Stories by Zachary Lewis on Cook County Record

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently signed new laws city officials say will improve the working conditions of the city’s retail and fast food employees, but will limit employers' scheduling flexibility and potentially force them to pay significantly more. And the bills could lead to similar legislation in other parts of the country, including Illinois.

As a church and the suburban city of Burbank gear up to fight in court over how much the city should pay the church for improperly subjecting it to alleged overly rigorous zoning requirements, the attorney who represented the church says religious groups should know their rights under the law when dealing with potentially unwelcoming village and city governments.

Amid the state of Illinois' sustained budget woes, school districts in Chicago and elsewhere in the state have lined up to ask courts to intervene on their behalf and order the state to pay what they assert is its proper share of education funding. But history has indicated such lawsuits have limited chances of success.

An Illinois appeals court has upheld a Cook County judge's ruling to deny a protective order sought by a group of parents to keep their children from being made to sit for depositions as part of proceedings in a lawsuit brought against a Chicago elementary school for failing to supervise the children, who then engaged in sexual conduct in a bathroom.