Deep Dives & Investigations

A voicemail meant for “Steve” landed on Highway Commissioner Jason Diaz’s phone 13 days before the Road District vote. The full, unedited recording, every word in writing, and what the public record says. Warning: a threat of violence and profanity.

Two investigations from the Village's own records. The BEDC Ledger: $1,681,007 in Village money, a rescinded restaurant lease reborn as a BEDC deal, and a mall bought $2.28 million over appraisal. The Purchasing Cards: 13 months of Village card spending, from $20,383.86 of meat to the Mayor's first-class trip to Dallas.

A ten-part review of Bourbonnais Township's audits, budgets, ordinances and meeting video: the money it holds, the aid it gives, who gets paid, the $100,000 tornado gift, the records fight and what the Road District vote does.

The Village of Manteno governance dispute, reported from the primary record: the Village's lawsuit against four of its own trustees, the forensic audit, what the law says, plain-English reports on every board meeting, and a claim-by-claim fact check.

A plain-English guide to the Bourbonnais Township road district ballot question: what a yes vote actually does, why nothing changes until 2029, and what happened when a neighbor asked the board to show the savings math.

Bourbonnais operates 12 Flock Safety license plate readers shared with 1,700+ agencies. We filed FOIA requests, analyzed 9 months of network audit logs, and built an interactive tracker to show how your data moves.

A deep dive into Kankakee County's trash hauling contracts across three decades. We pulled contracts from 2010, 2015, and 2021, tracked rate changes, and produced a video and podcast episode on what residents actually pay.

An investigation into stop sign placement across Bourbonnais — mapping intersections, analyzing coverage gaps, and examining how traffic control decisions get made and by whom.

Have local governments signed secret deals with data center developers? We asked 22 of them. Here is who answered, who turned over records, and who hasn't said a word.

115 years of federal census data for every Kankakee County town and township, 1910 to 2025 — an interactive time machine built from Census Bureau bulk files, decennial reports, and ACS estimates, with every figure sourced.