-
1 week ago | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Nathan Halder |Rich Moy |Katy Smyser
When the Chicago Board of Education made the decision to close 50 public schools in 2013, it set a goal to sell or tear down all the closed buildings by 2017. But today, 21 of the 50 abandoned buildings remain -- proverbial beached whales in the middle of often-struggling residential communities -- on Chicago’s West and South Sides. Several of the schools are deteriorating and often vandalized, with no real future in sight.
-
2 weeks ago | 
ourcommunitynow.com | Bennett Haeberle |Nathan Halder |Rich Moy |Katy Smyser
David Greising, president of the Better Government Association, is a former Chicago newspaper reporter who once ventured below ground to see the structure. “Have you ever been to a cavern?” Greising. said. “There are not stalagmites and stalactites, but it has the feeling of spelunking.
-
2 weeks ago | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Nathan Halder |Rich Moy |Katy Smyser
Next time you’re walking through Chicago’s Loop, make your way over to the corner of Randolph and State Streets. If you look up, you’ll see a high-rise that houses both apartments and retail stores, called “Block 37.”Now look down. If somehow you could see through the sidewalk below, you would see that you’re standing atop a vast underground government structure, which is roughly the size of a football field.
-
2 months ago | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Nathan Halder |Katy Smyser
When 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot and killed by Chicago police in 2014, some officers there reported that McDonald had “lunged” at them with a knife, and other officers reported that they had been “victims” of McDonald’s aggression. The only way for the public to know what really happened, was to see the police officers’ dashcam video of the scene. That video was public property, recorded by a public agency with public employees who work for taxpayers. That video belonged to the public.
-
Feb 11, 2025 | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Nathan Halder |Katy Smyser
Drive into the suburbs west on I-290, then a few miles north on Illinois Highway 53, and you’ll eventually pass a small yellow sign saying “All traffic must exit” and then another sign saying “Freeway ends” and – finally – a long left-hand curve, and – boom – no more expressway. To the north – where it seems like the expressway should have continued – is, instead, a wide swath of unoccupied land.
-
Feb 4, 2025 | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Lisa Capitanini |Nathan Halder
ELGIN, IL – The knock on the door was not from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They were U.S. Marshals, who last week breached the door of a home in Elgin – about 40 miles outside Chicago - looking for Jose Ramos, a 26-year-old wanted on several outstanding criminal charges – including attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm, according to authorities. His sisters, Bethzy and Janeth Lopez, say he hasn’t lived there in months.
-
Jan 28, 2025 | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Katy Smyser |Lisa Capitanini |Nathan Halder
It was in late 2023 when Jeff Wold first heard from police officers that they were finding small empty cartridges in the back seats of cars of DUI suspects. Another officer told Wold, who back then was the chief of police in southwest suburban Manhattan, that he’d discovered 40 to 50 similar cartridges strewn around the home of a young overdose victim. It turns out these officers were finding empty cartridges of nitrous oxide – laughing gas – which goes by the chemical name N2O.
-
Jan 3, 2025 | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Lisa Capitanini |Nathan Halder
For nearly eight years, the city of New Orleans has possessed 700-pound, steel anti-vehicle barriers. But they weren't deployed ahead of the New Year's Day attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens of others. The CEO of the Meridian Rapid Defense Group told NBC 5 Investigates he sold 48 of the so-called Archer barriers to the city of New Orleans in 2017, following the 2016 deadly ramming attack in Nice, France, and said he wasn't sure why they weren't in use.
-
Dec 12, 2024 | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Lisa Capitanini |Katy Smyser |Rich Moy |Nathan Halder
A federal judge in Massachusetts has approved a settlement agreement between the Federal Trade Commission and the weapons detection company Evolv Technology, which the FTC alleged engaged in deceptive acts by making "false or unsupported claims" about what its weapons detectors can do. Specifically, the FTC alleged that Evolv misrepresented the extent to which its scanners could detect weapons and ignore harmless items.
-
Nov 21, 2024 | 
nbcchicago.com | Bennett Haeberle |Lisa Capitanini |Nathan Halder |Katy Smyser
Evolv Technologies, the Massachusetts-based company whose weapons detectors had been the focus of a recent NBC 5 investigation, announced Thursday that its chief financial officer had stepped down and that four other employees were either “terminated or resigned” following an internal investigation into alleged misconduct, the company reported in a SEC filing.
