Robert Herguth
Watchdogs Reporter
Robert Herguth is an investigative reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times, part of the Watchdogs team. He focuses on an array of subjects, including police corruption, organized crime and government accountability, as well as religion. He also helps oversee some digital and feature projects.
The toll system hasn’t had cameras for years, despite warnings to drivers about photo-enforced speed limits in work zones. Such signs are on the Kennedy, too, though it hasn’t had any speed cameras since its current construction project began last year.
It’s unclear whether Catholic figures appealing for leniency in letters to the judge affected the two-year sentence given to Burke. But priests, nuns and lay church leaders went to bat heavy for him — after years of the ex-alderman funneling campaign cash to Catholic causes.
While the Sway Bar faced no noticeable consequences from Mayor Nick Caiafa, who doubles as the northwest suburb’s liquor commissioner, he insists he’s not going easy on the business.
Napoleon Harris III, chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Insurance Committee for several years, recently became an “investor” with insurance brokers in Chicago’s southwest suburbs. He denies any conflict of interest.
Johnson is “mayor 24-7,” a spokesman says. “Appearances matter.” Most of his spending went to a South Side makeup artist, and a West Side barbershop was paid $4,000.
The Catholic religious order won’t explain why the Rev. Richard McGrath, who was accused of sex abuse and having child pornography on his phone, isn’t on the group’s newly posted public listing.
Mayor Richard Irvin was referring to Sheriff Ron Hain’s order to seize the suspect’s car the night before the fatal shooting, “compromising” an undercover Aurora police operation to arrest the man safely. Hain called Irvin’s comments “reckless and inappropriate.”
Records indicate the sheriff’s office “compromised” a stakeout in Aurora aimed at bringing in Jim Moriarty safely the day before deputies fatally shot him last year.
Brother Joseph Charron initially was charged with sex crimes involving a now-former student. He recently pleaded guilty to aggravated battery, and the sex crime charges were dropped. Still, his Benedictine abbey placed him on its list of credibly accused child sex abusers.