Shannon Heffernan
Shannon is a criminal justice reporter. She's also reported on mental health, poverty, labor and climate change.
Her reporting has earned her a National Murrow Award for best writing and a PRINDI for best writing, as well as awards from the Illinois AP and Chicago Headline Club.
Shannon also writes short fictional stories and has been published Hobart, The Indiana Review and The Columbia Review, where she won the 2016 prize for fiction.
She co-founded of Life of the Law, a podcast and multimedia website that tells surprising stories about all things legal.
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Mold, leaky roofs, sewage backups, unsafe drinking water and raccoon infestations are at the top of the list. Next up: dire staffing shortages and an aging population. -
The Illinois Supreme Court decided cash bail will no longer exist in Illinois. The state was supposed to become the first to get rid of cash bail in January, but that plan was challenged in court.
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At trial is underway for guards accused of beating a man in an Illinois prison so badly that he died. There are allegations of similar beatings in the same location, long before Larry Earvin's death.
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In the messages, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx expresses concern with heavy-handed charging of Empire star Jussie Smollett, compared to other defendants accused of more serious crimes. -
In Chicago on Friday, jurors convicted city police officer Jason Van Dyke of second degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald that occurred in 2014.
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Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke takes the stand as his trial for shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times winds down. Prosecutors say the video appears to show actions different from his testimony.
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The Chicago group UMedics trains people how to handle medical emergencies, including gunshot wounds. One trainee is a gunshot victim who credits the program with saving his life. -
President Trump tweeted that he's sending federal help to Chicago to fight crime. He says crime and killings have reached "epidemic" proportions.
