Giving Up Guardianship to Get AidProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.Amid state and federal scrutiny as well as a public backlash, more than a half-dozen suburban Chicago families who had recently gone to court to give up guardianship of their college-bound teens to qualify for financial aid they wouldn’t otherwise receive are now quietly letting their cases lapse.Though some families remain unapologetic about their use of a practice that had gone largely unnoticed until three weeks ago, they say the real...…Giving Up Guardianship to Get AidProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.Amid state and federal scrutiny as well as a public backlash, more than a half-dozen suburban Chicago families who had recently gone to court to give up guardianship of their college-bound teens to qualify for financial aid they wouldn’t otherwise receive are now quietly letting their cases lapse.Though some families remain unapologetic about their use of a practice that had gone largely unnoticed until three weeks ago, they say the real...WW…

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…

The U.S. Response to COVID-19ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.At least 19 children and two employees at a Chicago shelter for immigrant youth have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, in what appears to be the largest outbreak of the virus in the country in shelters for unaccompanied minors.According to an email sent to staff Sunday, Heartland Human Care Services officials said the first positive test results were reported at its Bronzeville shelter on Friday and that additional cases there were...…The U.S. Response to COVID-19ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.At least 19 children and two employees at a Chicago shelter for immigrant youth have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, in what appears to be the largest outbreak of the virus in the country in shelters for unaccompanied minors.According to an email sent to staff Sunday, Heartland Human Care Services officials said the first positive test results were reported at its Bronzeville shelter on Friday and that additional cases there were...WW…

..ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country.This story was co-published with Mother Jones and El País.It’s a little before 6 a.m. and still dark when Garcia gets home from work this October morning. The apartment where he lives with his aunt and uncle is silent. They’ve already left for their own jobs.After nine hours hosing down machinery at a food processing plant, Garcia is tired and hungry. But he has less than an hour to get ready for high school, where he is a junior. He quickly...…..ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country.This story was co-published with Mother Jones and El País.It’s a little before 6 a.m. and still dark when Garcia gets home from work this October morning. The apartment where he lives with his aunt and uncle is silent. They’ve already left for their own jobs.After nine hours hosing down machinery at a food processing plant, Garcia is tired and hungry. But he has less than an hour to get ready for high school, where he is a junior. He quickly...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…