Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Most guns recovered in Chicago were originally purchased in Illinois, not states with less-restrictive gun laws, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Citing a groundbreaking study at the University of Chicago Crime Lab, authorities said 58% of the 1,375 guns recovered in crimes in Chicago were bought in Illinois. About 45% came from Cook…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com W. Larry Ford, a 28-year veteran of ATF, has been named the head of the agency’s Chicago division Ford. who had been in Chicago before, most recently served as the Assistant Director of ATF’s Office of Field Operations and oversaw a staff of over 3,000 special agents, industry operations investigators and…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Andrew Traver, whose nomination by President Obama to head up ATF seems to have gone nowhere, is the new head of ATF’s Denver office. Before getting this new assignment he was head of the Chicago ATF. Traver began his ATF career in 1987 as a special agent in the Chicago Field…
By STEFANO ESPOSITO Chicago Sun-Times CHICAGO — The city’s longest-serving FBI chief is retiring — just one month after the city’s top federal prosecutor stepped down. Robert D. Grant, 54, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office, has accepted a job with the Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles, where he will be part of their…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Once in a while a U.S. Attorney comes along and makes a mark not only locally but nationally. U.S. Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago was one of those guys. Fitzgerald resigned and left office last Friday, leaving behind a legacy that included prosecuting the ever-chatty ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Dick Cheney’s right…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The FBI has a new face on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list. The FBI in Chicago announced Tuesday that Fidel Urbina, the subject of a nationwide manhunt since 1999, was put on the infamous list. He’s wanted in connection with two sexual assaults and murder. The former Chicago resident…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com Reid J. Schar, lead prosecutor in the Rod Blagojevich corruption retrial in 2011, may have cinched the convictions that sent Blago to prison with the question: “Mr. Blagojevich, you are a convicted liar, correct?” Now Schar, 40, is taking his show on the road. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Schar is leaving…
By Jim Schoettler Florida Times-Union JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On his first day at work, Mike Steinbach sat at a Chicago Denny’s drinking coffee, reading a newspaper and covertly protecting a nearby federal witness from a possible hit attempt by the mob. “I thought, ‘Holy moly.’ This is a pretty good deal,” Steinbach said. “I knew…
