The U.S. Response to COVID-19ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country.As COVID-19 kills thousands in Chicago and across Illinois, the opioid epidemic has intensified its own deadly siege away from the spotlight, engulfing one public health crisis inside another.More than twice as many people have died or are suspected to have died of opioid overdoses in the first five months of the year in Cook County, when compared with the same period last year, according to a ProPublica Illinois analysis...…The U.S. Response to COVID-19ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country.As COVID-19 kills thousands in Chicago and across Illinois, the opioid epidemic has intensified its own deadly siege away from the spotlight, engulfing one public health crisis inside another.More than twice as many people have died or are suspected to have died of opioid overdoses in the first five months of the year in Cook County, when compared with the same period last year, according to a ProPublica Illinois analysis...WW…

Investigating Inequity Amid the PandemicProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country.Cook County residents continue to die at a staggering rate from opioid-related overdoses, and Black residents from Chicago’s West Side account for a disproportionate number of those deaths.County political and public health officials on Tuesday sounded the alarm about what they said was a preventable crisis that has been overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.“Whatever crisis faces our communities, people of...…Investigating Inequity Amid the PandemicProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country.Cook County residents continue to die at a staggering rate from opioid-related overdoses, and Black residents from Chicago’s West Side account for a disproportionate number of those deaths.County political and public health officials on Tuesday sounded the alarm about what they said was a preventable crisis that has been overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.“Whatever crisis faces our communities, people of...WW…

Illinois Children Languish in Psychiatric HospitalsProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country.Two years ago, officials from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services vowed to rescue the children they called “stuck kids” — those in state care who had languished in psychiatric hospitals for weeks and sometimes months after doctors had cleared them for release because the agency could not find them proper homes.But children continue to be held at psychiatric hospitals long after...…Illinois Children Languish in Psychiatric HospitalsProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country.Two years ago, officials from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services vowed to rescue the children they called “stuck kids” — those in state care who had languished in psychiatric hospitals for weeks and sometimes months after doctors had cleared them for release because the agency could not find them proper homes.But children continue to be held at psychiatric hospitals long after...WW…

A Failure in Michigan’s Juvenile Justice SystemProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.This story was co-published with Bridge Michigan.In Michigan, judges have sent children to locked detention centers for refusing to take medication or failing to attend online class. For testing positive for using marijuana. For repeatedly disobeying their parents.Even as other states move toward reforms focused on keeping nonviolent juvenile offenders in the community, Michigan continues to lock up children for minor...…A Failure in Michigan’s Juvenile Justice SystemProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.This story was co-published with Bridge Michigan.In Michigan, judges have sent children to locked detention centers for refusing to take medication or failing to attend online class. For testing positive for using marijuana. For repeatedly disobeying their parents.Even as other states move toward reforms focused on keeping nonviolent juvenile offenders in the community, Michigan continues to lock up children for minor...WW…

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.This story was co-published with Bridge Michigan.In Michigan, judges have sent children to locked detention centers for refusing to take medication or failing to attend online class. For testing positive for using marijuana. For repeatedly disobeying their parents.Even as other states move toward reforms focused on keeping nonviolent juvenile offenders in the community, Michigan continues to lock up children for minor transgressions that aren’t actually crimes: technical...…ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.This story was co-published with Bridge Michigan.In Michigan, judges have sent children to locked detention centers for refusing to take medication or failing to attend online class. For testing positive for using marijuana. For repeatedly disobeying their parents.Even as other states move toward reforms focused on keeping nonviolent juvenile offenders in the community, Michigan continues to lock up children for minor transgressions that aren’t actually crimes: technical...WW…

Trump’s Immigration Policy at the BorderThis story was co-published with the Chicago Sun-Times.Eight months after its shelters for immigrant children came under public scrutiny over allegations of abuse and lax supervision, Heartland Human Care Services says it will close four shelters in suburban Chicago and add staff, training and other resources at its remaining five facilities.The decision, announced to employees in a memo Friday, comes as another agency, Maryville Academy, plans to open two additional shelters, including one as early as next month.Heartland officials told ProPublica...…Trump’s Immigration Policy at the BorderThis story was co-published with the Chicago Sun-Times.Eight months after its shelters for immigrant children came under public scrutiny over allegations of abuse and lax supervision, Heartland Human Care Services says it will close four shelters in suburban Chicago and add staff, training and other resources at its remaining five facilities.The decision, announced to employees in a memo Friday, comes as another agency, Maryville Academy, plans to open two additional shelters, including one as early as next month.Heartland officials told ProPublica...WW…

ProPublica Illinois is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.lived less than a mile from a hospital but, stepping out of his South Side apartment with a 103-degree fever, he told the Uber driver to take him to another 30 minutes away.Charles Miles’ breathing was so labored when a friend called to check on him that the friend called an ambulance. Still, Miles, a retired respiratory therapist, was reluctant to leave his home.Close family support had helped Rosa Lynn Franklin recover from a stroke several years ago, but when she...…ProPublica Illinois is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.lived less than a mile from a hospital but, stepping out of his South Side apartment with a 103-degree fever, he told the Uber driver to take him to another 30 minutes away.Charles Miles’ breathing was so labored when a friend called to check on him that the friend called an ambulance. Still, Miles, a retired respiratory therapist, was reluctant to leave his home.Close family support had helped Rosa Lynn Franklin recover from a stroke several years ago, but when she...WW…