The Latest Breaking News from Cook County

CHICAGO — The Illinois criminal justice system is set for a major makeover beginning Sunday, replacing a cash-bail structure with one that requires judges to more carefully weigh who among the accused should be held in custody before trial without using money as a factor.

A judge deemed a provision of the SAFE-T Act unconstitutional as part of a lawsuit involving 64 other counties, but reform will move ahead as planned in Chicago and its immediate suburbs.

The current system discriminates against Black and Latino residents, often resulting in loss of a family’s home over a minuscule amount of unpaid property taxes.

A confirmation of a leather carp in the Kankakee River, a “well-built” buck in a Cook County forest preserve, sale of Theodore Roosevelt’s Smith & Wesson and wild black carp confirmed in the Mississippi River basin are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.

The lawsuit alleges that the tax sales process disproportionally causes minority families to lose their homes without compensating them for their property.

CHICAGO — Close observers of R. Kelly’s Cook County cases might have had a touch of deja vu Tuesday during the singer’s latest hearing.

Nikodem Zaremba, 27, was taken to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, where he died, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Joseph Kromelis, 75, died Sunday afternoon, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Four workers in other county departments have quit or been fired this year while under suspicion of defrauding the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

Cook County prosecutors acknowledge that Diunte Moon was holding “a very small pocketknife” when he was shot multiple times this summer.

“She moves into assisted living, and all of the sudden large checks start getting made payable to Canal Productions, checks running as high as $75,000,” said Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert.