school, adding that the board is committed to helping lawmakers “eliminate ineffective and harmful practices that have no place in our schools.”The lawmakers who wanted to put an end to school fines said they were troubled to learn that police were issuing tickets to students.Illinois Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford, a Democrat who was a chief sponsor of the legislation, said it’s “totally shocking” that schools are still creating financial penalties for children and families. “Unfortunately we have school districts and systems that, no matter what, will not follow the law, will find that loophole to get around being responsive to the law,” she said.The chief sponsor of the discipline legislation in the House, Democratic Rep. William Davis, called school-related ticketing “in opposition” to the law. Current House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, also a sponsor, agreed and said legislators should revisit the law.“The whole point of Senate Bill 100 was about keeping kids in school, keeping kids on track to graduate, on a path for success by not creating a pipeline of discipline that creates these records that will follow kids for the rest of their lives. That’s not the goal,” Welch said in an interview.“Certainly double punishment was not intended by the law either,” Welch said of adding a ticket to suspension or detention.The Tribune-ProPublica investigation found that school employees and police often work hand in hand to discipline students. In many cases a police officer, called a school resource officer, is already stationed in the building.At Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School, 10 school security workers patrol the hallways and stand guard outside the bathrooms. If they spot vaping devices, fights or other trouble, they alert school administrators, who decide whether to share the information with the school resource officer.Anita Kanzaki, a member of the Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School security staff, watches students walk between classes in January. A ticket book sits on the desk of the school resource officer at Bradley-Bourbonnais. On the school police officer’s desk is a book of blank tickets.“We will do our discipline, but it is up to the officer to ticket,” said Principal Brian Wright. For disorderly conduct tickets, a school official signs as the complaining witness. Wright said he thinks the school is obligated to report students to police if they may be breaking a village ordinance. He also said he thinks the practice doesn’t conflict with state law as long as the school isn’t writing the ticket and has a separate process for imposing its own discipline.“The bottom line is correcting behavior,” Wright said. But he also acknowledged: “I don’t know how effective this is.” He noted that the village’s relatively new ordinance on vaping hasn’t deterred students from bringing the devices to school.Greuter and other school officials say that while the tickets can be costly, young people need consequences. “It’s a product of their decisions — poor decisions,” she said. “While it might be expensive in the short term, the consequences of not stopping that behavior in the long term has much more serious consequences.”Bradley-Bourbonnais Principal Brian Wright said he thinks that when students may be breaking a village ordinance, the school is obligated to report them to the police. That kind of thinking goes against research that has found that involving law enforcement in school incidents is harmful and counterproductive. Illinois officials just last month urged schools to reevaluate punitive disciplinary policies; the guidance did not address police citations.Kip Heinle, a spokesperson for the Illinois School Resource Officers Association, said he thinks ticketing is uncommon and used as a “last resort.”At the high school where he works in Madison County, Heinle said he’s probably written 10 tickets in 16 years. The other school resource officers he knows across the state have the same philosophy, he said: “Let the school handle as much as they can. … We don’t want to hem up a kid with a court date and fines and stuff like that.”But the news organizations’ investigation found that ticketing was the most likely outcome when school officials involved police in student incidents. In the roughly 200 Illinois districts examined for the investigation, police were involved about 17,800 times in the last three school years, records show. Sometimes police arrested students; sometimes they took no action. In more than half the incidents, they issued a ticket.In 66 of those districts, police ticketed students at least 50 times in three years, the Tribune-ProPublica investigation found. Police issued at least 100 citations to students in 36 districts.Across the state, police ticketed students most frequently — about 3,300 times — for possessing tobacco, e-cigarettes or other vaping materials. Many towns have passed new vaping ordinances in response to concerns about underage use. Students were ticketed for possession of drugs or drug paraphernalia — almost always related to cannabis — about 1,900 times.Fights among students led to more than 700 tickets, and police issued more than 1,200 tickets to students for disorderly conduct, which could include anything from using profanity to slapping someone.The investigation also found that police had issued more than 1,800 tickets for truancy across at least 40 municipalities. More than 1,000 of those tickets were issued after Jan. 1, 2019, when a state law went into effect that prohibited schools from notifying authorities about truant students so police can ticket them.Bradley police Officer Roger Tambling, the school resource officer at Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School, walks the hallways in January. Carpentersville police issued 649 truancy tickets to students at Dundee-Crown High School between January 2019 and December 2021, the most truancy tickets issued in any district the reporters examined. The fines totaled nearly $50,000.Police and school officials in the city of Harvard, near the Wisconsin border, have worked together to issue 105 truancy tickets since the law went into effect.“It’s all on what the school wants to do,” said Harvard Deputy Chief Tyson Bauman. “The school official has to be the person who says, ‘Yes, issue a ticket.’”Sixteen truancy tickets were issued to Harvard high school students on March 1 alone.Administrators at the Harvard school district and at Dundee-Crown did not respond to requests for comment.“It is illegal and it shouldn’t be happening,” said Eve Rips, a former Loyola University ChildLaw Clinic fellow who has studied Illinois’ 2018 truancy law. “Schools should be following the law here, and it is a serious concern if they aren’t. Parents should be able to get these tickets dropped if they’re getting improperly ticketed.”Superintendent Tony Sanders of School District U-46 in Elgin, the second-largest district in the state, said he was upset to learn from reporters that dozens of students in his district, including some at a middle school and two high schools, had been ticketed for truancy after the state ban took effect. He said principals and school resource officers have now been told to stop.“It was clearly done against state law,” Sanders said.For years in East Peoria, students were ticketed for truancy by the school’s truancy officer, who is not a police officer but had been given a book of police tickets. The high school handbook says students are considered truant if they repeatedly arrive more than five minutes late to school and warns tickets could be issued if phone calls, letters and home visits aren’t effective.The tickets ordered students to the Tazewell County Courthouse, where they faced fines and court fees of $200.After the Tribune and ProPublica questioned school officials in February about why the employee was writing truancy tickets in violation of state law, attorney Katherine Swise said in March that schools had stopped issuing the tickets. She declined to comment further, citing attorney-client privilege.“We had been proceeding under this practice for a long time,” said Swise, whose law firm represents both the city and its schools. “Tickets are no longer being written.”Tazewell County Courthouse, 1 p.m., Sept. 27Jennifer Fee leaned against the payment counter. Her 16-year-old, Blake, owed $350 for being found with a vaping device — considered drug paraphernalia by police — at Morton High School near Peoria.“You know how much money this is? This is how much money I make for the week,” said Fee, who was working as a school janitor.Fee initially was going to sign an agreement to pay off the ticket gradually. Then she decided to put the full amount on a credit card. The court clerk told her it would be an additional $9.62 to process the credit card payment.“Imagine how much money they’re making off of kids,” Fee said.(Laila Milevski/ProPublica)Confronted with hundreds of dollars in fines, parents often plead for extra time to pay or ask whether their children can do community service instead. They say the fines would eat up their entire paychecks and point out their children have no income.But in most cases, families have only two choices: admit wrongdoing and agree to pay the amount offered by a prosecutor, or fight the ticket and risk paying a much higher penalty.In the Tazewell County Courthouse last spring, Morton village prosecutor Pat McGrath sat at a long table at one end of the lobby telling a teenage girl that she could resolve a ticket for an e-cigarette for $25, plus $100 in court costs: “$125 out the door,” McGrath said.They could fight back by hiring a lawyer or they could go to trial without one. The family chose to pay.“She doesn’t have another option. She can’t hire an attorney,” the girl’s aunt told McGrath.Blake, center, gets a hug from a friend as he and his mother, Jennifer Fee, at right, wait to attend a hearing with Blake’s aunt Becky Fee, second from right, and his cousin Anna, left, who had also received a ticket at school. At the opposite end of the lobby, East Peoria prosecutor Austin Nichols told each family “I would be willing to offer you …” and then named a fine: $75 for tobacco, $250 for disorderly conduct, $100 for truancy. Plus $100 court costs in each case.Susan McCoy’s son took one of Nichols’ deals to pay $350.50 in fines and fees for consumption of alcohol. The 17-year-old later said school workers had questioned him after he threw up at the bus stop, and he admitted that he’d drunk whiskey at home during the night.“That’s a lot of money to certain people. It is a lot to me,” said McCoy, who worked at a shoe store at the time. The family couldn’t pay it all that day, so they agreed to a plan to pay $60 a month. Nearly a year later, McCoy had paid only about $100. “I hate to say I have more important bills that have to be paid, but I do.”When several families asked Nichols for community service instead of a fine, he told them the city doesn’t offer that option.“He is 14. He can’t even get a job,” one boy’s guardian said to Nichols, frustrated with the $175 the freshman was charged for vaping at school. “I’m not paying it. I already lost $160 today losing work.”Many municipalities add as much as $150 in administrative costs, mimicking court fees, to each fine. Some have made the hearings mandatory, making it impossible for students to avoid the fees.A ticket given to Amanda Piker’s son for tobacco possession in 2019. (Gray redactions and orange highlighting added by ProPublica.) (ProPublica)Other communities don’t require students to enter a plea in person, allowing them to admit liability and pay the ticket cost ahead of a hearing date. But municipalities often penalize families who don’t pay promptly, and in some communities, the amount they owe can quickly grow.That’s the case in Manteno, where Amanda Piker learned her son’s $100 ticket for tobacco possession would double if not paid within 48 hours. After two weeks, the penalty could increase to $750 plus a $50 fee.“We were just absolutely shocked, but you had no choice. You have to pay,” said Piker. “People don’t believe me when I say Manteno does this.”Piker’s sixth-grade son was ticketed in 2019 after a friend gave him a vaping device and he put it in his backpack. School officials found the device after they searched his bag while he was in physical education class, she said.The financial harm can trail students after they leave school, the Tribune-ProPublica investigation found.Kathryn Patterson’s son Chris was 16 when he was ticketed for possession of tobacco and drug paraphernalia at Hoffman Estates High School. She said she told village officials the family didn’t have $200 to pay for the tickets and asked that Chris be allowed to do community service instead. That wasn’t an option, she learned.About three years later, her son got a letter from a collections agency. The amount due had grown to $270. “They waited until he was 18 and threw him into collections as he was trying to start his own life,” Patterson said. He has yet to pay, she said.The cost of tickets issued to students at the village’s two high schools from August 2018 through September 2021 totaled nearly $37,000, records show. About $13,000 was unpaid.In 2018, a 16-year-old boy was ticketed at Hoffman Estates High School for possession of tobacco. Three years later, he received a notice that Hoffman Estates was seeking to collect his unpaid debt. At least 38 municipalities try to collect on juvenile debt, either through parents or from the students themselves once they turn 18, the Tribune and ProPublica found. Some use private collections companies. Others employ the state’s Local Debt Recovery Program, which allows the comptroller’s office to deduct money for unpaid debts from individuals’ tax refunds and payroll checks.The village of Bradley has tried to collect unpaid fines from about 40 tickets issued to high school students from 2018 through 2020, totaling about $10,000. The village uses both a private collections company and the state comptroller’s program; Bradley has collected about $1,800 in student debt through the state program, records show.Samantha Corzine and her daughters were living in a motel when the girls were ticketed at Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School for truancy and possession of cannabis. She said she told Bradley officials she didn’t have the money to pay the fines.“They told me you have to figure out something because if they go to collections, they automatically get garnished from your wages and your tax forms,” she said.And they were. Just as Corzine was trying to move into a home, she learned that $800 would be deducted from her tax refund in 2020, interfering with her plans to put that money toward a down payment. The family had to spend several additional months in the motel.“I was devastated,” she said. “I could finally get my kids out of the motel situation and into an actual home, and it was down the drain because they took what I was expecting to get.”McHenry Municipal Building, 1:30 p.m., Dec. 9Nathan, 16, stood with his father at a lectern, ready to defend himself against a disorderly conduct ticket related to a fight on a school bus. This was his second appearance; Nathan had already entered a “not liable” plea in October and had been told to return for a hearing.When his father, Joe Nepras, started to explain why Nathan shouldn’t have been ticketed, hearing officer Harry H. Semrow Jr. interrupted and noted Nepras wasn’t Nathan’s attorney. “I’m his father and that’s the next best thing,” Nepras said.“Is it?” Semrow shot back.“Do you know what an opening statement is?” Semrow asked. Nepras said no. “You don’t?”Semrow told Nathan to raise his right hand but got distracted and never swore him in, leaving the student with his hand in the air.Joe Nepras asked to share a letter a school dean wrote for the hearing that said Nathan had never been disrespectful to anyone at school and he “in no way initiated the fight on the bus.” The city prosecutor said the letter was hearsay and he would want the dean to testify.Semrow decided to continue the case until another day so both sides could call witnesses. Nathan would have to come back yet again.Hearings for municipal ordinance violations in Illinois were created to deal with parking tickets, then were expanded in the late 1990s to handle any violation of local laws: excessive noise, jaywalking, lawns overgrown with weeds.Barack Obama, then a state senator, sponsored the legislation that empowered Illinois municipalities to broaden the use of the hearings, with a goal of easing the strain on the circuit courts. The law also allowed cities and towns to keep the fines and fees that tickets generate.Around the same time, the mass shooting at Columbine High School prompted schools to start bringing in police to keep students safe, putting many more young people in contact with law enforcement.These seemingly unrelated changes had an unanticipated outcome: students being ticketed by police and then funneled into systems designed for adults, not children.At the hearings, students have little or no opportunity to explain the circumstances surrounding a school incident. There’s often no counseling or other help offered to kids who may need it, only punishment. And cases are decided by lawyers who are not trained to work with young people.Joe Nepras, left, accompanied his son Nathan, 16, to a hearing at the McHenry Municipal Building in December. In fact, there are few requirements for the lawyers who oversee hearings. They must have been a lawyer in Illinois for at least three years and must complete “a formal training program” that includes studying the hearing rules and municipal code, observing other hearings and taking part in hypothetical cases. But there’s no certification process to ensure the training takes place.Few cases are decided in students’ favor. The hearings use a lower standard of proof than criminal cases. Students can be found liable if the allegation is more likely to have occurred than not, and a ticket is itself considered evidence.In hundreds of cases the Tribune and ProPublica observed, it was exceedingly rare that a student was not found to be at fault. Data obtained from suburban Crystal Lake showed that of the 1,888 ordinance violation cases on the city’s docket from May 2018 through December 2021 — which includes both adults and minors — only seven people were found not liable.Students are frequently confused by the process. Hearing officers are not courtroom judges, yet they are often called “judge” or “your honor.” The hearing rooms often have a bailiff, and students sometimes are sworn in at a lectern.“Is this a courtroom?” a McHenry High School freshman asked as he walked into the city council chambers where his hearing was held. That afternoon, Semrow presided over a full docket in which nearly every case involved a student. He told the crowd they could be there for a while.“I don’t care,” Semrow said. “I get paid by the hour.”Records show he gets paid $150 an hour.Hearing officers like Harry H. Semrow Jr., shown at the McHenry Municipal Center in February, are not courtroom judges yet are often called “judge” or “your honor.” Students have the right to appeal the hearing officers’ decisions to a circuit court, but they are not always told about that option. At all but one of the four McHenry hearing dates reporters attended, Semrow did not inform students they could appeal.Even though the city code calls for it, McHenry also no longer records the proceedings, having abruptly stopped in December soon after reporters began attending. McHenry Deputy Police Chief Thomas Walsh said state law does not require a recording, and he and the police chief decided it “created an unnecessary record.”Contacted by reporters, Semrow declined to discuss the hearing process or the investigation’s findings. The principal at McHenry High School, Jeff Prickett, defended the use of municipal tickets for school incidents, saying it is a way “to restore justice.” Walsh said the ticketing process keeps young people out of criminal court while still providing consequences. But he said he and the police chief are evaluating the cost of the fines, including the $400 fine set by the city council for disorderly conduct.Other local officials also say young people should be glad their misbehavior is being handled with a ticket instead of through the criminal justice system.“I could refer it to juvenile court. You could face charges there,” John Grotto, a hearing officer in DeKalb, told a student with a ticket for cannabis possession. “Do you understand the seriousness of this?”But it’s unlikely that a state’s attorney would prosecute a scuffle in the school hallway or underage possession of a tiny amount of marijuana. When matters are serious — if a weapon is involved, for example — police can and do arrest students.“For the most part, these are not going to be prosecuted in juvenile court for truancy or tobacco. If they’re receiving a ticket, that’s in every case a net widening, not a diversion” from the legal system, said Stephanie Kollmann, policy director of the Children and Family Justice Center at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.The local hearings do not provide young people with legal protections that are common in juvenile court. Children do not have a right to an attorney or an interpreter, for example.“It is especially troubling that in the United States of America, where we see young people as a vulnerable population that deserves protection, that they are going toe-to-toe with a prosecutor with no help from someone who understands the law,” said Mae Quinn, director of the Youth Justice Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia law school who has studied the impact of municipal courts on juveniles.The records created by the ticketing process also can follow a child. Reporters found details of some students’ violations in online case dockets and municipal records, including the offenses they were accused of, how much they were fined and even information about debt collection efforts.While Illinois allows juvenile arrest and court records to be expunged — meaning they are erased from a person’s record — state law considers ordinance violations to be “adult offenses” that are ineligible for expungement.“These records are visible to a lot of people,” said Hannah Berkowitz, a staff attorney with Legal Aid Chicago who has tried to find ways to get children’s citations expunged. “They can be seen. They can be used to make decisions that would hurt kids.”The process overall is at odds with the goals of the juvenile justice system, which seeks not to punish students but to help them get on a better path. It also is out of step with a national trend toward eliminating juvenile justice fines and other costs.For many students pushed into this system, the closest thing to help that’s available to them is the well-worn advice of hearing officers.“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future,” Grotto, in DeKalb, likes to say.“You run with the crows, you fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows,” Semrow told one McHenry student. “Think about that.”Bolingbrook police station, 9 a.m., Oct. 20Middle school student Malachi bounced his leg and cracked his knuckles as he waited for his case to be heard in the Bolingbrook police station. The 12-year-old wore a button-down shirt he had picked out that morning.Police had written him a ticket for battery after he got in a fight before school. He also was suspended for three days and had to enroll in a community program designed to “help keep the cuffs off kids.”Malachi arrived at the police station, which serves as a branch of the county court, with his mother, his grandmother and his aunt, who is his guardian.His grandmother gave the boy a hug and rubbed his back. “Take a deep breath,” she told him.Malachi later said he was terrified. “I didn’t know at my age stuff could happen like that for doing what I did at school,” he said. “I felt like I was living an adult life and I didn’t want to be in that moment.”Malachi, 12, takes out the recycling during a break from schoolwork at his Bolingbrook home in April. Police wrote him a ticket for battery last fall after he got in a fight before school. About 3,700 students attend Evanston Township High School. But in at least the last three years, the two school resource officers have not written a single ticket, records show.The school, one of the largest in the state, offers a reminder: Police have discretion. They don’t have to ticket young people.“There are times when staff or administration has said, ‘Can you arrest this student? Can you cite this student?’ The question isn’t can we, but is it best? It is not,” said Officer Loyce Spells, who has been stationed at the school for five years.It’s not that students aren’t vaping or fighting. But when they do, school workers decide the consequences: detention, suspension, mandatory counseling.“We cannot enforce our way out of these situations,” Spells said. “That does not foster and build stronger or positive relationships.”In the Rochester school district near Springfield, school and police officials have agreed that the officer working at the high school shouldn’t be involved in routine discipline.“That’s not the environment we want. That’s not what we want for kids,” said Rochester Superintendent Dan Cox. “We’re trying to create a better person. They need consequences, but we’ve got to have … teachable moments. I’m not being soft here. There’s discipline.”Cox said that if there’s a fight at school, for example, “the principal is going to be the disciplinarian.”In Chicago, the school district and police say they believe officers should not play a role in everyday disciplinary issues. A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the district’s student code of conduct advises school administrators “against contacting police in non-emergency incidents.”If there is criminal activity at school, such as a fight that involves a weapon or leads to an injury, “that is where we get involved” and maybe arrest a student, said Director Glen Brooks of the Chicago Police Department’s Office of Community Policing.“If it is a disciplinary issue or behavior or noncriminal offense, it is really the school’s purview to handle those kinds of incidents,” Brooks said. “The idea here is not to fine children. We don’t go around trying to collect money from children.”In California, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s police department said in 2014 that it would stop ticketing students at school for fighting, possession of tobacco or small amounts of marijuana, and other minor offenses, instead referring them to school administrators, counseling or other programs.In Texas, citing concerns that police were ticketing students too often for misbehavior, lawmakers passed legislation in 2013 that prohibits ticketing for some offenses at school.Police in some Illinois municipalities continue to write tickets, but young people are required to do community service or participate in counseling or an educational program rather than pay a fine.Students at New Trier Township High School in Winnetka aren’t fined because village officials decided options such as community service and apology letters are more beneficial to everyone involved. Nonetheless, the village still requires students to pay a $40 administrative fee. Round Lake, Glenview and Roselle, among other places, also offer community service in lieu of fines.Police in Elgin recently began offering counseling with a social worker instead of imposing fines for tickets, part of the police department’s rethinking of how to best help younger residents.Michele Nepras and her son Nathan, 16, talk with McHenry city prosecutor Michael Fioretti, center, and adjudication hearing officer Harry H. Semrow Jr. in March. Nathan had received a ticket for disorderly conduct related to a fight on a school bus. Michele Nepras and Nathan pay a $400 fine, plus a $50 court fee, after he pleaded liable. From 2017 through 2020, Elgin imposed fines for disciplinary matters at the city’s three high schools in 78 cases, city records show; the penalties ranged from $50 to $1,000. In 2021, the city issued no fines for school tickets but ordered counseling in 14 cases, including for an Elgin High School student cited for disorderly conduct for pulling a fire alarm. She completed the counseling. Young people can still be fined if they don’t show up on their hearing date.“When I took over, it was ‘fine, fine, fine,’” said Jeff Adam, a retired police lieutenant who began overseeing the city’s administrative hearings a decade ago. Gradually, he began to doubt that the fines helped children.“When you slap a fine on a family trying to get by, you are not helping them,” he said. “The whole thing is to get these kids to come around. The fine doesn’t do that. Especially when kids can’t work. There had to be a better way.”The aftermathIn Joliet, the hearing officer who fined a girl for carrying pepper spray on her backpack said he overturned his decision hours later, after questions from a reporter prompted him to research the law.“It doesn’t matter,” the mother said. “I wasn’t paying it anyway.”In Pekin, Blake, who’d previously been ticketed for having a vaping device, was back at the Tazewell County Courthouse in March, this time for tobacco possession at school. He took the prosecutor’s plea offer to pay a $50 fine, plus $100 in court costs, and waited while his mother swiped her credit card for a total of $154.12.Blake is paying off the ticket debt with paychecks from his new fast-food job.In McHenry, Nathan finally got a resolution in late March for his ticket related to a school bus skirmish in September.He had to leave school early again and headed to the city hall, this time without his dad, who was traveling for work. The day before, the family had decided to stop fighting the ticket; Nathan’s mother, Michele, said she was too fearful to speak in public, particularly in front of Semrow. The pair stood nervously in front of the hearing officer and agreed to plead liable and pay the $450.Semrow didn’t remember the case right away and asked if the fight happened at school.“On the bus,” Nathan said quietly.“Close enough,” Semrow said.Nathan was glad to be done. It was his fourth trip to city hall for the ticket. He was sick of missing school.Editing by Steve Mills, Kaarin Tisue and George Papajohn; additional data analysis by Ruth Talbot and Agnel Philip; additional research by Alex Mierjeski; visual presentation by Laila Milevski, Michelle Williams, Maya Eliahou, Steve Rosenberg, Todd Panagopoulos and Raquel Zaldivar; engagement reporting by Adriana Gallardo and Ariana Tobin; copy editing by Colleen Barry and Jeff Carlson.

Neither the state of Illinois nor the federal government tracks how often police give tickets to students in public schools for violations of municipal ordinances.To understand how frequently and for what reasons police cited students, reporters from the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica filed more than 500 requests for public records with schools and law enforcement agencies under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.AdvertisementThe requests were sent to 199 school districts: high-school-only districts and large K-12 districts. The requests sought records that would show how many times police were involved in student incidents during the school years that ended in 2019, 2020 and 2021; how often students were arrested; and how often tickets were issued in those incidents. Reporters also asked for the race of students who had been referred to police.Some school districts said they did not track whether police issued tickets to students, so reporters then filed requests with the hundreds of law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over high schools in those districts. The requests sought information on where each ticket was issued, the age of the ticketed person or an indication whether they were a juvenile, the race of the person ticketed, the offense and the amount of the fine.AdvertisementFrom those records, reporters built a database documenting more than 11,800 tickets issued by police in 141 school districts during the three school years examined. The database included police tickets issued at a school address to a person younger than 18, while excluding tickets issued for traffic or parking violations or for curfew violations.Reporters also collected information about ticketing in the 2021-22 school year in select districts, but this data was not included in the database.In addition to logging the number of tickets issued by each police department at each school examined, reporters documented the reasons tickets had been issued, how the tickets are adjudicated in each community, what the possible fines and fees are, and whether the community attempts to collect unpaid juvenile debts.If a school district or police department provided the race of the young people ticketed, that information was documented in a separate database used to analyze the rates at which students of color were ticketed in their schools.Because the forms used to document tickets varied between districts and police departments, reporters made informed judgments to group tickets into broader categories. For example, reporters classified tickets for possession of drug paraphernalia and tickets for cannabis use into one category for drug-related tickets.A separate team then took a selection of records and spot-checked them to ensure that data had been entered consistently and to look for systemic flaws in the data entry. No widespread problems were found; any small errors that were identified were fixed.To understand how tickets are handled after they’re issued, reporters attended more than 50 hearings across Illinois, observing hundreds of cases. They spoke with dozens of families affected by the process; with school, police and municipal officials; with attorneys and hearing officers; and with juvenile advocates. Reporters consulted with families about how to identify young people in the story and, as a result, did not include full names in most cases.Nine districts contacted by the Tribune and ProPublica did not provide records on police interactions at their schools: Belleville Township High School District 201, O’Fallon Township High School District 203, Streator Township High School District 40, Vienna High School District 133, Bethalto Community Unit School District 8, Collinsville Community Unit School District 10, Harlem School District 122, Indian Prairie Community Unit School District 204 and Community Unit School District 200 in Wheaton.AdvertisementTwenty-three police departments either did not provide records or excluded information in ways that prevented reporters from determining whether tickets were issued to students at a school in their jurisdiction: Belvidere, Cahokia Heights, Calumet City, Channahon, Crete, Dolton, Fox Lake, Grayslake, Harvey, Kankakee, LaSalle, Lemont, Mount Prospect, North Chicago, Northbrook, Pinckneyville, Richmond, Rockton, Rolling Meadows, Streamwood, Summit, Waukegan and Wood Dale.This story is a collaboration between the Tribune and ProPublica. Smith Richards is a Tribune reporter. Cohen is a Chicago-based reporter for ProPublica.

Dear Amy: I am a 35-year-old professional woman, recently separated from my husband of nine years.Our marriage has been rife with volatility due to his uncontrollable anger and my tumultuous relationship with alcohol during our relationship.AdvertisementThat being said, we have worked through most of our issues. He’s my best friend.I’m in therapy and have a treatment team that has helped me to overcome my alcohol abuse disorder, as well as years of insecurity, codependency, and anxiety.AdvertisementI am in a good place and no longer have room in my life for violence, anger, and abuse.My husband and I recently got into an argument where he put his hands on me to remove me from a room.I was shocked that he would put his hands on me during an argument where we were both sober and working at home.He has since been apologetic and has enrolled in anger management therapy. I’ve wanted him to do this for years, but I fear it might be too late.I have a graduate degree and am an assertive, independent woman who doesn’t take any nonsense.With this situation, however, I feel anything but those things.Am I completely off my rocker to think things might still work between us? Or should I cut my losses and try to start my life over?– Woeful WomanAdvertisementDear Woeful: You should not risk your physical or emotional safety — or your sobriety – in order to live with your husband.Based on your narrative, it seems that the majority of your time together has been marked by anger and strife – on both sides. Can you two move forward in a relationship where many of the triggers might remain, but all of your familiar coping mechanisms have been removed? You’ll have to see.If you are working your sobriety program, I assume that you have become acquainted with the “one day at a time” model.My point is that thinking of this as all-or-nothing might not be the wisest course right now.You and he should remain separated so you can both experience what life is like when you’re actually living differently as individuals in recovery.The answer to your dilemma is likely to present itself over the course of the next six months or so.AdvertisementEven if you decide to permanently part, you should not have to surrender your friendship.Dear Amy: My girlfriend and I have been together for about five years. We are both progressing in our careers and making strides personally, professionally, and as a couple.We are at the point where we are ready to take the next step. My girlfriend wants to move to Florida. She wants me to come too, but she plans to go one way or the other in the next year or two.I love Florida, but all of my friends and family are here in New England. My mom is independent and doesn’t necessarily rely on me, but she would be devastated if I left.After my dad died (about 10 years ago), my sister and mom have relied on me to be there for them. Truthfully, I would miss being there for them, too.I know I’d always be a phone call away, but it’s just not the same.AdvertisementI love my girlfriend more than anything and I don’t want to lose her, but I’m not sure I’m ready to move away from my home and everyone I know.How can I make this decision – one way or the other?– UncertainDear Uncertain: You should start by very honestly trying to decode your own motivations. Surely your mother would miss you, but would she be devastated? Talk to her about this. Are you genuinely necessary to your family, or are you afraid to move?Being nervous about leaving home is completely natural. It speaks to your sensitive and compassionate nature.You don’t need to have a definitive answer right now. After your girlfriend moves, you could transition to a long-distance relationship, which should help you to clarify all of your competing priorities.AdvertisementAsk AmyDailyNo-nonsense advice for better living delivered to your inbox every morning. For a limited time, sign up for the Ask Amy newsletter and get the book “Ask Amy: Essential Wisdom from America’s Favorite Advice Columnist” for $5.Dear Amy: Responding to “Bay Area Stepmom Cook,” whose son-in-law hates onions, she should cook the onions first. It takes away that bitter taste. They can be roasted or fried to a light brown, and they develop a sweet taste.– SCDear SC: Thank you for the suggestion, but judging from my mailbag, there are many people out there who just don’t like onions!“Stepmom Cook” saw this as a character flaw.Got a question for Amy? Enter it here and we’ll send it to her.Sign up here to receive the Ask Amy newsletter to get advice e-mailed to your inbox every morning, and for a limited time — get the book “Ask Amy: Essential Wisdom from America’s Favorite Advice Columnist” for $5.Advertisement©2021 Amy Dickinson.